Winterizing cooling towers

[GastecD]

Usually dont work on this type of equipment but recently one of our customers aquired a building with with heat pumps that go back to a cooling tower.

Is it necessary to drain the cooling tower for winterizing purposes? or will the heater suffice?

[Healey Nut]

Usually dont work on this type of equipment but recently one of our customers aquired a building with with heat pumps that go back to a cooling tower.

Is it necessary to drain the cooling tower for winterizing purposes? or will the heater suffice?

What kind of tower open loop of fluid cooler with flooded sump for summer operation ?

[GastecD]

its a closed loop system

[OhioTech]

Drain tower, shut off make up water and sump heater. Check dampers on tower outlet for operation- usually broken. Allow fan to operate if you get those warmer days. Check glycol level in closed loop.

[refrigeration johnny]

i service several systems like you described along the southern shore of lake Erie. They use Climatmaster water source heat pumps, small boilers, and cooling towers to keep the loop between 75df and 95df. Never drained the towers unless there was a problem. Using a Novar system to keep the loop active and alarm for high or low temp. Most of the air handlers are a pain to work on, usually in the ceiling of an office with white carpet and a glass top desk. Preety reliable system, as long as they don't overload the capacity of the loop.

[Freightshaker]

Usually dont work on this type of equipment but recently one of our customers aquired a building with with heat pumps that go back to a cooling tower.

Is it necessary to drain the cooling tower for winterizing purposes? or will the heater suffice?

There are a lot of factors that go into your decision on this. Your equipment is probably fine with water in it. Make sure heat traces are all working, floats or sensors are okay as well as the stat for heaters. Check heaters and contactors too. Often the hubs on heaters rot out, but they are easy to change. Winter is the time to do it. Its no fun changing heater hubs on a running tower! Recently i saw a customer change all four heaters in a tower because they did not know you can change hubs...DOH! Draining towers saves money not having to heat water you may not use and gives you some time to do heavier maintenance and cleaning. It really is a toss up for you to decide. It may not be real fun to run back to fill the tower because they needed it when you weren't expecting it.

[ncboston]

Does your system bypass the tower in colder months?

[GastecD]

We isolated the cooling tower and left the heater on. It was a good thing we didnt drain it, A week later we got a call that it was too hot because of a mild spell here - ended up having to reactivate it

[ncboston]

When I worked in Mass, we left the towers filled. Sump heaters are supposed to be sized to keep sump from freezing.

[chilbrig]

If you have water source heat pumps don't you need the tower for the heat to work? Like Refrig John stated the tower is part of the system for both cooling and heating.

[ncboston]

In my experience, the tower is typically bapassed in the heating season. The tower rejects heat in the cooling season. In the heating season, we add heat to the loop via a boiler. Running the tower during the heating season would reject the heat that we just put into the system, and throw away money.

[BaldLoonie]

In our area, lot of buildings are rejecting heat even in very cold weather. You'll see steam coming out of the tower in single digits.

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[chilbrig]

In our area, lot of buildings are rejecting heat even in very cold weather. You'll see steam coming out of the tower in single digits.

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Thats what I have seen in my area. I didn't think about a colder area where you probably don't need the tower.

[GastecD]

In my experience, the tower is typically bapassed in the heating season. The tower rejects heat in the cooling season. In the heating season, we add heat to the loop via a boiler. Running the tower during the heating season would reject the heat that we just put into the system, and throw away money.

This is how the system we have works

[dlove]

i service several systems like you described along the southern shore of lake Erie. They use Climatmaster water source heat pumps, small boilers, and cooling towers to keep the loop between 75df and 95df. Never drained the towers unless there was a problem. Using a Novar system to keep the loop active and alarm for high or low temp. Most of the air handlers are a pain to work on, usually in the ceiling of an office with white carpet and a glass top desk. Preety reliable system, as long as they don't overload the capacity of the loop.

Agreed, I have a system like this. We will drain the basins because they are not that big and can be filled quickly. But i make sure the louvers on top are closed and i make sure the spray pumps are drained. Keeping water running through the bundle will also keep chemicals in them. Also, you never know when you need to run the fans, even with out water spraying, the cold air will help cool the loop if you need them.. I have seen where some have drained the coils and did not do this properly or valves leaked...and they found broken tubes when they started up in the cooling season.