Commissioning & Troubleshooting
When your commissioning test fails and the manufacturer has disappeared, we've got 10+ years of experience getting BWMS back to work.
Stuck with a system that won't pass commissioning
After your retrofit is finished, it is time for the commissioning testing required by BWM.2/Circ.70/Rev.1. Sometimes that testing goes smoothly. But what happens if your system fails?
The post-retrofit reality
That commissioning testing is meant to verify your BWMS is installed correctly and operates as designed. In theory, the manufacturer or their appointed service provider handles it. In practice, many shipowners find themselves stuck with a system that doesn't pass commissioning and a manufacturer that isn't answering the phone.
Every manufacturer provides crew training. But that training happens as the vessel is leaving the yard, amid the confusion of closing up the hull, preparing the ship to go back to sea, and restoring order after the chaos of a yard period.
Where is the manufacturer?
Where is the manufacturer when the commissioning test fails? Is the problem that the system itself is not working? What if they blame the installation, or worse, the crew? Where can you turn to resolve the issues and get your testing done?
We work independently of any manufacturer. Our job is to get your system working, regardless of who made it or who installed it. We have hands-on experience with systems from all major manufacturers and many smaller ones.
Common commissioning failures
- Failed biological efficacy testing
- Flow rate not meeting design specifications
- Sensor errors and calibration issues
- Control system logic problems
- Piping and installation deficiencies
- Manufacturer support unavailable
How we get you running
- Pre-test data log review to identify issues early
- On-site troubleshooting during commissioning
- Root cause analysis of failed tests
- Corrective action planning and implementation
- Independent verification of system performance
- Documentation for class and flag state
- Confirmatory tests before we leave – with the approved instruments
Troubleshooting from the data
We can help get your crews and vessels back to operation quickly and safely. With more than a decade of experience testing systems on board and getting a BWMS back to work, we know how to identify why your system is not performing and to stop you wasting money on test after test with no hope of success. Often we can do this simply by analyzing the data logs from your previous tests.
Save money on repeated failed tests
Every failed commissioning test costs money: surveyor fees, port time, crew overtime, and schedule disruption. Find the root cause before you test again and you are far more likely to pass. Many clients come to us after two or three failures, and our job is to make the next attempt the one that succeeds.
- When a BWMS fails to meet the D-2 discharge standard, start by confirming that the result is real before changing anything on the system. Make sure you verify how the sample was taken and analyzed: was it representative? Were the sampling point and lines clean? And was the method and holding times appropriate? Repeat the test if possible.
- Then compare the system's logged operating data for the ballasting operation against its type-approval parameters. Look at flow rate, filter differential pressure, UV intensity or electrochlorination dose, TRO levels, neutralization (where applicable), and any alarms or bypass events.
- Sensors that are out of calibration or have drifted are a common cause of a system that appears to be performing but is not. The same goes for worn consumables such as UV lamps, electrodes, or chemical supplies.
- If the equipment and data are in order, look at the conditions around the system. Water quality factors like high turbidity, low UV transmittance, low salinity, or cold water can reduce treatment effectiveness and may be outside the system's approved design limitations. Sediment, biofilm, or regrowth in tanks and piping can allow organisms to bypass or avoid treatment, so check tank condition and cleaning history.
- Do not discharge ballast water that has not been verified as compliant. Record the findings in the ballast water record book and engage the OEM of your BWMS as soon as possible, and make sure you consult your flag administration and the local port state on contingency options. Document each step taken and keep the full data record. It supports the investigation and shows due diligence to inspectors.
Troubleshooting a BWMS that isn't meeting discharge requirements
Before anyone changes a setting or orders a part, work through these five checks in order. Most of them can be done from the data logs, without a site visit.
Frequently Asked Questions
- No. Hold the ballast water onboard until the cause is identified and the water is verified as compliant. Contact your flag administration, class society, and the port state, and follow your ballast water management plan and contingency guidance.
- Repeat the sample at the correct sampling point, using clean equipment and proper handling, and compare the result against the system's logged operating data. If the logs show normal operation but the sample fails, check the sampling procedure, the sampling point, and the analysis method.
- Follow the manufacturer's maintenance and sensor calibration schedule, replace consumables on time, and review operating data regularly rather than only after a failure. Training crew on the system's alarms and limits also helps catch problems before a discharge.
The hidden costs of poor BWMS maintenance are the ones that never appear on the maintenance budget: failed or repeated compliance tests, delayed or restricted ballast operations, extended port stays, port state control deficiencies, accelerated wear on components, and time lost chasing problems that could have been caught early.
