Is Robot Cooling Tower Cleaning Effective?

Judging from today's marketing of robot cooling tower cleaning, the answer to the question is YES!
However, anyone experienced with cooling towers knows that the honest answer should be maybe!
If you want a cooling tower cleaned by a robot, your tower usually, must stay in operation and be over four feet deep. So, what's the problem?

As the company that pioneered the use of robots for cleaning cooling towers, OLC Services wants you to understand some facts that are often "left out".

Fact:

* Not every tower contains only sludge.

Some also contain debris as large as a bicycle, and often a lot of it! Some towers have enough of this "debris" that no robot on the market can provide a real cleaning. Robots for cleaning cooling towers only remove what can be put through the suction hose, usually 2–4" ID. Tools, structural lumber, plastic fill, corrugated siding, etc., simply cannot be removed by today's tower cleaning robots, no matter who makes them!

* A cooling tower MUST be properly inspected BEFORE any quote.

Today, there are several methods to determine what is in a cooling tower basin. These include sediment mapping, sonar imaging, ROVs, etc. If the basin contains primarily sediment-type debris, then a sample of the sediment should be gathered by the ROV for analysis. You have to know "what's in there"!

* Often, there is a tower structure below the water and only a few inches above the basin floor, that prevents any type of robot from moving in the basin.

Videos showing underwater robots always show them in situations where the bottom is free of any structure that would hinder their progress. The real world of online cooling tower cleaning encounters many towers where there are horizontal stringers that are 6–8 inches above the basin floor. These towers can sometimes be cleaned online, but not with the use of a robot. How is that done?

* Define, Discuss, and Manage Goals and Expectations.

Since most cooling tower cleaning jobs are considered major projects, sit down with your cleaning contractor and Define the limitations of the job, discuss the logistics and how the facility will be impacted, and what the expectations are for a successful job. In a word, good communication at all levels!

Solving Problems First, Leads to Sales

OLC Services