Fill
Fill is where the cooling actually happens, and it is the single biggest lever on a tower's thermal performance. It is also the component most likely to be quietly destroying your capacity right now.
Understanding the component
Fill provides the surface area over which water and air meet. Everything else in the tower exists to deliver water and air to the fill evenly.
Film fill spreads water into a thin film across closely spaced corrugated PVC sheets. It offers by far the most surface area per unit volume, which is why replacing splash fill with film fill can transform a tower's performance without touching the structure. The trade-off is fouling: narrow flute openings block up if the water is dirty or biologically active.
Splash fill repeatedly breaks the water into droplets against layers of bars or slats. It has less surface area, so it needs more depth for the same duty, but its open structure tolerates poor water quality far better. PVC splash fill is also the standard direct replacement for the wood lath fill in older crossflow towers.
Between the two sit vertical-flow and low-fouling film fills: open-cell and anti-fouling geometries designed to give much of the thermal benefit of film fill while shedding solids rather than trapping them. For a tower on marginal water, this is usually the correct answer.
We supply components for cooling towers from every manufacturer, including towers whose original makers no longer exist. If it is on your tower, we can identify it.
What actually goes wrong
These are the failures we find in the field, roughly in order of how often we find them. If you recognize one, we can usually tell you what to check next over the phone.
| Failure | What it means |
|---|---|
| Fouling and scaling | Deposits fill the flutes, reduce surface area, block air path and add enormous weight. Fouled fill is the most common cause of lost thermal performance we find. |
| Biological growth | Slime and algae in the fill pack, particularly in crossflow towers with open distribution basins exposed to daylight. |
| Collapse | Fill packs sagging or collapsing out of their supports, usually because accumulated deposits have made them many times heavier than design. Collapsed fill blocks air, blocks water and ends up in the basin. |
| Support failure | The fill may be sound while the hangers, grids or support beams carrying it are not. |
| UV and chemical degradation | Embrittlement at the top of the pack where sunlight reaches it, and attack from aggressive water chemistry or over-dosed oxidizing biocide. |
| Fire | PVC fill will burn in a dry tower. Fire-retardant grades exist and are worth specifying where a tower may sit dry with hot work nearby. |
Manufacturers and product lines
We are independent, so the recommendation follows your tower, your water and your duty rather than a single manufacturer's catalog.
Brentwood Industries
Cross-corrugated and vertical-flow film media in a wide range of surface-area-to-volume ratios, flute openings and sheet thicknesses, including large-flute and alternating-tip geometries for dirtier water, integral-eliminator fill, and mechanically assembled fill that is bonded without solvents, heat or glue. Also TURBOsplash splash fill for counterflow and crossflow service.
C.E. Shepherd
CES-190 cellular film fill in UV-protected PVC, nested for economical shipping, plus a full line of extruded PVC and CPVC splash fill slats (6" Centerlock, 4" V-Bar and 4" Gullwing profiles) with locking tabs that stop the fill rolling or walking under heavy water and air load.
Tower Components
Opti-Pac 1200 and 1900 film fill in rigid PVC to CTI Standard 136.
PVC lath splash fill
A rigid, UV-protected PVC profile designed as a direct replacement for wood lath fill in crossflow towers, resistant to rot, fungi, bacteria and the acids and alkalis found in cooling water.
Names you may find on the nameplate
Including lines that are no longer current. Many of the towers we work on are thirty to fifty years old, and identifying the modern equivalent of a discontinued component is part of the job rather than an obstacle to it.
- Brentwood CF
- Brentwood VF
- Brentwood XF
- Brentwood TURBOsplash
- C.E. Shepherd CES-190
- Centerlock
- V-Bar
- Gullwing
- Opti-Pac 1200
- Opti-Pac 1900
- wood lath
What we would tell you on the phone
Fill selection is a water chemistry decision.
Specifying the highest-surface-area film fill available is the classic mistake. On dirty or biologically active water it will foul, and a fouled high-performance fill performs worse than a clean low-fouling one. We would rather see your water treatment data before recommending a grade.
Standard thicknesses.
Film fill sheet is commonly supplied in 8, 10 and 15 mil thicknesses, with heavier sheet available. Thicker sheet costs more and lasts longer in demanding service.
Replace the distribution at the same time.
New fill fed by worn nozzles will not deliver its rated performance, because dry patches in a fill pack are wasted surface area. Fill and distribution are one system.
This is the upgrade with the fastest payback.
Because the gain appears directly in cold water temperature, fill replacement is normally the core of a thermal upgrade.
Usually replaced or inspected at the same time
Drift eliminators
Cellular and blade drift eliminators to control drift loss, plume and deposition: Brentwood CDX and C.E. Shepherd DRU.
View componentNozzles
Gravity-flow basin nozzles and pressurized spray nozzles for crossflow and counterflow distribution: Fisher, Dek-Spray and C.E. Shepherd.
View componentDistribution systems
Counterflow header and lateral systems and crossflow distribution basins, including redesign to correct uneven water loading.
View componentLumber & hardware
CTI-grade treated Douglas fir and redwood, plywood, and fasteners in 304/316 stainless, silicon bronze, monel and hot-dip galvanized.
View componentSend us the nameplate and we will identify it
The fastest route to a correct quote is a photograph of the nameplate and of the component in place. Model numbers get superseded and drawings go missing; photographs do not lie.
- Phone
- (713) 643-0691
- Shop & office
-
3811 Cedar Blvd Ste A
Baytown, TX 77523