The costs quietly add up quickly:
- Off-hire and delay when ballast operations are restricted or a system cannot be relied on.
- Emergency parts shipments and technician call-outs, both at higher cost than planned maintenance.
- Shortened component life when consumables and filters are run past their limits.
- Port state control findings, which can lead to detention, public deficiency records and charterer concern.
- Weak warranty claims, because gaps in logs and maintenance records make the manufacturer's responsibility hard to prove.
- Crew time spent on workarounds and repeated alarms.
A system with drifting sensors, worn UV lamps or electrodes, or a clogged filter may keep running while quietly moving outside its approved operating range. The first sign is often a failed commissioning or compliance test, which means paying for another test, a service visit from the manufacturer and quite possibly a delayed sailing.
Planned maintenance, calibration on schedule and regular review of operating data is always cheaper than dealing with failures. If your system has already failed a test, our commissioning and troubleshooting support can find the root cause before you pay for another one.
The most common operational pitfalls in ballast water treatment are running the system outside its design limits, ignoring or bypassing alarms, letting sensors drift out of calibration, and operating with a crew that was never trained on the equipment. Ship owners often treat these as separate faults, but they compound: a drifting sensor hides a dosing problem, a silenced alarm hides the drifting sensor, and an untrained crew cannot tell the difference.
Other frequent pitfalls are running above rated flow, restrictive piping or fouled filters, poor engine-room ventilation that overheats equipment, operating in salinity, temperature or turbidity beyond the system's design limits (challenging water), and operating procedures that do not match the ship's Ballast Water Management Plan or Ballast Water Record Book. Simplify Ballast finds most of these before they become a failed commissioning test or a port state control deficiency, because the warning signs are almost always visible in the system's data logs and during an on-site survey.
Ballast water treatment systems fail to meet the IMO D-2 standard mainly because they are operated or maintained outside the conditions they were approved for, not because the technology cannot work. The usual causes are challenging water (high turbidity, low UV transmittance, or salinity and temperature outside design limits), flow above rated capacity, clogged or damaged filters, aging or fouled UV lamps and electrodes, dosing or neutralization faults, and sensors that no longer read correctly.
A second group of failures comes from the test rather than the treatment: samples taken at the wrong point or held too long, or an indicative analysis tool that reads differently from the full laboratory method. The D-2 standard allows fewer than 10 viable organisms per cubic metre at 50 micrometres and larger, fewer than 10 per millilitre between 10 and 50 micrometres, and sets limits for the indicator microbes toxicogenic Vibrio cholerae, E. coli and intestinal enterococci. Simplify Ballast separates real treatment failures from sampling and sensor problems by comparing the system's data logs with the test results, so owners fix the right thing the first time.
Hiring a third-party expert for ballast water treatment commissioning is worth it in most cases, because commissioning is when installation defects, wrong settings and untrained crews are cheapest to fix, and the results decide whether the ship can be certified. Since 1 June 2022, Regulation E-1 of the BWM Convention has required a commissioning test at the initial survey of a new ship and at the installation survey of an existing ship, following BWM.2/Circ.70/Rev.1, with sampling and analysis independent of the BWMS manufacturer or supplier.
An independent expert protects the owner by reviewing the installation and test plan beforehand, checking sampling points and procedures, and confirming sensor calibration, so the report is complete and accepted by the class surveyor. Poorly run tests lead to incomplete reports, repeat testing and, worse, a passing report that hides a system that is not working. Simplify Ballast sells no equipment and takes no manufacturer referral fees, so its advice stays aligned with the owner. A simple single-system installation at a proven yard may not need a full-time presence, but the plan and results should still get an independent review.
The typical cost of a ballast water treatment system commissioning survey has no single standard figure, because it depends on the number and size of the systems, the port or shipyard where the test is carried out, the sampling and analysis method and laboratory used, and whether a retest is needed. Owners should ask for itemized quotes that separate the testing laboratory, travel and logistics, independent oversight and the class survey, rather than comparing one lump sum.
The largest avoidable cost is a failed or incomplete test, which means a repeat visit, delayed certification and possible off-hire, so modest preparation usually costs less than a retest. Simplify Ballast can review a quote and the test plan before you commit and tell you what your ship actually needs. Contact Simplify Ballast for a vessel-specific estimate.
Need Commissioning Help?
Tell us about your system and the issues you are facing, and we'll start diagnosing from your test data.