Chiller & Cooling Tower Maintenance
Central cooling plant is the equipment where deferred maintenance gets expensive quietly, then all at once.
We provide mechanical maintenance and repair on central cooling plant — chillers, cooling towers, pumps, and the associated piping and controls. Typical work is seasonal startup and shutdown, strainer and basin cleaning, tube and coil condition assessment, drift eliminator and fill inspection, motor and drive service, and diagnosing capacity or short-cycling problems.
We want to be precise about one boundary, because it matters more here than anywhere else on this site. Cooling towers in New York City are subject to registration, water management plan, sampling, and inspection requirements administered by city and state health authorities. Those requirements exist because of Legionella risk and they are taken seriously.
We are a mechanical contractor. We maintain and repair the equipment, and we work alongside your water treatment provider and whoever maintains your water management plan. We do not write water management plans, we do not perform the sampling and laboratory analysis, and we will not tell you that mechanical maintenance satisfies a compliance obligation. If you don't currently have a water treatment vendor and a compliance program in place for a cooling tower, that is the more urgent thing to address, and we'll say so.
When this is likely the issue
What is and isn't included
Included
- Seasonal startup and shutdown procedures
- Cooling tower basin, strainer, and sump cleaning
- Fill, drift eliminator, and distribution inspection
- Motor, drive, bearing, and fan service
- Chiller mechanical diagnosis and repair within our scope
- Pump and associated piping service
- A written condition report for the plant
Quoted separately
- Water treatment chemistry, dosing, and control — your treatment vendor's scope
- Legionella sampling, laboratory analysis, and reporting
- Water management plan preparation, maintenance, and compliance filing
- Cooling tower registration and regulatory submissions
- Chiller refrigerant machine overhaul and tube replacement, quoted separately
- Rigging and crane work
- Structural, roof, and enclosure work
What drives the number
We quote after diagnosis, not before. These are the factors that move the number most on this service:
- PLANTEquipment type, tonnage, and how many pieces are in the scope.
- SCOPESeasonal service versus diagnosis and repair of a specific fault.
- CONDITIONPlant that has been deferred takes substantially longer to bring current.
- ACCESSRoof or mechanical room access, escorts, and shutdown windows.
- COORDINATIONScheduling around your water treatment vendor and building operations.
Scope & compliance
Cooling towers in New York City are subject to registration, water management plan, sampling, and inspection requirements administered by city and state health authorities. We are a mechanical contractor: we maintain and repair equipment and coordinate with your water treatment provider. We do not prepare water management plans, perform Legionella sampling, or make compliance filings, and mechanical maintenance alone does not satisfy those obligations. Confirm your building's requirements with the relevant health authority.
Related
What the work involves
Establish who does what
We confirm your treatment vendor and compliance program before we start, so gaps are visible.
Assess the plant
Mechanical condition of tower, chiller, pumps, and controls, documented rather than described.
Service or repair
Seasonal work or corrective repair, scheduled around your operating requirements.
Report and hand over
A written condition report, including anything outside our scope that needs someone else.
Frequently asked
Does your maintenance keep us compliant?
No, and we want to be unambiguous about that. Cooling tower compliance in this city involves registration, a water management plan, routine sampling and analysis, and reporting — administered by health authorities and typically handled by a water treatment provider and your compliance consultant. Our mechanical maintenance is necessary but it is not sufficient, and any contractor telling you otherwise is misleading you.
Do you do the water treatment as well?
No. Water chemistry, dosing, control, and Legionella sampling are a specialist discipline with its own expertise and accountability. We work alongside your treatment vendor rather than replacing them. If you don't have one for an operating cooling tower, that's the more urgent gap to close.
Our chiller keeps tripping. What's typically behind that?
It varies widely — flow issues, fouled tubes reducing heat transfer, control and sensor faults, refrigerant-side problems, or electrical issues. Modern chillers log faults, and the fault history is usually the fastest route to a diagnosis. We start there rather than guessing at the machine.
When should seasonal service be scheduled?
Startup before the cooling season and shutdown after it, with the exact timing driven by your building's operating schedule. Booking in shoulder season matters here — when the first hot week arrives, every building in Midtown wants their plant looked at simultaneously.
Can you handle a full chiller overhaul?
Major work such as tube replacement or refrigerant machine overhaul is quoted as its own project and sometimes involves the manufacturer's service organisation. We'll be straight about what's within our scope and what's better handled by a factory service team, rather than taking on work that would be better done elsewhere.
Ready to have this looked at?
Call and describe what's happening. You'll get an honest read before anyone is dispatched.