Cooltek: Cooling Tower Success Stories

Cooltek, Inc. Saves Critical Downtime for Cooling Tower Repair at Portland’s Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Office/Lab Building---

Cooltek, Inc. Cooling Tower Specialists’ ability to work within an extremely tight time-frame to repair a failed cooling tower, recently enabled Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center to avoid interrupting regular operations at one of its medical office buildings.

Originally designed with no back-up air conditioning system, the building’s 23 year-old, 150-ton cooling tower was malfunctioning and at the end of its life. Legacy contacted Cooltek, Inc. who offered an alternative to total unit replacement, which would have cost $100,000 and two weeks of down-time. Instead, Cooltek, Inc. recommended repairing and upgrading the existing cooling tower over just one week-end for $20,000.

Operating engineers at Legacy Good Samaritan were delighted with Cooltek, Inc.’s proposal. "We needed a quick solution. Cooltek, Inc.’s strategy and abilities got our facility back on-line amazingly fast which was key for office operations and critical lab spaces."

The week-end repair involved completely re-building the cooling tower with state-of-the-art components. "We also installed high efficient wet deck media and water spray systems," explains Cooltek, Inc. President Jim Bewick. "All internal metal surfaces were re-conditioned by grinding them down and applying a hard-shell epoxy coating system."

Legacy’s re-built cooling tower now has an extended life of at least 15 years. "They will see a significant increase in the operating efficiency of the chiller system," Jim emphasizes. "And future maintenance will be easier due to the accessibility of the new components."

Meeting the tight schedule challenge was achieved by pre-staging and pre-inventorying materials, precise scheduling of crews and resources, and working closely with Legacy’s team to plan logistics for equipment and materials delivery.

Jim is proud to point out that Cooltek, Inc.’s planning and execution for each project exceed those of common contractors. The result for Legacy was a successful job completed on time and on budget, while their building functions went on as usual.

CLOSED CIRCUITED EVAPORATIVE COOLER BRINGS DIFFERENT CHALLENGE TO Cooltek, Inc.---

When Portland’s 200 Market Building was built in 1971, it was equipped like many buildings of that 60’s thru mid-70’s era--- with a closed circuited evaporative cooler. Because of the limited accessibility to their interiors, most building owners have not believed that anything could be done when the units begin to deteriorate. The common philosophy has been, "wait until they ‘die’, then replace ‘em". But replacement is a spendy proposition. Because of their size, they’re almost impossible to remove. In fact, the unit at 200 Market was so large it was actually constructed within the building itself. Replacement costs loomed at $200,000.00 when it reached what appeared to be its "last leg".

Enter Cooltek, Inc. Cooling Tower Specialists. Through their technical expertise and project management, Cooltek, Inc. was able to perform necessary repairs and refurbish components without ever interrupting the operation of the system. The result was an extended life to the cooler of 17 to 20 years at a cost of just $30,000.00!

The welcomed rejuvenation and cost savings was the ultimate payoff to Cooltek, Inc.’s detailed pre-planning and thorough knowledge of the technology involved.

Because access to the interiors of closed circuited evaporative coolers is not available from above, Cooltek, Inc.’s specialists sought entry through the unit’s end panels. But extensive external piping complicated things and had to be painstakingly removed before the end panels could even be reached.

Once inside, access was still difficult because of the restricted, narrow area where the internal air baffle assemblies were located. Their successful removal allowed technicians to repair leaks in the v-pan and reseal other badly worn metal surfaces.

After preparing surfaces by grinding, technicians applied a time-tested epoxy coating. (Years of experience and product use have resulted in Cooltek, Inc.’s standardization of one particular epoxy product they feel is best at dealing with all the rigors and dynamics that occur inside evaporative cooling systems: deterioration due to chemicals, thermal and mechanical expansion, and water erosion. This product is formulated around an elastomeric base that actually expands and contracts with the metal it is coating). With interior surfaces thoroughly re-coated and all other repairs successfully completed, technicians proceeded with the complicated process of re-assembling the unit.

The completed project reaped the success of not only extending the life of the cooler at a reasonable cost when compared to replacement, but doing so while keeping it totally operational during the repair process. And as is consistent with Cooltek, Inc.’s commitment to its customers, the project was completed on time and below budget.