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Issues in Cooling Towers Due to Poor Care and Maintenance

Cooling towers are designed to remove heat from a building. Most of the time, commercial buildings utilise these cooling towers since they can effectively keep a low temperature of the whole building. Industries that maximise the use of cooling towers include power plants, petroleum refineries, and manufacturing facilities.

Cooling towers can give various benefits to business owners. They can save you tons of energy and even money since their cooling process doesn’t draw too much power. These towers can also be maintained easily since they don’t leave any harmful residues behind while the cooling process is initiated. By design, cooling towers can maintain themselves automatically. However, they still require proper care and maintenance by people. Without proper care and maintenance, you can expect the following issues that can plague your cooling towers.

Erosion

The fans found on cooling towers help achieve the whole cooling process with breeze. They pull up the air that is not needed by the building. Since they always operate alongside the cooling process, the fans, most especially the leading edges of their blades, are pretty much exposed to moisture and dust particles. The accumulation of these specific particles sets off the erosion process on the fan blades. Once these fan blades have fully eroded, the efficiency of the cooling tower will be cut by a significant amount. The replacement of these blades is then vital to make the cooling tower work optimally.

Corrosion

Water alone can destroy the cooling towers if ever they have no protective layers. So, to prevent any structural damage, most cooling towers have a sacrificial barrier to protect them from corrosion and other chemical reactions. These sacrificial barriers are usually made out of galvanised sheet steels.

While these sacrificial barriers can do their purpose effectively, some perforations and holes can still develop through daily operations. Aside from water, other chemical components that are used within the cooling tower can also contribute to the thinning and, consequently, premature corrosion of the galvanised metal. This corrosion could then lead to unstable tower operations and dangerous leaks.

Mechanical Damages

Cooling towers have a lot of components that must be maintained regularly. You must apply lubrication on the bearings to keep the cooling tower working. Loose pulleys and fan hubs must also be fixed immediately so that worn fan shafts can be prevented. If you don’t resolve these problems right away, your cooling tower will sustain irreversible mechanical strain and wear.

Pipeline Damages

One advantage of using cooling towers is that they can work alongside existing HVAC units through the use of pipes. However, poor care and maintenance of these pipelines can cause damage to both your cooling towers and your HVAC units. Both the external and internal corrosion of the pipes can certainly affect the overall functionality of the entire system. In some cases, the pipelines are not aligned and assembled well, which can ultimately cause poor connections and leaks between the two systems. Knowing these issues can help you prioritise care and maintenance towards your cooling towers. If you want to know how to maintain your cooling towers, then call us now at Protector Air Care. We have been providing high-quality services for the air conditioning and mechanical services sector since 1993.

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