Specifying the right industrial cooling tower affects everything from energy costs and system reliability to regulatory compliance. Get it wrong and you face a system that underperforms, costs more to run, or fails to meet your Legionella obligations.
Franklin Hodge designs and manufactures Carter Environmental cooling towers at our Birmingham facility. The range covers water flow rates from 6 to 600m³/hr across forced draught, induced draught, and dry air blast configurations, all built in stainless steel as standard.
What Is an Industrial Cooling Tower and What Does It Actually Do?
An industrial cooling tower removes excess heat from water used in process or HVAC systems. Warm water enters the tower, passes over fill media, and is exposed to airflow. A small portion evaporates, carrying heat away with it. The cooled water is then recirculated back into the system.
It is a simple principle, but it underpins operations across manufacturing, data centres, commercial HVAC, food processing, and power generation. Without effective cooling towers, equipment overheats, efficiency drops, and downtime follows.
Forced Draught vs Induced Draught: What Is the Difference and Which Do You Need?
The difference comes down to fan position and how air moves through the tower.
Forced draught towers use fans at the base to push air upward through the system. Our Carter BAL Series uses belt-driven centrifugal fans, while the SAN Series uses direct-drive axial fans. Both are counterflow designs available in open and closed-circuit variants, and both suit sites where low-level maintenance access and reduced rooftop noise are priorities.
Induced draught towers use axial fans mounted at the top to pull air through the system. The Carter BUC Series follows this configuration, again available as an open or closed-circuit. Induced draught designs are typically more thermally efficient and suit larger-scale installations where airflow volume is critical.
All three series cover 6 to 600m³/hr, so the choice comes down to site layout, access, noise sensitivity, and thermal performance rather than capacity.
Open Circuit or Closed Circuit: Which Is Right for Your Process?
In an open circuit cooling tower, the process water comes into direct contact with the air inside the tower. This is the most thermally efficient approach and suits large industrial plants with steady water supply and robust water treatment programmes.
In a closed-circuit system, the process water stays within a sealed coil and never contacts the atmosphere. This protects water quality and is the better choice where contamination control matters, such as in data centres, pharmaceutical manufacturing, or food processing.
We also manufacture the Carter ABC and WABC dry air blast coolers for closed circuit applications where water conservation or plume control is a priority. The WABC variant includes an adiabatic cooling mode that lowers fluid outlet temperatures below ambient dry bulb.
What Site Factors Do You Need to Consider Before Specifying a Cooling Tower?
Every specification starts with the basics: heat load, water flow rate, and target approach temperature relative to the site’s wet bulb conditions. Beyond that, several practical factors shape the right solution:
- Available space and access for delivery, crane lifts, and ongoing servicing
- Noise requirements, particularly on urban or mixed-use sites. We offer sound attenuation packages across the Carter range
- Corrosive environments, where 316L stainless steel construction may be needed over standard 304
- Restricted access sites, where flat-pack delivery and on-site assembly are essential
- Multi-cell configurations for sites that need redundancy or staged capacity
What Are Your Legal Obligations When Installing a Cooling Tower in the UK?
Any site operating a cooling tower in the UK must comply with the Notification of Cooling Towers and Evaporative Condensers Regulations 1992, which requires you to register the tower with your local authority in writing before it becomes operational.
Beyond registration, the HSE’s ACOP L8 and HSG274 Part 1 set out your obligations for Legionella risk assessment, water treatment, monitoring, and record-keeping. These are not optional. Failure to comply carries serious legal and financial consequences.
Routine cooling tower maintenance is a core part of meeting these requirements. That includes regular water quality testing, inspection of drift eliminators and fill packing, and documented servicing records.
Cooling Tower Refurbishment and Spare Parts: What Happens After Installation?
Once a cooling tower is commissioned, it needs ongoing attention to stay efficient and compliant. That means routine servicing, typically at least twice a year, covering water treatment checks, fill pack condition, drift eliminator inspections, fan and motor performance, and structural reviews. Components like float valves, access doors, and heat transfer packing wear over time and will eventually need replacing.
A well-maintained tower can deliver 15 to 20 years of service. When performance does start to decline, refurbishment is often more practical and cost-effective than full replacement, covering structural repairs, fan and motor swaps, packing, drift eliminators, and recoating.
For day-to-day maintenance, we supply cooling tower spare parts directly through our online store, including float valve assemblies, immersion heaters, and access doors. We also hold stock for legacy equipment, including Visco cooling towers, which became part of Carter Environmental following the 2003 acquisition and are now supported from our Birmingham facility.
Talk to Our Team About Your Cooling Tower Specification
Franklin Hodge is a UK cooling tower manufacturer with over 50 years of experience in industrial water cooling. Whether you need a single forced draught unit or a multi-cell induced draught system, our engineering team can help you specify the right solution for your site.
Get in touch to discuss your cooling tower requirements.
