HVAC Spring Cleaning: Recap of Last Year’s Checklists

Today is the first day of summer – and that means it’s time to crank up your facility’s AC. Is your facility’s cooling system ready?

How-to-HVAC-Cleaning-Checklists-77x300Last year we offered three checklists to help you prepare for the cooling season. It’s time to revisit our checklists before the real summer heat arrives. Give your facility’s cooling system attention now to keep it operating efficiently.

Checklist 1: How to Clean Chiller Tubes

Checklist 2: How To Clean Air Conditioner Coils

Checklist 3: How to Clean Cooling Towers

(Note: You must provide your email address to get access to each checklist.)

As we mentioned in last year’s introduction to the checklists, OSHA recommends cleaning and disinfecting a cooling system quarterly, or at the beginning of the cooling season and after the system is shut down in the fall.

Because a cooling system accounts for a large portion of a facility’s operating costs, keeping it clean ensures it operates efficiently, saves the organization money on energy and minimizes expensive repairs.

Additionally, a dirty cooling system is a breeding ground for bacteria, particularly Legionella, which, as we’ve discussed previously, is responsible for causing Legionnaires’ disease, a specialized type of pneumonia that causes high fever, chills, aches, coughing, and other symptoms.

Chiller tubes can become packed solid with deposits of algae, slime, sludge and scale. Cleaning tubes regularly ensures they operate efficiently, and also helps control the growth of the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease as well as other organisms.

How often chiller tubes need to be cleaned will depend on the particular system. Water quality will also affect the rate at which tubes become dirty.

The most effective means of cleaning tubes involves using a tube cleaner that flushes water through the tubes to loosen deposits.

In our checklist How to Clean Chiller Tubes we walk you through the step-by-step process of cleaning tubes. We explain the products that are most effective at cleaning tubes, and which accessories will leave your chiller tubes sparkling clean.

When grime and dirt coat your air conditioner coils, the system has to work harder, which not only interferes with the efficient operation of the system, it can also result in expensive repairs.

Pressurized water effectively cleans dirt off coils, but high pressure water can also bend the coils’ fins, permanently ruining them. In our checklist, How to Clean Air Conditioner Coils, we address cleaning both air handler coils and condensor coils.

We recommend the products you should use to protect delicate fins, the safe, EPA-registered product you can use to inhibit the growth of bacteria, fungi, mildew and mold on your coils, and we explain how you can prevent slime from building up in your drain pans.

Cooling tower water often contains algae, slime, mud and sludge, all which collect on the basin floor. Not only does this make for a dirty tower, but Legionella bacteria thrive underneath all the slime and scale.

A dirty system doesn’t operate efficiently, and that means your energy expenses will increase. In our How to Clean Cooling Towers checklist we walk you through the step-by-step process of cleaning the cooling tower while keeping the tower online.

We suggest the Goodway accessories that are most effective at reaching into even the smallest cracks and crevices. Our foaming detergent is effective at dissolving tough deposits. And using a biocide product within the tower water can prevent future bacterial growth from occurring.

Next Steps:

One comment


  • It’s already hot in Florida!

    It’s definitely important to do regular maintenance on your system, but also make sure to get a professional tuneup once in a while too!

    June 27, 2013

Leave a comment





*

Submit Comment

© Goodway Technologies, 2024. All rights reserved. Just Venting is powered by Backbone Media, Inc.