How Do You Clean A Cooling Tower?

A cooling tower is designed to remove excess heat to the atmosphere by maximising evaporation.

Just like other processes that involve heat, wind or water, cooling towers can accumulate dirt. A lot of it. Typically in the forms of sludge, bacteria, and scale. So it’s important that cooling towers are cleaned and maintained.

But how do you clean a cooling tower? Well, you’ve come to the right blog!

How To Clean A Cooling Tower

Before you even start any processes, you need to make sure your cooling tower is completely shut off.

Inspect & Protect

We’re squeezing this into one point.

You should inspect your tower beforehand so you can prioritise any problem areas. It’s important to check every area of the cooling tower, paying special attention to build areas. The hot water basin, spray nozzles, and the fill media are examples of areas that clog up dirt.

Don’t neglect yourself, either. Power down the fans and pumps because they could do some severe damage otherwise. Wear respiratory protection, as well as eye protection. Cleaning a cooling tower means that there’s going to be a lot of heat and moisture. If any of that contains bacteria, it could be harmful to you.

Treat for Mould & Bacteria

Cooling towers are quite susceptible to bacterial and fungal growth which can cause illness to humans. Additionally, being in close contact with mould and breathing it in is harmful, too.

Spraying the tower’s surfaces and using disinfectant to clean the surfaces helps control the workspace as well as protect the workers. At the same time, it helps to deter undue growth in the future.

Remove Sludge

In the hot water basin is wear the biggest build up of sludge is. Sludge is a problem because it effects the performance and longevity of the cooling towers. You can remove the sludge using specialised vacuums.

Unclogging

The fill directs the air within the system to the hot water that needs cooling. It is perhaps one of the most important parts of the heat exchanging process. So any parts that are clogged will affect the efficiency of the heat removal because the air cannot come into contact with the heat source.

Not only does it diminish efficacy, but it also causes electric bills to increase. If a replacement is needed then just replace the fill. Otherwise, you can clean this with detergent.

Schedule Cleaning

When you’ve cleaned your cooling tower, you can try and gauge how long it takes for dirt to accumulate again. General rule of thumb with cooling towers is that they should be cleaned at least twice a year. And chlorinated twice a year, too, to overcome any Legionella or algae issues.

Cooling towers draw a tremendous amount of electrical energy. Dirty ones even more so. By cleaning your tower, you will restore efficiency whilst reducing your energy consumption.

Contact Us

Cold Water Storage has a collective 30 years of experience and knowledge in the water hygiene and Legionella industry.

This experience allows us to be meticulous in our Legionella risk assessments and provide water treatment services to warrant that you’re compliant with water hygiene regulations.

We also install, repair, reline and replace cold water tanks.

Get in touch with our team today. Call us at 01943 872 311 or email info@coldwaterstorage.co.uk. We’ll respond as soon as possible!