Water Temps=important Summer=warm

i turned my res into a cooler by wraping it with foam insulation board found at home depot for $20 keeps res nice and cool. i just drop a frozen gallon jug of water in and my temps stay bellow 70 for at least two days and its about 90 deg outside here

I tried... it didnt work. The temperature of the water just melts the ice in the block, faster than the little freezer can maintain the temperature.

The only other thing I havent tried, is to fill the rest of the freezer with 2 litre bottles of frozen water, to help keep the ice with the coiled tubes in it "frozen" but I'm pretty frustrated at this point as to the results.

guess I'm going to have to buy 3 chillers. fuck me.

anyone got some at a bargain price?
pm me!

YaK said:

I'm in southern cali... and it's god damn hot. res temps are always a big issue. I've been pricing chillers, and looking for bargains and as I was grabbing a beer from my little fridge today, I had an epiphane.

my little fridge/freezer, can chill my reservoires! we have the god damn technology. So, I went to home depot, spent 40 dollars, and I think I have enough shit to cool 3 rez's.

chillers are ridiculously expensive, and I had some extra pumps laying around anyway (who in this ballgame doesnt?)

so here are some pictures of the shit I have to work with...
I put the hose into a gallon container wrapped in coils. I filled the container most of the way up with water. (last picture), and I'm going to freeze it. Once it is frozen, I am going to put it into the freezer of my small little fridge, drill holes to run the intake/exit hoses to go to rez 1. and then I will monitor the temps to see what type of temp difference I get.

The fridge cost me 100 dollars, and it's pretty cheap to run, it'll cool my res's AND keep my beers frosty and delicious.

I should hopefully be able to post the results by the end of the weekend.

p.s. you can see in one of the pictures a 100 dollar "Ice probe" that I got off of ebay, it really doesnt make much of a difference of temp in that res... maybe 2 to 4 degrees? probably closer to two degress. The res that it's in is a 27 gallon container, but with the two 4" tubes, it holds about 15 gallons of water. I really hope that the small fridge does significantly better than the ice probe. time will tell.

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maybe you can try tweaking your setup a little more first. maybe try double or triple the length of coiled tubing in the freezer. maybe have a small computer fan blow on it in the freezer. spread out the heat in there and move more of it around.

Or maybe just get a larger freezer. You can get a used freezer for fairly cheap, like one of the full sized ones. Then you would be able to put enough coils in there to cool way more than enough water for the 3 res'.

bongrippinbob said:

Or maybe just get a larger freezer. You can get a used freezer for fairly cheap, like one of the full sized ones. Then you would be able to put enough coils in there to cool way more than enough water for the 3 res'.

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Lorenzo, and BrB... those are both very good ideas.

a big freezer would probably work, and work well, but it would be expensive to run. I dont know what the power draw on a chiller is, i bet the cost offset would be significant. interesting thought.

I'm thinking of a tupperware thing that is about the same size as my freezer compartment. I dont think I'll be able to cool all three rezs with it, but if I can just cool one, that would be fine, since I run the thing anyway. I'd like to make it work... I mean, I already drilled two holes in the side, I may as well try everything.

Oh yeah, I sealed the holes with that spray expandible foam that you can get from Home Depot, I dont know what the R value of it is... but it seems like a pretty good insulator.

check out current USA prime chillers. A 1/10hp or 1/15hp may fit your setup. They are fairly inexpensive on some sites.

If you defrost your freezer, and get a frost proof container that will fit exactly in the freezer space. Join up and pack as much copper coil into that container as you can. Have an inlet and outlet through your freezer, fill the container with water. Get stainless steal coils for your rez's. Join all piping, rez coils, and connect a low lph pump (say 200lph pump). Pump ordinary water through the system, keep two open ends of the system below water level (in a bucket of water) to get rid of any air. Join up the two ends of the system under water keeping all air out of the system so the water will circulate round the system. Now you have a system that will run freezing cold water through your rez's to keep them cool. If that doesn't work, get a bigger (second hand) freezer and make the system bigger.
Thans my 2 cents worth.
Hope it works for you.

