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Racks and enclosures

Rack hygiene

Cut cooling costs and prevent overheating with better rack hygiene.

Rack hygiene reduces cooling costs, improves airflow efficiency, and protects your critical IT equipment from overtemperature events.

Modern racks do more than house servers and switches — they are central to airflow management in today’s data center. As IT density increases, so does heat output. Without proper airflow control, inefficiencies compound quickly, leading to hot spots, wasted energy, and potential equipment failure.

It’s time to treat airflow as infrastructure — not an afterthought.

Check out our whitepaper

What is rack hygiene?

Rack hygiene is the practice of identifying, analyzing, and eliminating airflow leaks within and around IT enclosures.

It ensures:

  • Cool air reaches equipment intakes
  • Hot exhaust air does not recirculate
  • Cooling supply and demand stay balanced
  • Airflow openings are sealed and managed

When rack-level airflow is optimized, the entire cooling strategy performs better.

The rack hygiene process

Effective rack hygiene follows a structured approach:

1. Identify

Locate airflow leaks, open U spaces, cable gaps, and bypass routes.

2. Analyze

Measure airflow performance and establish a cooling baseline.

3. Repair

Seal openings, install blanking panels, manage cables, and correct containment gaps.

4. Quantify Airflow Leakage

Confirm improvements through testing and airflow measurement.

5. Benchmark

Validate performance gains and optimize ongoing containment strategy.

Cooling should be measured — not guessed.

Tripp Lite series SmartRack 42U Standard-Depth

Why rack hygiene matters more than ever

As virtualization and hardware consolidation continue to increase rack density, maintaining proper rack hygiene has become more important than ever. Higher densities lead to rising heat loads, larger cable volumes, and more frequent airflow obstructions, all of which contribute to cooling inefficiencies. When airflow isn’t properly managed, hot air can mix with supply air, reducing equipment efficiency and forcing cooling systems to work harder than necessary. This not only drives up energy costs but also increases the risk of hardware failure. In short, poor airflow management has a direct impact on both uptime and operating expenses, making effective rack hygiene essential for reliable data center performance.

Server racks, enclosures & thermal management resources

Explore industry-leading thermal management solutions.

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The 5 most common airflow problem areas

Addressing these issues can significantly improve cooling efficiency:

• Open U spaces without blanking panels
• Poor cable routing blocking airflow
• Unsealed cable openings
• Rear air recirculation
• Incomplete hot aisle/cold aisle containment

Optimized enclosures integrated into containment systems can reduce energy usage by up to 35%.

Business benefits of proper rack hygiene

Adopting a smart rack containment strategy enables:

✔ Elimination of hot spots
✔ Improved equipment performance
✔ Reduced energy waste
✔ Balanced cooling supply and demand
✔ Extended equipment lifespan
✔ Efficient utilization of existing cooling capacity
✔ Elimination of stranded physical and electrical capacity
✔ Increased rack density without expanding footprint

Eaton is an intelligent power management company dedicated to improving the quality of life and protecting the environment for people everywhere. We are guided by our commitment to do business right, to operate sustainably and to help our customers manage power ─ today and well into the future. By capitalizing on the global growth trends of electrification and digitalization, we’re accelerating the planet’s transition to renewable energy and helping to solve the world’s most urgent power management challenges.
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