Mastering Water Cooled Chiller Preventive Maintenance

In previous blogs we have spoken about preventive maintenance on air cooled chillers, and chilled water system components, and the importance of checklists when you are doing preventive maintenance on chillers and chilled water systems. This single thing was a game changer for me over the course of my career, and allowed me to operate like a professional, kept me from missing things while on water cooled chiller maintenances, and helped me become incredibly efficient because I wasn’t wasting time back tracking. They enabled me to execute the work in a meticulous streamlined fashion.

We are going to run through some of the maintenance tasking items, and show you the best way to stay organized when completing maintenance on your water cooled chiller.

Preventive Maintenance Checklists When Maintaining Water Cooled Chillers.

I mentioned this in previous posts, but Preventive maintenance checklists aren’t just about ticking boxes, and pencil whipping paperwork, and that statement is amplified when we are talking about maintenance on water cooled chillers due to the complexities, the sheer volume of additional components, and things going on in different parts of the system.

If you service chillers every single day, and you are working on the same type of equipment over and over, it becomes mundane, and as a natural result, we get bored, and we run the risk of becoming complacent. 
Here’s why they matter:

Professionalism for the Customer: A well-documented maintenance process shows your clients that you mean business and care about quality service. In the chiller world, we are in constant competition to provide the best possible customer experience every single day we get up and throw the work boots on. Giving the customer a professional looking form communicates that you are a professional, and that you care about them. 

Ensures Nothing is Overlooked:
Like I said before, it’s easy to miss something when you are doing this day in and day out. Did I check those transducers today on this chiller, or yesterday on that chiller? Did I remember to check the refrigerant charge? Checklists ensure every component in the chillers system gets the attention it needs, and helps you provide a repeatable and consistent service to all of your customers 100% of the time.

Keeps You Organized:
They keep you on track, and help you stay organized so you can look back at what you did if a customer tries to accuse you of overlooking something. having something tangible that you can look back at in the future is extremely helpful.

Helps Your Memory:
Our memory is a finite resource. Every time we have to think of something, or have to remember something, a little bit of that finite resource is used up. If your anything like me, you probably struggle with remembering names and birthdays as it is…..
It doesn’t seem like much, but if you do every single repeatable task from a checklist you no longer have to memorize those things, and instead of your brain purging the things you want to remember. It Gets purged and replaced with air cooled chiller maintenance. Over time, you will slowly be able to remember more things, because you will no longer be trying to memorize the simple day to day tasks, allowing you to memorize the other things that are more important.
They took me from not being able to remember any customers names, to being able to remember the details of their families, and all of the stories they told me 6 months prior.

What Does A Good Maintenance Checklist Look Like?

A good checklist is made up of the following:
Service list:
The items you need to be cleaning and actively servicing. Maybe this is greasing motors and pumps. Maybe this is changing belts, or gear lube in your cooling tower. 

Operational Checks:the

Verify the operation of the chiller unit and its controls.

Monitor temperature and pressure readings.

Ensure proper refrigerant levels.
make sure all components work and work properly.
Etc..

Mechanical Inspection:

Check the condition all of the fans, and bearings, compressors, seals, pumps, actuators and motors. 

Inspect the electrical connections for signs of wear or high heat.

Performance Testing:

Test the efficiency of the heat exchanger using the evaporator approach reading.
check the refrigerant charge. 

Monitor and record all operating data, so you can look back on it later.

Compare current performance data with historical data to spot potential issues, or flaws.

Summary:
In short a maintenance checklist is made up of many sections to ensure everything gets taken care of.
All of the maintenance items that need to be on your list will be available in the Installation Operation & Maintenance manual or “IOM”. The best thing to do is to create your own maintenance forms custom depending on the site and customers needs. Every manufacturers equipment is a little different, and the way you maintain them is also different, so always refer to the IOM when creating these. Use the maintenance sheets and checklists below as a guide to get you started, or use them as they are if they work for you!

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You Can Download the air cooled chiller maintenance checklists inside the member portal, and use them every time your doing a chiller PM.