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Inspection template in the LeanSuite app

Last reviewed

Cooling tower inspection and maintenance checklist

A cooling tower inspection and maintenance checklist covers the tower's condition, its water treatment and drift control each week. This one has 10 questions per tower ID: casing, fill and louvers intact and free of algae or scale, a clean basin, fans and belts secure and quiet, drift eliminators in place; water level and make-up valve working, chemical dosing running with tanks stocked, conductivity and biocide readings recorded and in range, no leaks; and defects raised as work orders.

Cooling towers are a known source of Legionella, which is why ASHRAE Standard 188 asks building owners to run a water management program for them, and some cities require their own inspections. Maintenance or the water treatment contractor runs this check. The failures it watches for are quiet ones: a dosing pump that lost prime days ago, a slime film growing on the fill, a missing drift eliminator panel letting mist blow onto the parking lot, or conductivity creeping up because the bleed valve stuck.

What it is for, as built: Weekly check of cooling tower condition, water quality and drift control.

Use this template in LeanSuite

The full question list

The 10 questions in the inspection

Every question is answered Yes, No or N/A. Each No is flagged and asks for a photo and a comment, so the finding arrives with its evidence.

Structure and fill

  1. 1Casing, fill and louvers are intact and free of algae or scale
  2. 2Basin is clean and free of debris
  3. 3Fans and drive belts are secure with no unusual noise or vibration
  4. 4Drift eliminators are in place

Water treatment

  1. 5Water level and make-up valve work correctly
  2. 6Chemical dosing is running and tanks are stocked
  3. 7Conductivity and biocide readings are recorded and in range
  4. 8No visible leaks

Follow-up

  1. 9Defects were reported with a work order
  2. 10Inspection is recorded and signed

Worked example, illustrative

A filled-in example

One section as it might be filled in on the floor, with every other section of the inspection answered Yes. The place and finding are made up to show how the inspection reads and scores.

Result: fail, 80% against a pass mark of 90

  • 10 questions, all of them count.
  • 2 answered No, so 8 of 10 are Yes: 8 ÷ 10 = 80%.
  • 80% is under 90, so the inspection fails.

What happened next: Maintenance reprimed the pump and freed the bleed valve that day. Water treatment contractor retested the next morning.

Scored here as one point per question with N/A left out. In the app each answer carries the points set on the template, so change them after you clone it if your plant weighs some checks more.

Cooling Tower Inspection

Inspection, weekly

Tower ID
CT-1, roof of Building A

Water treatment

  1. Water level and make-up valve work correctlyYes
  2. Chemical dosing is running and tanks are stockedNo
  3. Conductivity and biocide readings are recorded and in rangeNo

    Comment: Biocide dosing pump lost prime, tank still half full. Conductivity reading well above the set range and the bleed valve not opening.

    Photo attached to each No

  4. No visible leaksYes
Drawn from this template's own questions, not a screenshot of the app. Illustrative answers.

When to use it

  • Once a week.
  • The person responsible for the area or equipment answers each question on the spot.
  • Each record starts with: Tower ID.

How it is scored

The template is built with points per answer and a pass mark of 90. In this library every audit is set to pass at 80 and every inspection at 90. Each submitted inspection shows its score and pass or fail, and every No is flagged with its photo and comment.

Change the points or the pass mark after you clone it. How rules and scoring work.

Read and print

More in maintenance and equipment

All maintenance and equipment templates

FAQ

Cooling tower inspection and maintenance checklist: common questions

  1. Weekly per tower is the built interval, and during the cooling season it should not slip. Add a check after a shutdown and restart, after the fill or drift eliminators are cleaned or replaced, after a change of treatment chemical or contractor, after a storm that fouls the basin, and whenever a dosing alarm or a high conductivity reading appears.

  2. Maintenance or the water treatment contractor does it, with someone who can read conductivity and biocide tests and knows the set ranges for this tower. They need to recognise slime on the fill, a missing eliminator panel and a dosing pump that is not pumping. A No on water treatment goes to the facilities or maintenance lead the same day, who records the fix.

  3. A fail means the tower may be growing bacteria or throwing drift: dosing stopped, readings out of range, slime on the fill, a missing eliminator. Restore dosing and bleed that day and retest. For fill fouling or a missing panel, book the repair with maintenance, give it a date, and tell the water treatment contractor. In this template every No is flagged and asks for a photo and a comment, and an inspection that scores under its pass mark of 90 is a fail.

  4. Keep the tower ID, date, conductivity and biocide readings, chemical tank levels, who checked it, and every No with its photo and the repair that cleared it. Readings week by week are what your water management program needs to show, and they reveal a bleed valve or dosing pump drifting long before an alarm. In LeanSuite each submitted inspection is stored with its score, its pass or fail, and the photo and comment on every No.

  5. 10 questions in 3 sections: structure and fill, water treatment, and follow-up. Every question is answered Yes, No or N/A.

Use this template in LeanSuite

It is ready in the Template Marketplace inside Lean Creator as “Cooling Tower Inspection”. Clone it into your plant, change any question, then schedule it to a person, role or asset with reminders. Auditors complete it on a phone or tablet, with photo evidence where required.

Not on LeanSuite yet? On a 90-day pilot our team sets up your account and digitizes the forms and checklists you use today, this one included.

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