The essential need to keep your cooling towers operating well requires some level of maintenance and cleaning. The proper maintenance of evaporative cooling towers will help prevent microorganism growth.
Reasons to periodically clean your cooling tower
1. Cut down on water treatment costs
Water treatment in cooling towers is a major part of cooling tower maintenance. If you fail to clean your system regularly it will require you to do cooling tower water treatment more frequently. The more treatments your cooling tower requires the higher your costs will raise in the maintenance of the same. Cleaning is essential which must not be skipped as it will cost you even more money instead of helping you save any. The inept operation will only lead to getting more water treatments. The water treatment in a clean system will be even more effective in preventing bacteria, corrosion and scale in the cooling towers.
2. Prevent scale deposits
Doing the water treatment and cleaning the system prevents solid minerals from depositing throughout the system. The buildup of scale reduces water flow, hinders cooling and makes the system less efficient. The natural evaporation of the water that is used in cooling towers results in the growth of scale and corrosion. The residues that water leaves in the system are minerals present as solids in it. As time passes, these solids tend to increase in volume and sink to the interior surfaces of the cooling towers resulting in scale and corrosion. Scale deposits and corrosion build up in the cooling systems reduce the efficiency of the system, hence preventing them through cooling tower water treatment is critical to the system’s condition.
How to clean your cooling tower the right way
- Chlorinate
Keep bacteria at bay with chemical disinfection in the cooling tower systems. You will have a number of options when it comes to chemical disinfection to prevent Legionella in the cooling towers.
- Clean the cooling tower
Cooling towers do the job of recycling over 98% of wasted water. It is still a machine operating for cleaning purposes so it is prone to accumulating debris and buildup alongside. In order for cooling towers to work at their optimum best, they must be drained and cleaned with a power washer every six months, this will help maintain their functioning ability.
- Visual inspection
Cooling towers, just like other machines, also require visual inspection, even the largest of them. It is vital to do a visual inspection of the equipment before starting the cleaning process. While inspecting if you notice any damage or missed components like nozzles replace them after cleaning before you refill the tower with water. The missing nozzles can potentially reduce the tower’s heat exchange efficiency by slowing down the flow of water to the hot deck and through the system.
- Clean the Hot deck
The process of cleaning equipment like a natural draft cooling draft requires cleaning every little component of the equipment. Start with cleaning off the hot deck, alongside any orifices and nozzles that will remove scale deposits, bacteria and sediments. This ensures the prevention of debris from contaminating the water after cleaning and maintenance treatment. Make use of low-pressure water spray from a hose or a brush while removing surface deposits on the hot deck, nozzles and orifices. The subtle toughness cleanses thoroughly without causing any damage to the equipment.
- Sterilize Tower basin and fan housing
The process of sterilization will prevent the bacteria from distributing over the water, especially sterilizing tower basins and fan housing. It will also keep it from becoming aerated. The process of preventing bacteria from aerating is one critical method that prevents Legionella from growing and spreading around the cooling tower. Legionella majorly affects its surroundings when the bacteria spread through the air and people start inhaling the aerosolized particles. When spread through the cooling tower it can potentially make people fall sick downwind with Legionnaires disease or Pontiac fever. Sterilizing the cooling towers thoroughly keeps those around them healthy while also improving your cooling tower’s efficiency.
- Open and clean the distribution pans
Clean off the sludge, sediments, scale or biofilm from all distribution pans. Inspect it thoroughly and look if there is any damage to the components of the cooling tower or if there is any component that is missing, make repairs and replacements as needed before you move forward.
- Vacuum the tower sump
Not everything could be drained out while cleaning so you must vacuum the tower sump to remove all that. The vacuum will let you remove debris and sludge from the tower that may not be possible to drain out entirely through the cooling tower.
- Clean tower surfaces and basin
Even the cooling tower surfaces foster bacteria that accumulate onto the surfaces from the cooling water or the atmosphere. Make sure to clean off all surfaces and basins thoroughly, disinfect the surfaces that have been in contact with water.
