Nov 2016: Recent Jobs of Interest: Unblock water spray nozzles to stop the chiller tripping out, Shepparton

Issue: Blocked water spray nozzles
Asset: BAC (Baltimore Air Coil) Cooling Tower

During a Routine Cooling Tower Clean, on inspection we found that the water spray nozzles were blocked with pieces of air intake louvre. Only one nozzle was distributing water over a very small area of the coil (pictured).

This is a major concern because the purpose of spray nozzles is to pour water over the entire coil pack, to cool the ammonia refrigerant within the coils.

If not addressed, faulty spray nozzles could cause the chiller or other associated equipment to overheat.

A secondary issue was that pieces of air intake louvre were falling into the cooling tower basin. These pieces blocked the nozzles and the suction strainer. Air intake louvres also need to be in a sound condition.

Solution:

1.  We removed and cleaned the spray nozzles and spray bars.

2.  To prevent the spray nozzles blocking again, a new suction strainer was fitted to the circulation pump.

3.  Replacement of the air intake louvres was also highly recommended to the client.