Another international brand of cooling towers/evaporative condensers is marketing their product as if it is NOT a Confined Space or a Permit-Required Confined Space. For those who follow my safety rampages, know how this enrages me! As shown by the pictures below, this Cooling Tower is without question a Permit-Required Confined Space (PRCS); however, as shown below, one would never get this from their manual, and the lack of OEM labeling on the unit.
I will walk us through their flawed reasoning and marketing, and provide the facts as if we are having to perform the 1910.146 (c)(1) evaluation on this space (as I did this morning).