How to service cooling tower?

[wufi2004]

Induced fan cooling tower and forced fan cooling tower should be maintained. How to maintain them? Some common actions I think not right.Someone just uses high speed water flow to wash
cooling tower flash fill or film fill. But this makes dirty things into the water. I cannot find good way to service the cooling tower. Who can tell me? Thanks!

 

[KenRad]

wufi2004,

Do you have any of the literature from the manufacturer? That should tell you what you need to know.

Fans and fan motors must be lubricated regularly, especially centrifugal fan shaft bearings. The fill and sump must be cleaned as required by your local conditions. But the most critical factor in maintaining a tower is chemical treatment. Conductivity must be kept below the point of scale formation. This is usually done with a controller wired to a conductivity sensor and a blowdown valve, which drains water from the system when conductivity gets too high. Biocide and corrosion inhibitor may also be necessary. Tower chemical treatment is a complicated matter, and best done by a company who specializes in this type of work. Find a chemical treatment company in your area with good references, and let them handle your tower chemistry. And if you don't have any of the original literature from the manufacturer, your distributor should be able to provide it.

---KenRad

 

[imok2]

wufi: his may help you...

http://www.ctdoc.com/Contents.html

 

[friartuck]

In the UK we have strict legionella controls that require thorough cleaning and chemical dosing.

Consult a good water treatment company to advise on the type of biocide etc.

Consult the legionella code of practice UK for more info

Friar Tuck of Sherwood

 

[jherbert]

100% agree with friar tuck (I drafted the eng-tips Legionella FAQ) CT’s house Legionella and careful precautions must be taken.

Open type cooling towers are very effective air cleaners, the dirt and debris accumulates in the tower basin and fill and provides an ideal breeding ground for Legionella bacteria.
If the dirt load is excessive, fit air filters to reduce the debris.

Caution must be exercised while cleaning cooling towers to prevent staff (the workers) or the general public being infected with legionella.

For complete and proper cleaning the tower must be taken out of service. Drained and flushed, basin scrubbed. After first cleaning, repeat.

I have a detailed CT cleaning procedure if you need it.

cheers,
John

 

[spector]

If there was a better way to clean my 6 cooling towers, believe me I would use it.

We use a firehose and tall ladders....not much fun, but so far the best way to blast scale off the fill.

Yes, all the dirt and scale fall into the basin. Then we use flat shovels and large buckets to remove it.

We also use a decent water treatment company and have all the best chemistry control equipment installed and our operators test and dose each tower 3 times per week, but that doesn't prevent lots of nasty scale forming in our fill.

 

[jherbert]

spector,

".......but that doesn't prevent lots of nasty scale forming in our fill."

How many cycles? with Auto blowdown? I'd get someone to check your system......that excess scale is probably fouled your condenders, dramatically reducing your heat exchanger efficiency.

cheers,
John