Tech Tips
COOLING TOWER LAYUP
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Are you planning to shut down your comfort-cooling tower for the winter? Well this is the time to “THINK SPRING”! A little extra planning now can save you a lot of headaches in the spring.
1.) For the last week or so of operation reduce your solids or conductivity levels by about 30%. This will probably mean that you will need to reset your controller to about 900 umhos. By reducing the solids we will flush out dissolved and suspended solids in the system.
2.) Increase the polymer feed (AS –5500 series products) to achieve the maximum recommended level. This will disperse minerals in the water and will increase the level of corrosion protection.
3.) Add the maximum allowable dosage of your biodispersant (DTEA II) at least twice in this last week. This will remove any biofilm, fungi and algae from the surfaces of the system and will put them back in the bulk water where they will be killed by the biocide and flushed from the system.
4.) Read the biocide label. Add the maximum allowable dose of biocide about 4 hours after the biodispersant. We want to kill the bacteria, algae and fungi that are now in the bulk water.
OK! Now it is finally time to shut down and drain the tower. Immediately wash down the entire tower. Make sure you clean the fill and the sump. By washing it down now you remove the dissolved solids that would eventually dry on the surfaces. Remove any mud or silt from the tower basin. Anaerobic bacteria will thrive here and contribute to corrosion throughout the winter months.
Finally, you need to lay up the chemical feed system.
1.) Mix about 1 gallon of vinegar to 4 gallons of water.
2.) Pull the suction hoses out of the drums of product and put them all in the bucket with the vinegar solution.
3.) Pump this through the pumps. You may want to plug these into a hot outlet to speed up the pumping.
4.) Now take the suction tubing and wrap it around the pump head. This will keep the pump head and check valves flooded through the winter months. As a result the check valves and diaphragm will be clean and ready to work in the spring.
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