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 Tank333
Psychotic Hippie
 
Registered: 08/19/10
Posts: 1,241
Loc: Washington
Last seen: 4 years, 10 months
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 Chest freezer water chiller?? 
#622907 - 05/16/12 01:08 AM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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Hey, so I'm trying to figure out how to fix my heat problem. My reservoirs are just getting WAAAYY too warm. When I checked the temp last week, it was at 85! At that point, I immediately began freezing jugs of water to drop in there and cool it down. Unfortunately, I can't freeze the water fast enough to keep it anywhere within acceptable temps.
So here's my idea on making a MacGuyvered water chiller: I want to pick up a chest freezer, and fill it with brine. Chill that to about 20 degrees, and then figure out a way to attach the reefer coil that my dad's giving to me. Probably drill holes in the lid and attach hoses to it that way.
Eventually, I'm going to need to chill 3 different 55 gallon reservoirs. I'm hoping that once I get the first one set up and cooling the rez well enough, I'll be able to set up two more in the same freezer and cool all three reserviors with pipe coils in the chest.
I have a freezer right now that we paid $40 for that I'm thinking about repurposing for this cause. We use it a lot, so I figure we could get a larger one and my wife will let me use this for my experiments...
What do you DIY'ers think?? Is this something that would be worth the effort? And would it be cost efficient for the energy the freezer uses?
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My best run so far
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 Hawksresurrection
Registered: 12/04/08
Posts: 13,464
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 Re: Chest freezer water chiller?? [Re: Tank333]
#622929 - 05/16/12 02:57 AM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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I think the freezer would work just fine. It's basically a do it yourselfer. Those water chillers are super spendy, so anyway you can save some money sounds good to me man.
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Dude she isn't as young as she use to be.
-niteowl
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kyuzo
Stranger Than Fiction
Registered: 07/05/10
Posts: 981
Last seen: 11 years, 10 months
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if you search around on reefing forums, or even ones dedicated to keeping caudates, you should be able to track down some diy chiller techs. Usually though, they seem to significantly under perform compared to commercial untis
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Tank333
Psychotic Hippie
Registered: 08/19/10
Posts: 1,241
Loc: Washington
Last seen: 4 years, 10 months
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Re: Chest freezer water chiller?? [Re: kyuzo]
#622963 - 05/16/12 07:24 AM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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Forums dedicated to keeping "Caudates"? What's that? Lol.
And I'm sure it would under-perform compared to a commercial unit, but who has a grand+ to drop on a chiller?? Lmao
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My best run so far
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kyuzo
Stranger Than Fiction
Registered: 07/05/10
Posts: 981
Last seen: 11 years, 10 months
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Re: Chest freezer water chiller?? [Re: Tank333]
#622966 - 05/16/12 07:53 AM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Tank333 said:
Forums dedicated to keeping "Caudates"? What's that? Lol.
http://www.caudata.org/forum/tags/caudates.html
Quote:
Tank333 said:And I'm sure it would under-perform compared to a commercial unit, but who has a grand+ to drop on a chiller?? Lmao
you can find cheaper units than that, especially if you're only trying to cool 55 gallons. Though they will still run a few hundred bucks
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Tank333
Psychotic Hippie
Registered: 08/19/10
Posts: 1,241
Loc: Washington
Last seen: 4 years, 10 months
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Re: Chest freezer water chiller?? [Re: kyuzo]
#622970 - 05/16/12 09:00 AM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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and that's a few hundred more than I've got to work with at the moment... between having a partner. That refuses to help buy equipment and being on unemployment myself, I barely have enough to scrape buy, much less drop a bunch of cash on a chiller.
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My best run so far
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Hawksresurrection
Registered: 12/04/08
Posts: 13,464
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Re: Chest freezer water chiller?? [Re: Tank333]
#623009 - 05/16/12 12:37 PM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Tank333 said:
and that's a few hundred more than I've got to work with at the moment... between having a partner. That refuses to help buy equipment and being on unemployment myself, I barely have enough to scrape buy, much less drop a bunch of cash on a chiller.
What a dick. Well I guess he'll learn the hard way by you not yielding as much as you could otherwise.
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Dude she isn't as young as she use to be.
-niteowl
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Tank333
Psychotic Hippie
Registered: 08/19/10
Posts: 1,241
Loc: Washington
Last seen: 4 years, 10 months
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Yea, I keep telling him there's stuff I need and he keeps blowing it off as me over-reacting. He knows that our first and only run was in the winter when I could use the VERY cold air for cooling... I was lucky as. Fuck my rez didn't have heat problems then, but now I gotta figure out how to cool the room and the rez's...
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My best run so far
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Tank333
Psychotic Hippie
Registered: 08/19/10
Posts: 1,241
Loc: Washington
Last seen: 4 years, 10 months
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Re: Chest freezer water chiller?? [Re: Tank333]
#624030 - 05/23/12 12:40 PM (12 years, 5 months ago) |
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So, its a go with the chiller idea. I'm on my way now to pick up a used stand-up freezer for $35, and that's going to replace the chest freezer as the house's cold-storage.
After I get this, I'll have to wait until after this weekend to get the radiator coil and the two 8k A/c units that my dad is giving me in order to complete this project...
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My best run so far
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kyuzo
Stranger Than Fiction
Registered: 07/05/10
Posts: 981
Last seen: 11 years, 10 months
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Re: Chest freezer water chiller?? [Re: Tank333]
#624042 - 05/23/12 01:50 PM (12 years, 5 months ago) |
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you should heavily document the build and your results ( increase in electric usage would be interesting, as well)
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Tank333
Psychotic Hippie
Registered: 08/19/10
Posts: 1,241
Loc: Washington
Last seen: 4 years, 10 months
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Re: Chest freezer water chiller?? [Re: kyuzo]
#624043 - 05/23/12 01:58 PM (12 years, 5 months ago) |
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I definitely plan on documenting everything. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll be able to track electricity usage increase because we still haven't received our first electric bill here yet... lol
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My best run so far
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Tank333
Psychotic Hippie
Registered: 08/19/10
Posts: 1,241
Loc: Washington
Last seen: 4 years, 10 months
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Re: Chest freezer water chiller?? [Re: Tank333]
#624045 - 05/23/12 02:06 PM (12 years, 5 months ago) |
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I don't think it'll be much of an increase, since it only draws 5 amps at 110, so it can really only cost me about $40 a month, tops. And that's if it has to run 24/7.
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My best run so far
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KaptKid
Spaced Pirate
Registered: 04/20/08
Posts: 5,615
Loc: Bright Side of the Sun
Last seen: 11 months, 17 days
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 Re: Chest freezer water chiller?? [Re: Tank333]
#624159 - 05/23/12 10:38 PM (12 years, 5 months ago) |
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This should work good for you. Just remember that the water can not stop moving , it will freee in the pipes.
I did a 5 gallon bucket this way.
Good for small res.
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Child of the 60's, Tripping ever sence.
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