A chest freezer would be your ticket, and insulate all piping between the rez's.

that is an excellent suggestion, thanks fitzy. You're suggesting essentially creating a closed system drop in chiller using stainless for the rez, and copper for the freezer. I'm not sure what it'd cost, but I think the biggest problem with that system, is my inability to regulate the temperature should the water get TOO cold.

at what temperature on the lower end does it negatively affect the plants?

i also got a good score off of craigslist, 150 dollars for two chillers, one working, one not. They are aquanetics drop in chillers, and they both have regulators, pretty kick ass. If I fix the one chiller, and get something to work with my little fridge/freezer, then I'll effectively have a chiller for each res.

I really like the simplicity of drop in chillers. Does anyone know of the pros/cons of drop ins as opposed to the chillers that pump your res water?

I was just thinking there that the first rez will be alot colder than the last rez. You could have a 3 branch manifolds on the inlet and outlet of the freezer. If you think your rez would be too cold, start off with large stainless steal coils in the rez, and keep cutting them down until you get the right tempertue. It shouldn't cost all that much to make that.

you can use something like car anti-freeze in the system to prevent problems with freeze-ups. then put a thermostat on the circulation pump. when the res is at the perfect temperature, the pump will shut off and keep it there.

lorenzo08 said:

you can use something like car anti-freeze in the system to prevent problems with freeze-ups. then put a thermostat on the circulation pump. when the res is at the perfect temperature, the pump will shut off and keep it there.

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Now we're sucking diesel lol (we're on the right track)

By the time you guys are done using copper, tiny dorm room refers, gatorade bottles, and whatelse you come up with...you could have just purchased a decent chiller and called it good!

I run the small fridge in the room anyway, keeps my cheap ass beer cold.

Price any chillers lately? I like having the good stuff, for sure, but the fridge was there anyway, running, so I figured it was worth a try.

YaK said:

I run the small fridge in the room anyway, keeps my cheap ass beer cold.

Price any chillers lately? I like having the good stuff, for sure, but the fridge was there anyway, running, so I figured it was worth a try.

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Have you started a construction yet?
I'd like to know how it would turn out for furture references. You could start a craze with a DIY chiller.

hot

YaK said:

I run the small fridge in the room anyway, keeps my cheap ass beer cold.

Price any chillers lately? I like having the good stuff, for sure, but the fridge was there anyway, running, so I figured it was worth a try.

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Yeah...I know what a good "Chiller" cost. But by the time you guys are done trying to reinvent the wheel...it's already been done.

Use the "jockey box" theory and make something cold (see below) and run the fluid through the cold plate. Just insulate the tubing from the fridge back to the tank to minimize thermal exchange.

Check this out...ya put one of these bad boys into your freezer then simply use a fountain pump to recirculate your nute sol through the cold plate. AND...Stainless Steel tubing...NO COPPER!!!

or you put it in a cooler and run hot beer from your unchilled keg through it and the beer comes out iceeeeeeyyyyyyy cold!!!

Check home brewing supply places. If you already have a refer/freezer that you don't mind cutting into then I think you can pull this off for less than $150.00



Cold Plates, Single Line Price: $94.95 Availability: Usually ships in 24-48 hours Catalog Nbr: 5114 Ship Weight: 16
Qty: Price: $94.95


Product Description: Cold Plates: Do-It-Yourself Draft box. Aluminum housing with internal 10’ stainless steel product line. Includes fittings and O-rings.

I like it.
Show us some pics.

You need the Stainless Steel model.

Aluminum will melt in salt water.

Earl said:

You need the Stainless Steel model.

Aluminum will melt in salt water.

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the 94.95 dollar model that corral hollow kid posted is stainless steel tubing encased in an aluminum block.

I think it's a really good idea, and in about a month, I will buy one and get it all fabbed up.

Great, post some pix for us please.