DYI - The Ghetto Chiller.

[MatthewScars]

It's summer time and this is the first summer ive had my 90 up. Looked into getting a 1/4hp chiller and saw the price tag. I am not a cheap person by any means, but $750 for a good chiller is crazy. So I am purposing the construction of the 'Ghetto Chiller'.

The plan is to buy a tiny tiny fridge (1.7 c/ft), and rig up a system to circulate water through the fridge into the tank. This will be controlled by my Ranco Dual Temp Controller.

Parts:

(1) Fridge (not confirmed) - http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/gear/6ad2/

(1) MJ 400 or less for the circulation pump

(1) Gallon plastic container for saltwater inside of the fridge

(2) Bulkheads

(1) Tubing / Ball Valve

Installation:

Drill two bulk heads into the side(or front) of the fridge. (Im not sure how the fridge is built so where ever i can drill it)

Fill the BH with tubing and a ball/gate valve.


Pretty simpe plan. Total cost looks like around $150.

Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions of this plan? Im looking for as much input as i can get. Once I get started, ill be sure to full document everything.

 

[Deanos]

Get a dedicated refrigerator. No need paying for the "heating" aspect if you don't intend on using it. Use as much RO tubing as can coil inside the frige.

 

[Deanos]

DIY Chiller

DIY Chiller #2

 

[MatthewScars]

Most of the 1.7cubic feet fridges were $79 anyway. Im paying more for the sleek look and digital display on the front.

Coiling is a good idea. Would it be effective in cooling the water fast enough? I mean verse my plan or having a 2 gallon container in the fridge? That way the 'hot' water enters the top of the container while the 'cool' water exits the bottom?

You're suggesting using the John Guest tubing? hm. Can I use a MJ400 for that? You can buy size converters?

 

[MatthewScars]

You went and ruined my fun Deanos

 

[georgelc86]

Matthew, you should talk to bob1000 i think he has or had done a ghetto setup like that before.

Deanos, always ruins everyones fun, especially after the birth of his child, probably not getting much sleep. Has to take it out on us. j/k mighty wolves.

 

[Domboski]

I'd consider adding a fan somehow. Just like the radiator on a car, a fan works wonders at cooling water quickly. You'll be circulating cooler air in the fridge so this should make it more efficient, Many Fridges now come with built in fans to do this.

Just a suggestion

 

[NYreefNoob]

or just get a good fan to blow across sump or tank, mine cools tank 3-4 degree's

 

[MatthewScars]

or just get a good fan to blow across sump or tank, mine cools tank 3-4 degree's

I have (4) 120mm fans in my stand. They do work to some degree, but if something happens or you can't keep your AC on 24/7 and the temp in your place hits 90 degrees, fans will only recirculate the already hot air.

I thought of just buying 10 fans, but again, meaningless if the room temp is 90.

Dom - awesome idea with the fans. I check out adding them to the Chiller.

 

[tosiek]

Fans blowing on the top of the water make for added evaporation which some people don't want. Also, its not gonna help as much if you open your windows on a hot day with the halides on. For smaller tanks it probably will keep it within range without your tank melting =0)

This morning i stopped into grainger and i got hit with the DIY chiller bug too =0) But instead of a DIY fridge im planning on building a mini air conditioner/chiller to fit inside the stand mounted somewhere instead of a box standing next to the tank. Still got alot of research to do.

Keep us posted on the fridge build. =0)

 

[markl17]

first the hose to and from the fridge never make them clear plastic, since it will collect all the algy in the world and clog up
another problem is calcium will began to clog up and
the air conditioner is much more of an idea then a small fridge in my experience, since fridge is not as strong but a real air conditioner with air blowing will be more than enough
and yes air circulating im:birthday:proves the whole situation

 

[greggnyce]

When I fisrt started reefing I built my own chiller using a water cooler I purchased at a flea market for 40 bucks. I basically used a loop of tubing and ran cold water through it. The tube radiated the cold and I used my heater to regulate the temp. I used a mj to pump water from the cold water outlet through the loop in the aquarium then it dropped into the collection bucket in the cooler. It looked like Frankenstein but it worked, I would not however do it again knowing if the heater failed I would kill everthing. The cold water never mixed with the aquarium water so I did not have to worry about the copper pipes in the cooler. I did this on a 24 gallon nano so it was easier to cool.

