By Goodway Technologies — Maintenance and cleaning solutions provider Goodway Technologies is offering tips to building and facility managers on how to protect and maintain cooling towers, which are a common source of infectious bacteria growth such as Legionella. In addition to the existing challenges of cooling tower maintenance, building and facility managers should be prepared for the impact of the emergence of two broods of cicadas coming in spring 2024.
Don’t let cicadas bug your cooling tower performance. Image courtesy of Goodway Technologies
These large swarms of cicadas can lead to an increase in the need for cooling tower cleaning. This brings an increased probability that they could clog cooling tower components and lead to reduced efficiency and increased risk of bacteria growth. Therefore, it is crucial for building operators and owners to incorporate comprehensive maintenance plans and assess increasing the frequency of cleaning to prevent any negative impact on the cooling tower systems.
Tim Kane, president and CEO of Goodway Technologies, explained:
The effectiveness and cleanliness of cooling towers has a significant impact on chiller efficiency. While routine cleaning is always important, it’s also critical to look at the potential impact of the double brood of cicadas in your area and determine how it influences your maintenance plan.
Ongoing maintenance also helps to mitigate the risk of Legionella outbreaks while also improving system efficiency. Below, Goodway offers some additional best practices when it comes to cooling tower maintenance.
Five steps to proper cooling tower maintenance
- Inspect towers at least monthly. Sediment, scale and slime can lead to buildup and help Legionella grow and thrive. Regular inspections will help determine when to schedule cleaning.
- Clean tower basin surfaces. If sediment is visible, the basin needs to be cleaned, and cooling tower vacuums make it easier to remove contaminants without shutting down or draining your system.
- Descale the fill. The tower fill provides the perfect environment for bacterial growth, especially Legionella. A descaler will dissolve the scale and mineral deposits, that Legionella like to hide in, leaving the surface ready for cleaning.
- Clean the fill. A cooling tower fill cleaner will remove dirt and debris and inhibit the growth of other bacteria, when utilized in conjunction with appropriate biocides.
- Disinfect the tower. Cooling towers can be a dangerous breeding ground for bacteria, which makes it important to reduce the nutrients available for Legionella growth. BioSpray Tower can kill 99.9% of Legionella pneumophila and is on the EPA list of disinfectants for use against SARS-COV-2 when applied properly on hard non-porous surfaces. It offers a labor-saving, no-rinse formula.
While cooling tower cleaning and maintenance can seem daunting, securing the right equipment can help make the job less labor intensive, more effective and decrease total downtime. From cooling tower vacuums and tower fill cleaners to cleaning solutions and descalers, Goodway has new, simpler options to efficiently clean towers without shutting down the system. Goodway cooling tower products also help facilities meet ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 188-2015, a standard for maintenance and the remediation of Legionella in commercial building water.
Learn more about the company’s complete line of cooling tower maintenance products here. Founded in 1966, Goodway Technologies provides innovative maintenance solutions for a wide variety of industries, including commercial HVAC, food and beverage processing, power generation, and manufacturing. Goodway works with its customers to create better solutions for tube cleaning systems, industrial vacuums, cooling tower maintenance systems, dry steam solutions, conveyor belt cleaning, descaling systems, coil cleaning products, and practically everything else for the care and maintenance of commercial and production facilities.
