Is Your Commercial Cooling Tower Susceptible to Failure?
Cooling towers in commercial buildings are tasked with the role of rejecting heat and providing cooled water for HVAC systems and other processes in commercial settings. A malfunctioning cooling tower can paralyse operations in your building, and that's why you should always be on the lookout for potential problems that can affect the performance of the equipment.
Unfortunately, most commercial cooling towers are installed out of sight, and this means that they are easily forgotten during maintenance. This article will address three issues that can potentially cause cooling tower failure and how you can prevent them.
Exposure to chemical attack
Cooling towers have numerous components that are made from metal. Most manufacturers use sacrificial metal to prevent or decrease the rate of corrosion, but this does not mean that the metal components are immune to damage. The chemicals used in water treatment and in preventing algae growth in cooling towers can accelerate the wearing away of the sacrificial anode, and this exposes the cooling tower components to corrosion and chemical attack. When this happens, leaks occur within the system and render it inefficient.
You need to regularly inspect the cooling tower and ensure that the metal components are in excellent condition. Also, replace the galvanized sacrificial metal once it has wasted away to prevent chemicals from eroding the equipment.
Mechanical damage
Moving parts such as fan shafts, pulleys, and fan hubs can fail and affect the performance of the entire cooling tower. One of the primary causes of failure is lack of lubrication. When moving parts are not lubricated, they grind against each other when the equipment is in operation. This leads to premature wear and damage. Worn bearings increase the risk of damage on the fan shafts. When the fan shafts are worn, they will prevent the fan from working correctly.
Lubricate the moving parts in your cooling tower to ensure smooth movement and prevent premature failure. Also, don't forget to use some of the lube on the bearings, couplings, and motor as well.
Piping vulnerabilities
Cooling towers are connected to air conditioning units and other systems through the use of pipes. These pipes can also be sources of weakness that will affect the performance of the equipment. For example, poor piping connections can lead to leaks, which will reduce the amount of water circulating in the cooling tower. This can lead to system overheating. You need to be on the lookout for connection problems that can cause leaks in your cooling tower system.
Regularly inspecting your cooling tower and looking for problems can seem like a lot of work. That's why you need to hire an expert for professional tune-ups and repairs. For more information, contact a local company that offers cooling tower repairs, like Marley Flow Control Pty Ltd.