Cooling Wednesday is about performance, protection, and proof. Trace Blackmore invites the Nation to get hands-on with cooling equipment and share field photos while offering a practical reminder: learn to navigate the chiller's user interface—because it's your fastest route to actionable diagnostics, documentation, and energy impact.

Reading the Chiller UI—From Intimidation to Insight

Modern microprocessor interfaces reveal real-time and historical data that matter to heat transfer: temperatures, loading, and power trends. If you've avoided the panel out of fear of "shutting something down," ask a chiller tech to walk you through the specific unit on site. Once comfortable, log key parameters on every visit and use the trend history to spot changes before they become outages.

Proving Value with Clean Heat Transfer and Measured Energy

For new or troubled accounts, record energy use during dirty conditions, then maintain the same measurements as the system is cleaned and stabilized. Month-over-month comparisons at similar loads become hard proof that treatment quality translates to lower operating costs—and that contract value aligns with measurable savings.

Cooling Wisdom from the Field

Guest greetings highlight real-world lessons: avoid shipping sample bottles in flimsy packaging (they're heavier full than empty), respect the complexity of cooling treatment by breaking it into critical actions, and remember that underfeeding biocides invites biofilm—and problems like foaming—while proper dosing and verification (e.g., dip slides) restores stability.

Celebrate—and Document

Share your favorite cooling tower or chiller photo with #IWW25 and #ScalingUPH2O. Then, turn celebration into discipline: capture UI data, maintain trend logs, and use the numbers to defend decisions, budgets, and results.

Listen to the full conversation above. Explore related episodes below. Stay engaged, keep learning, and continue scaling up your knowledge!

Timestamps

02:01 — Kicking off Cooling Wednesday and the #IWW25 photo invite (show your cooling towers/chillers). Why it matters: community learning and pride in craft.

03:22 — Why cooling matters: performance, protection, livability. Why it matters: framing the operational stakes of heat transfer.

03:46 — Willis Carrier's 1902 humidity control origin story. Why it matters: cooling began as a manufacturing quality solution.

09:54 — Guest greeting: Juan Menezes (Nalco Water, an Ecolab company) on a low-pH excursion and recovery. Why it matters: pH control and response discipline.

11:13 — Guest greeting: Michael Lowenstein (QLabs) PSA on shipping Legionella samples securely. Why it matters: sample integrity = valid data.

12:22 — Guest greeting: Mike Standish (Radical Polymers/MFG) on complexity, simplifying actions, and predictive AI. Why it matters: clarity first; analytics next.

17: 11 – Detective H2O: The Case of Unwanted Foam Party

29:20 — Wrap: keep celebrating; post your cooling equipment; Wastewater Thursday is next. Why it matters: momentum through the week.

Connect with Juan Meneses

Phone: 337.309.9619

Email: [email protected]

Website: Reinventing the Way Water is Managed | Nalco Water

LinkedIn: Juan A. Meneses | LinkedIn

Connect with Michael Loewenstein

Phone: +1 513 207 4943

Email: [email protected]

Website: Scientific Consulting for Q Labs LLC

LinkedIn: Michael Loewenstein | LinkedIn

Connect with Mike Standish

Phone: 423.316.9877

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.radicalpolymers.com

mfgchemical.com

LinkedIn: in/mike-standish-7890627

Links Mentioned

AWT (Association of Water Technologies)

Scaling UP! H2O Academy video courses

Submit a Show Idea

The Rising Tide Mastermind

014 The One with Mike Standish

176 The One About Tagged Polymer Technologies

350 Polymer Perspectives: Understanding Copolymer Innovations in Water Treatment

377 Future of Legionella Monitoring: Strategies for Employing qPCR in a WMP

405 Cooling Water Innovation: Harnessing Wastewater for Sustainability

418 Maleic Acid-Based Corrosion Inhibitors: Expanding the Water Treatment Toolbox with Mike Standish