What is this object?

[Jim Katen]

This is a water source heat pump in a high rise condo unit.

What is the white-plastic-clad cylindrical object on the lower (inlet) water line? The plastic sheath covers an impenetrable foam cylinder.

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[John Dirks Jr]

Expansion tank? Obviously, that's a guess.

[Clayton]

It might be some type of water filter to prevent scale build up on the heat exchanger.

[Chad Fabry]

It doesn't look like water actually touches the device- it looks like the piping passes through it.

I couldn't find a photo of the exact unit but a few that were similar returned when I searched "magnetic boiler descaler"

[Jim Katen]

I looked like the water pipe passed right through this object.

The outer white shell was styrene plastic and held on by velcro. When I removed it, I saw a cylinder of dense, hard foam and no obvious way of dismantling it further.

A small multi-conductor cable passed from the heat pump into this foam.

If it's a descaler, why encase it in foam?

My hunch is that the foam is there to provide thermal insulation. But if so, why?

[David Meiland]

Maybe there's a temperature sensor in there being insulated by the foam?

[Jim Katen]

Maybe there's a temperature sensor in there being insulated by the foam?

Possibly. But if they wanted to know the temperature of the incoming water, why not just put an internal sensor in the unit? Why measure it a foot outside the unit? And why the monster foam insulation?