Your Step-by-Step Guide to Cooling Tower Preventive Maintenance
It’s hard to imagine our lives without cooling towers. An integral part of HVAC systems in public buildings, offices, skyscrapers, and hospitals, they keep everyone safe and comfortable no matter the weather outside. Naturally, you would want your cooling tower to work at its best 24/7.
However, that’s not possible without preventive maintenance. Just like your car needs regular oil changes and tune-ups, your cooling tower requires proper care. If you skip cooling tower preventive maintenance, you’ll end up with frequent breakdowns and costly repairs, not to mention higher electricity costs.
At the same time, your cooling tower will become a breeding ground for bacteria that may lead to different health issues, including Legionnaires disease. As a result, your tower may fail to comply with the building and health codes, which might lead to steep fines.
We have prepared this step-by-step cooling tower maintenance guide to help you avoid all these issues.
Let’s get started.
What is Preventive Cooling Tower Maintenance
As the name suggests, cooling tower preventive maintenance involves inspecting, cleaning, and repairing your system to reduce the risk of unexpected breakdowns. The biggest benefit is you can identify potential issues before they turn into major headaches. It also streamlines your daily operations and helps you save electricity and water. Preventive maintenance is not just easy on your wallet but also the environment.
Your Step-by-Step Guide to Cooling Tower Preventive Maintenance
While it sounds easy, preventive maintenance often slips through the cracks. Most building managers or teams fail to create and maintain a schedule. However, you can avoid this if you follow these preventive maintenance steps.
1. Regular Inspection
Your cooling tower preventive maintenance starts with regular inspection, which you can break down into:
- Daily: Every day, you should check the water level, temperature, and other settings to make sure everything is working as expected. Also, watch out for and report any unusual noises from your cooling tower.
- Weekly: It’s almost the same as daily inspection but with one major addition – a closer inspection of mechanical parts for wear and corrosion. We recommend checking the fans, pumps, and motors for corrosion and keeping a record of your findings.
- Monthly: This cooling tower preventive maintenance step involves checking all mechanical and other parts, such as fans, pumps, motors, belts, couplings, and bearings. Keep all these moving parts lubricated to ensure smooth operations. Also, check the water quality and flow. Everything should work as intended.
- Yearly: We recommend having your cooling tower inspected and tuned up by a professional like Pinnacle Cooling Tower Service at least once a year. This preventive maintenance involves an in-depth inspection of all tower components, deep cleaning, and repairing/replacing damaged parts. It’s critical to prevent unexpected breakdowns.
2. Water Treatment and Quality Control
Cooling towers rely on water for effective heating and cooling. A pH level of 6.0 to 7.5 is considered ideal for preventing scaling, corrosion, and biofilm buildup. If the water is too acidic, it will increase the risk of corrosion and affect the performance of your system.
To avoid this issue, you will need to regularly test the water quality, which involves checking if the pH levels, conductivity, and contaminants are in the safe range.
Use biocides such as glutaraldehyde, isothiazolone, and DBNPA to prevent excessive growth of bacteria, algae, and other microorganisms in your cooling tower. On the other hand, corrosion inhibitors like zinc or inorganic phosphates can slow down or prevent corrosion and scaling.
3. Professional Cleaning
Professional cleaning is a critical step in cooling tower preventive maintenance. Some components of your cooling tower, such as the basin and fill media, are more prone to scale and biofilm buildup.
Without professional cleaning, this buildup can back the water flow, which ultimately affects cooling tower performance. But, professional cleaners also focus on other parts, such as nozzles, screens, and filters, keeping them free from harmful debris.
4. Mechanical Component Checks
Cooling towers consist of many mechanical parts, such as fans, pumps, motors, and belts, all of which require regular upkeep. Skipping this preventive maintenance step will lead to unexpected equipment failure and costly downtime.
Start by tightening any loose screws, belts, and couplings, as they can be a recipe for disaster. For one, loose components can cause leaks, increasing the risk of water loss and damaging equipment. Secondly, it affects cooling tower performance and may send your energy bills through the roof.
Likewise, check the motors, fans, and variable frequency drives to see if they are working as expected. These components keep your entire HVAC system running smoothly while keeping your energy costs down.
5. Structural Integrity Assessments
Your cooling tower must brave bad weather, including scorching heat, high-speed winds, and heavy rain and snowfall. These natural elements can take a toll on its structural components, such as the foundation or support beams. Check these parts for any signs of damage or wear. If you notice cracks, corrosion, or other damage, repair them immediately.
6. Monitoring and Calibration
Monitoring and calibration are the heart of preventive cooling tower maintenance. Ensure all control systems, such as pH or temperature sensors, are functioning properly. Also, calibrate these control systems and check their failsafe to avoid accidents or breakdowns. If you are unsure about calibration, call a technician for help. Generally, your cooling tower maintenance contractor will take care of this during the annual tune-up.
7. Seasonal Adjustments
The tri-state area is no stranger to sweltering summers, freezing winters, and floods. Each season brings unique challenges, and your cooling tower must endure them all. This may involve seasonal adjustments to enhance safety and efficiency.
Whether you want to lower the rate of evaporation during summer or add antifreeze solutions to the water during winter, take these steps well before the season begins. You might also want to adjust fan speed and water flow according to your heating and cooling needs during a particular season.
8. Record Keeping and Reporting
Whenever you carry out cooling tower preventive maintenance, keep a detailed log of everything you noticed, repaired, or upgraded. Record keeping is invaluable in helping you track your maintenance and repair expenses.
But it’s also equally critical for ensuring compliance. All states require buildings and facilities to monitor the levels of contaminants and bacteria in cooling tower water. In New York, you must report it to the local health department if the level of legionella crosses the mandated threshold.
Call Us for Preventive Cooling Tower Maintenance
Preventive maintenance is the backbone of your cooling tower system. With periodic inspections, water treatment, mechanical repairs, seasonal adjustments, and regular cleaning, your cooling tower will always run at its peak. It will help you save money, ensure the comfort of your tenants, and keep your HVAC system going for years. If you haven’t planned it or if it has been slipping through the cracks, it’s time to call us.
Pinnacle Cooling Tower Service can help you stick to your preventive maintenance. Serving buildings and facilities in the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania areas, we take care of all your maintenance and repair needs.
Contact us today to schedule your next maintenance appointment!
