A well-maintained cooling tower will keep your building cool and comfortable. A tower that doesn’t receive essential cooling tower maintenance can lead to spiralling electric bills, disease outbreaks, and potentially total failure of the tower itself. Getting maintenance now prevents these issues from occurring in the future. OSHA recommends thorough cleaning and inspection twice per year, but scheduling maintenance more often may be necessary if you notice issues building up.
Potential Cooling Tower Maintenance Issues
There are three main cooling tower maintenance issues: scale, biofilms, and corrosion. Your cooling tower cleaning checklist should aim to tackle all three. The scale is caused by hard water leaving hard deposits on cooling tower components. It reduces efficiency by clogging components and also provides a good surface for biofilm to grow on.
Biofilm is an accumulation of bacteria, biofilm, and other microorganisms that builds up inside cooling towers. It provides an ideal home for various disease-causing bacteria like Legionella, making biofilm buildup in cooling systems a serious health hazard. It is also a very effective insulator, which means that your cooling tower will become a lot less efficient at doing its job at cooling water. If you see your electrical bills starting to rise unexpectedly, biofilm might well be the culprit.
Finally, corrosion and other physical damage can seriously affect the functioning of your cooling tower or even make a complete replacement necessary. Your regular scheduled cooling tower maintenance should include a thorough visual inspection, possibly with photographic record taking to make it easier to track any issues as they build up.
Cooling Tower Cleaning Equipment and Supplies
Routine cooling tower maintenance usually begins with chemical treatments. Chemicals are used to break up and soften limescale deposits as well as to kill bacteria and soften biofilm. Foaming agents are often used as they get into small spaces that might not be accessible with a brush.
Once the deposits have been softened with cooling tower cleaning chemicals, they can be removed with brushes, hoses, or pressure washing equipment. Professional cleaners will often use specialized brushes and hose nozzles for cleaning different parts of the tower. Low powered pressure washing equipment is usually used as higher-powered pressure washers can damage delicate components like cooling tower coils.
Many cooling tower maintenance providers also use cooling tower vacuums to clear contaminated water, biofilm and debris out of cooling towers. These specialized cooling tower cleaning tools are specifically designed to clean cooling towers effectively.
Preventive Cooling Tower Cleaning Methods
Adding biocides to your cooling tower water will help to kill off bacteria and prevent biofilm accumulation. Many cooling system owners use commercial bleach, but there are also other cooling tower cleaning chemicals available like chlorine gas and hypobromous acid.
When using these cooling tower chemicals, make sure to use the right amount for your cooling system and water chemistry, based on water analysis. Too much chlorine will damage your cooling system, while too little won’t be effective.
Protective cooling tower linings and coatings can help to prevent corrosion and biofilm buildup. Cooling tower cleaning services may be able to help apply protective coatings, so ask about preventive measures the next time you schedule cooling tower maintenance.
Is it time to clean your cooling tower? Contact Pinnacle Cooling Tower Service for your free inspection and estimate.
Contact us
To learn more about cooling tower maintenance or to find out how we can help when it comes to routine cooling tower service and maintenance, contact Pinnacle Cooling Tower Service today at 732-570-9392. Our primary goals are safety, service, and customer satisfaction.