 

[jejton]

I once read a very similar idea on thekrib.net ( I beleive that was the address but if not, google the krib ).

 

[reefnhard]

i heard that these diy chilllers dont work as they really arent adequite

 

[emmanuel]

anyone ever think of getting titanium tubing and making a coil (like a drop in chiller) to place in the fridge that will probably work much better for heat transfer and the salt water will not effect it . I think my drop in chiller's coil is titanium.

 

[mmike1992]

i love to diy but i believe this is not one of them. the fridge would probably last one summer. cheap fridge= cheap compressor. poly tube is a horrible heat exchanger. the heat that the fridge gives off is going back in room (yes i know it would from a store bought chiller but it would run alot less because it is more efficent) . higher electric bill these are just some reasons it may not be worth it.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

I seen a client who fitted a portable AC inside the cabinet for the sump and route the exhaust to the half window.

I ask him why not cool the whole room, he said, too much electricity. Definitely an animal lover.:tongue1:

Fans blowing on the top of the water make for added evaporation which some people don't want. Also, its not gonna help as much if you open your windows on a hot day with the halides on. For smaller tanks it probably will keep it within range without your tank melting =0)

This morning i stopped into grainger and i got hit with the DIY chiller bug too =0) But instead of a DIY fridge im planning on building a mini air conditioner/chiller to fit inside the stand mounted somewhere instead of a box standing next to the tank. Still got alot of research to do.

Keep us posted on the fridge build. =0)

 

[juiceguy]

the reason why chillers are so expensive is that compressors are rated for continuous use where the compressors in refrigerators are for "lite" duty. a refrigerator compressor only kicks on when needed and only for a few minutes at a time. i have seen a set up where this guy drilled into the freezer section of the fridge and used stainless steel coil submerged into the frozen ice tray. he could never get the flow right and eventually bit the bullet and bought a chiller.

 

[MatthewScars]

Crunching the numbers, I think it will be cheaper for me to just keep the room 75-80 degrees at all time.

 

[SevTT]

the reason why chillers are so expensive is that compressors are rated for continuous use where the compressors in refrigerators are for "lite" duty. a refrigerator compressor only kicks on when needed and only for a few minutes at a time. i have seen a set up where this guy drilled into the freezer section of the fridge and used stainless steel coil submerged into the frozen ice tray. he could never get the flow right and eventually bit the bullet and bought a chiller.

See, I think the problem here lies with the fact that people don't realize this and exploit this fact. A DIY fridge cooler might work if you did a few things differently...mostly, operating it only when it's needed to drop the water temperature and ensuring that it has extra heat capacity -- or in this case, cool capacity. That'd be done by filling the excess space in the fridge that's not being used by equipment with a bag full of something -- salt water's cheap and readily available, but whatever they use in those freezer gel cooler packs would probably work better.

Then, you only run the pumps that operate the whole thing when you actually need to cool the tank. (Controlling a chiller via a heater is just freaking stupid, but it seems to be done a lot.) As to how to do that -- I was thinking that for smaller systems with a sump, an air-cooling system might work, chilling the air in the fridge and injecting it via airstones or a beckett or something into the sump. (This would have the additional effect of causing increased evaporative cooling, too.) Having a relatively wide hysteresis level might help in alleviating the cycling too, but I guess that depends on how fast your equipment pumps heat into the tank in addition to that coming from the environment.

If you really wanted to go nuts, you could have two or more of these and switch between them every few hours. But that's just getting a wee bit insane.