Condition-Based vs Outcome-Based Cooling Tower Water Treatment: Measuring the Result Instead of the Recipe
A cooling tower can run within every setpoint on the controller — conductivity in range, pH in range, ORP in range — and still be forming scale, growing biofilm, and corroding the heat exchanger. That’s not a contradiction. Conductivity, pH, and ORP were never measuring those failures directly. They were measuring conditions that make those […]
Corrosion Coupons vs. Corrosion Rate Sensors: Why Waiting 90 Days to Find Out Is a Problem
Most cooling tower and chiller operators find out about a corrosion problem in one of two ways: a coupon comes back from the lab with a number that’s already 60 or 90 days old, or a leak develops and the corrosion has already been happening for months. Both are after-the-fact. Neither tells you what was […]
What Happens When You Run a Boiler Monitoring System Without a Sample Cooler
Every boiler feedwater and steam condensate analyser on the market — including the Pyxis Guardian IK-2000 series — specifies that it must be installed downstream of a sample cooler. This requirement is stated prominently in the installation documentation, with operating temperature limits of 40–49°C at the sensor inlet. In practice, sample coolers are frequently omitted […]
The Consequences of Running a Cooling Tower Above Its Maximum Cycles of Concentration
Cycles of concentration is one of the most important parameters in cooling tower operation. It determines how much mineral content builds up in the circulating water relative to the makeup water, and it directly controls both water consumption and the risk of scale and corrosion. Most operators know they should monitor it. Far fewer understand […]
Why Conductivity Alone Is Not Enough to Control a Cooling Tower
Conductivity control is the foundation of every cooling tower water treatment programme. It keeps dissolved solids from concentrating to the point of scale formation, and it triggers the bleed-and-dose cycle that maintains chemical treatment levels. It is necessary. It is also not sufficient. A cooling tower controlled only by conductivity is a system that manages […]
Why Real-Time Boiler Water Quality Monitoring Is Not Optional — Conductivity, pH, Dissolved Oxygen, and Hardness Explained
A boiler that runs on poor-quality feedwater does not announce the problem immediately. The damage accumulates quietly — inside heat transfer surfaces, in the steam distribution system, at turbine blades — until it manifests as a tube failure, a forced shutdown, or an efficiency decline that has been building for months. The four parameters that […]
Pre-Bleed Lockout and Lockout Period: Why These Two Controller Features Matter for Cooling Tower Treatment Accuracy
Cooling tower water treatment controllers are most commonly evaluated on what they can control — conductivity setpoints, biocide dosing schedules, pH management. What is less often discussed is what they prevent: the accidental delivery of chemicals under conditions where those chemicals will not work, or worse, will cause damage. Two features in the Aquarius Ultima […]