Reversing TEC Polarity

In reading the TEC sticky it mentions reversing the polarity will cause the TEC to operate in reverse, swapping the hot & cold sides.

Is this a side effect, or can a TEC be wired any way you wanted to? Does it operate exactly the same, or does one polarity move more "heat" than the other? Can it be damaged by reverse polarity, or can it work perfectly either way?

Reason I ask is I've found a TEC water block I like, but it's built in such a way that the water is plumbed to the hot side (water is used for removing heat). If I reversed polarity then I could chill the water instead, and use another method to remove heat from the opposite side.

So you are wanting to remove the heat from the water with the TEC? it should work...

^ Yes, but I want to know if TEC's can be operated in either polarity or if they work better with a certain polarity.

Yea, it's a reversible heat engine, so it should work both ways. It probably was optimized for one direction, but I doubt running it in reverse will harm it.

I'd be surprised if it was optimized, personally.
Moving heat to the hot side isn't any different from moving heat from the cold side.
They put a + and - on it so they can label the hot side and cold side.

Chances are the TEC you have will work equally in both directions. TECs are used in some applications to regulate a temperature in a feedback loop, by pusling current through in both directions, to warm or cool as necessary. Space applications are common. Where a crystal or other ciruit element needs to remain in a particular window. Spacecraft (satellites etc.) have no external source of heat in when shadowed from the sun, and have no way of dissipating heat via conduction (atmosphere is too thin) so depending on where the satellite is located, it can get very warm. its only way of dissipating heat is via infrared radiation.

Getting back on topic. The materials used to interface between your TEC and your Device to be cooled, and heat exchanger can be optomized for their temperatures. Any materials between your CPU and your TEC should be optimum under cold temperatures. Materials between your TEC and heat exchanger should be optimum for hot temperatures. Economics might restrict material choices and the same materials might be used on both sides.

When I speak of materials, I am talking about everything, from copper heat spreaders to thermal interface materials.

Hi, I'm a Engineer for a TEC manufacturer.

You can reverse the polarity and attach a heatsink to the other side of the TEC to make a small water chiller.

As its been said TECs can be operated in reverse, and are actually better heaters than coolers.

The fundamental equation for heating is Qh = Qc + Pin, that is the heat rejected to the hot side of the TEC is equal to the heat pumped from the cold side plus the Power Input to the module.

All you to monitor is the temperature of the hottest surface of the TEC. Cheaper TECs use a lower melting point internal solder which means if the TEC reaches this temperature the solder melts shorting the internal circuitry. The longer a TEC operates near the Melting point of the solder the lower the life of the module.