DIY Chillers? Does the small fridge chiller work?

[charvatg]

Hi,

I'm sure this topic has come up on many occasions. Here it is again:
Has anyone had any experience with the dorm room fridge DIY chiller?

(ie you put a large amount of vynl tubing or plastic tubing inside of a small refridgerator and pump water through it to chill a small aquarium)

I have a 29 gal reef tank that needs some chilling, on the cheap. I have read mixed reviews about this method.

You guys have been a great help in the past on my previous chiller problems wtih the Azoo... thanks.

Greg

 

[Robin Goodfellow]

hi.
It works, but not very efficiently. It is not practical unless the tank is small, and not much heat is put on it (light, pump, etc.)

 

[trigger1]

It will bring it down 1-2 degrees.
I tried adding add'l tubing and slowing the flow down but watch out for the lines freezing.

 

[charvatg]

What about this more complex DIY chiller?

http://www.aloha.net/~hqf/indexjrosechiller2.htm

Anyone ever tried that before?

Greg

 

[charvatg]

What about this more complex DIY chiller?

http://www.aloha.net/~hqf/indexjrosechiller2.htm

Anyone ever tried that before?

Greg

 

[Robin Goodfellow]

hi.
No matter how complex the DIY chiller is, there is so much it can do. It is fun and rewarding to make a DIY chiller, but don't expect it to do miracle in your tank unless you have a small tank.

Assume you hack it so that it is as efficient as a chiller with a titanium heat exchanger, check out the horse power of the compressor of the dorm frig... something like 100Watt or less than 1/6 HP? And they are not designed to run anymore than a few hours per day.