EVAPCO, Inc. celebrated its 50th anniversary on June 14, 2026, marking five decades since its founding as a refrigeration-focused manufacturer of evaporative condensers using ammonia as a refrigerant. The employee-owned company was founded in 1976 by Wilson E. Bradley and William E. Kahlert in Baltimore, Maryland, with about five employees and one product line.
The company expanded from its original refrigeration business into evaporative cooling and industrial refrigeration solutions for commercial HVAC, industrial process, power, and mission-critical data center markets. Its portfolio included factory-assembled and field-erected cooling towers, closed-circuit coolers, evaporative condensers, air-cooled solutions, advanced water treatment systems, and large-scale equipment for power plants and data centers.
EVAPCO operated 34 global locations in 14 countries, including 28 factories in 11 countries. The company said its products were available in virtually every nation worldwide, except countries on the U.S. State Department restricted list, and were supplied through 178 global sales offices.
EVAPCO also reported more than 500 active patents worldwide and said each solution was subject to research and performance testing. The company linked these efforts to goals for higher system efficiency, reduced resource consumption, and environmentally responsible cooling technologies.
“When we started the company, we really planned to stay just in the refrigeration business, which meant a smaller company just making evaporative condensers,” said co-founder Wilson Bradley. “These condensers—they were well received right from the start, and we quickly realized there was a need to broaden the product line.”
“EVAPCO’s success over the past 50 years is rooted in our commitment to quality, innovation, and the long-term relationships we’ve built with our customers and sales partners,” said Jamie Facius, Marketing Vice President of EVAPCO, Inc. “As we look to the future, we are investing in technologies and services that help our customers meet demanding efficiency, sustainability, and reliability goals in applications ranging from food storage to large-scale data centers.”