Chiller from mini refrigerator?

suzstephens · 05-23-2005, 08:42 PM

I'm thinking of making a chiller for my 125 by coiling plastic tubing inside a mini dorm-size refrigerator. Have any of you tried that? If so, tips? How well does it work?

wharyat · 05-23-2005, 08:52 PM

Here's a thread on something close to what you want to do, the thing is to use a large amount of tubing, 100' plus.

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=24771

Phishnoob · 05-23-2005, 08:53 PM

I did one but it is minimal at best. Geoff did something with titanium tubes and a water cooler chiller that is far better. The good news is that I can still keep beer in there, but the bad news is that water passing through nylon tubing with a horrid heat transfer coefficient in a water bath for a 90g tank off a crappy Rio sort of does nothing but pass the water in a loop. Doing it all over I would try and get some sort of water fountain chiller and use it.

Here is my effort:

VWD · 05-23-2005, 09:42 PM

I have never made one. but what I have heard is that they really don't work very well. I have notice lately that You can pick up a chiller at a pretty good price now.

AnemicOak · 05-23-2005, 10:09 PM

Here's a link to one on Geoff's site. http://www.aloha.net/~hqf/indexdonschiller.htm

I agree with Vince though.

suzstephens · 05-23-2005, 10:13 PM

As they said in the thread about the chiller made from window AC, not in my living room!

Up til now, I've just been using a window fan or the window AC in the pair of windows near my tank to chill it when necessary, but the new house where we're moving doesn't have a suitably positioned window. The window fan alone, blown towards the open canopy back, keeps it at about 80-82 degrees.

I was thinking of using 200-300 hundred feet of icemaker coil so that the water would spend a lot of time in the little 'frig. I'd love a real chiller but until we've moved and I can get restarted in business, I can't spend any serious money.

wharyat · 05-23-2005, 10:21 PM

I was just thiniking, if you pull the water from the tank down through the fridge and into the sump you could eliminate the need for a pump.

VWD · 05-23-2005, 10:25 PM

and That will give You a slow flow also.

Twitterbait · 05-23-2005, 10:30 PM

i was thinking of using a closed loop system using a heater core from a car in the fridge with a fan blowing through it for good heat xfer. then a seperate coil in the tank. i would use fresh water through the loop to keep from corroding the core.

wharyat · 05-23-2005, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Twitterbait

i was thinking of using a closed loop system using a heater core from a car in the fridge with a fan blowing through it for good heat xfer. then a seperate coil in the tank. i would use fresh water through the loop to keep from corroding the core.

That would work, but you would need a titanium (or gold) coil in the tank.

AnemicOak · 05-23-2005, 10:48 PM

For real temporary cooling maybe fill a cooler with ice cubes & run a waterline through it. Not a good long tern, but if you only needed it for a few weeks a year it'd work. Maybe.

AnemicOak · 05-23-2005, 10:48 PM

Here's the chiller Geoff made...
http://themantledmonster.thereeftank.com/chdiy.html

Twitterbait · 05-23-2005, 11:03 PM

I have also heard of coiling the air intake for your skimmer through a cooler so the air cools the water in the skimmer, but i have not tried that yet.

suzstephens · 05-23-2005, 11:03 PM

Maybe with lots of tubing and only a siphon from the tank, through the cooler and into the sump, it would double as a denitrification reactor

Geoff · 05-23-2005, 11:18 PM

ahh, must be spring. the sounds of everyone trying to cool their tanks as the temp get warmer.

not an easy thing to do cheaply. the window A/C unit is prolly your best bet. that gets you the biggest compressor for the buck. those mini-fridges are generally only 1/10HP compressors, not enough to do anything but nano's. most window A/C's start at 1/5HP. this just happens to be the same HP that commercial chillers uses.

making one like mine does work, is it worth it in the long run prolly not. the added electricity cost due to the longer run times of the compressor prolly do not add up in your favor in the long term.

that is actually my old one. i have a newer one that i made using a 1/5HP window unit, a 5 gallon cooler, Mag 5, and 100' worth of 3/8" vinyl tubing. it does a much better job than the other one.

the reason why comercial chillers are so expensive is due to the fact that they use titanium heat exchangers. if we were not trying to cool SW than chillers would be less than $200! vinyl makes for a horrible heat exchange, that is why very long lengths are needed.

G~