DIY chillers?

[FishWife]

There's something in me that resists paying $1500 for a chiller, plus the energy to run one. I dunno. I guess you just have to draw the line somewhere and this is it for me.

 

Anyone tried a DIY version?

 

I've read about these two ideas... or see any huge downsides to either one? Got any more/other ideas?

 

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/dyiprojec...ydonchiller.htm

 

and

 

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/showthread.php?t=71279

Edited April 21, 2008 by FishWife

[ErikS]

My .02 - option 1 is doomed to failure. I've seen it done on RC quite a few times, the fridge dies in short order. They are not designed for constant run. Think about how they operate, you put some warm stuff in & they cool it - you open & remove, not much of a thermo curve. Add a constant stream of warm water - asking it to cool a never ending supply of warm water? Too long cycles = death to the fridge. Also, don't forget - you can not remove energy (heat in this case). You can shift it, but it's still there. In this case it gets dumped into the room with the fridge....................which adds to the cooling load.

 

Option #2 is a take on what many do now - evaporative cooling, this one with spray. In the PC cooling world a tube with a fan and coolant is called a "bong cooler" as it often uses a PVC pipe. A google (with care ) should bring up designs. FWIW - Deltec uses this very apprach for it's "eco-coolers", ain't cheap - but then nothing they make is.

 

A link from the now defunct Deltec USA site

 

(check w/ Marvin re: current pricing)

 

Here's what I would call an interesting & effective DIY chiller. It's about as effective & low impact as you can get. No salt/humidity from evaporation, no moving heat into the room, not a ton of added electrical costs.

 

GeoThermal - for the truly dedicated DIY'er

[bbyatv]

This topic has been well covered here at WAMAS:

 

http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?act=...f=4&t=13691

 

Look for Dan's post. He is right on the money. A small dorm fridge will not work. I have tried it myself. The water flow through the air might work, but your evap will likely be large.

 

If you look at Dan's posts he talks about using a small window AC unit. This is likley the best bet for a DIY chiller. Any how check in with Dan as he was thinking about doing one.

 

I ended up buying one.

 

Good luck,

 

Bruce

[gastone]

I'm with Erik. Closed loop geo-thermal is the way to go.

 

I think maybe Justin is going to do this on his new system and future green house setup.

 

 

Option 2 has another benefit - more evaporation means you get to dump more limewater into your system.

 

Garrett.

 

Edit: I looked and I think I was just making that part up about Justin using a geothermal chiller for his new setup. Sorry.

Edited April 21, 2008 by gastone

[ErikS]

Dang - this one used to have a ton of pics, basically how to build a window AC chiller.

 

Chiller

[Highland Reefer]

1) I hooked one into an old full size refrigerator. The refrig. could not keep up.

 

2) I tried the spray method. It dropped my temp. down about 3 degrees. Not good enough. Works on computers though.

 

I ended up buying a new 1/3 hp chiller for about $600.00

 

My recommendation would be to buy a good used one that is not very old.

 

Geo thermal would be nice, but there is a large expense in installing tubing down in the ground deep enough to get results, unless your back is up to a lot of digging.

 

AC units eat up more energy than most of the Chillers made today.

 

My two cents.

Edited April 21, 2008 by Highland Reefer

[ErikS]

AC units eat up more energy than most of the Chillers made today.

They're the same, a chiller is an AC unit...........trick is finding a window AC that small.

 

Three degees wasn't enough? Yikes, now that's some heat

[Highland Reefer]

They're the same, a chiller is an AC unit...........trick is finding a window AC that small.

 

Three degees wasn't enough? Yikes, now that's some heat

 

Before Chiller my system was running at about 88-89 degrees. I got heat.

[davidm]

Evaporation worked for me for yrs - until someone went up into the attic and saw the results of all that evaporation (~25 gals/wk). this is my first summer with a chiller and a covered tank (evaporation 5 gals/wk) - and wish I'd done it sooner. David

[madmax7774]

you can get a really really good 1/3 horsepower chiller (Teco) at Blue Ribbon Koi for something like $899 i think? You would have to call them to confirm the price, but $1500 for a chiller is a bit steep. I have the teco 1/3 HP chiller, and it would have no problems keeping up with 300 gallons. I have had mine for over 1 year now, and I highly recommend them. I also looked into the DIY method, but unless you are an HVAC technician, I think it will just likely be a let down, and a waste of money. My chiller was the 2nd largest single purchase of my system, and It was a tough pill so swallow. Now that I did it, I'm glad for it. It gives you a peace of mind, and that is priceless.

John

Edited April 22, 2008 by madmax7774

[NAGA]

The evaporative coolers are pretty good if you only need a little bit of pulldown. If for example you have a 180 gallon tank running 3 x 250's this would be a perfect situation for a evaporative cooler. Really all they are is a wetdry type of setup that has a fan mounted to the side and blows air through. You might be able to buy a cheap used wetdry and modify it to house a fan.

 

Another option is if there were enough people we could do several as a group buy for a DIY project. If someone wants to start a thread on who might be interested in doing one of these we could gauge to see if there is enough interest in doing these. Chiller season is coming upon us folks. Something to think about. Besides a fan you would need some type of temp controller to turn the fan on/off as temp fluctuations demand it.

[FishWife]

THANKS for all the thoughts. I've read all the links. What about this idea?

 

We have a tank room. It's a converted mudroom: small with a door that leads to our garage. Most of the water in our system is in our tank room; all but the display. In order of descent:

 

Our fuge w/cheato (30g)

 

Our frag tank (45g)

 

And our sump (about 50-60g)

 

It gets humid in there and right now we cool via fans blowing the air around in the room and (on winter days) importing cooler air from the garage at nights.

 

Query: could we install a room/window AC unit up high over the door to the garage, and cool just the room, removing evaporated air and cooling MOST of the water in our system simultaneously? (Added bonus: we'd also plug the AC unit into our new AC III for automatic control.)

 

Whatcha think?

[Larry Grenier]

Not much of a teckie type here but...

 

Sounds like a good idea.

 

Summer: close-off the mud room from the rest of the house & run a little dedicated ac for that room.

Winter: Open-up the mud-room to the rest of the house to get the warm-moist air into your living space and cool-down the mud-room at the same time.

Edited April 24, 2008 by Larry Grenier