Cooling Tower Safety and Maintenance

One of the most important things to remember when it comes to extending the life of your cooling tower is proper maintenance. Taking the proper safety precautions when performing maintenance is paramount as well—safety and maintenance go hand in hand when it comes to cooling tower disinfection and cleaning. Read on to learn more about cooling tower safety precautions, as well as what should be on your maintenance checklist.

What Safety Precautions Should You Take?

Whether you are performing maintenance, disinfection, and cleaning on your cooling tower, or you have a cooling tower cleaning service perform the work, it’s important to know what cooling tower safety precautions are recommended.

The primary precaution recommended before performing maintenance or cleaning on a cooling tower is the use of personal protective equipment or PPE. PPE for cooling tower inspection or cleaning will look different than those worn by medical staff, or those in other industries. PPE for those doing work on cleaning towers should include:

• Hard hat
• Safety glasses (or goggles)
• Work gloves
• High-top leather boots with nonslip soles

If a worker must enter the structure, then:

• A full-body harness
• Two shock-absorbing lanyards that are six feet long or more

How to Maintain a Cooling Tower

Regular safety inspections should be performed to ensure that your cooling tower is clean, safe, and functioning as it should. However, routine cooling tower disinfection should always be performed regardless of the outcome of the inspection, as cooling towers are breeding grounds for Legionella, which can cause Legionnaires’ disease.

In addition to regular disinfection, there are several other maintenance points that should be performed regularly:

• Remove scaling. Limescale buildup occurs over time and can affect the efficiency of your machine, as well as cause premature corrosion. If you descale the cooling towers several times per year, you can avoid this issue.
• Inspect the water pump. Make sure it is aligned properly, and lubricate the pump and motor bearings as well as the water seal. Also, your pump should only run when the chiller does. Make sure your pump is not running unnecessarily.
• Check your water quality periodically. Poor water quality can make limescale buildup and scum worse, so be sure to check this during routine maintenance procedures.
• Clean the tubes. The chiller tubes can fill with mud, algae, scale, and other debris, which can cause a complete or partial clog, which can lead to poor efficiency or a complete shutdown. Cleaning the tubes regularly prevents this problem.

Contact us

If you need assistance with inspection, repair, or maintenance when it comes to your cooling towers in New Jersey, Pinnacle CTS can help. Contact us today at 732-570-9392 to make an appointment for an estimate or service call.