DIY Chiller Extra Cheap

[nosliwekim]

Just wondering if anyone has tried anything like this in the past or knows if it would work or not.
What if you took a pump, a good long piece of tubing (10 foot) and ran the tubing out of the tank, coiled up the extra tubing in a small bucket and had the loose end feed back into the tank. Then you filled up the bucket containing the tubing with ice water.
That way as the water passed through the tubing in the bucket it would get chilled down. Not something that you would want to use all the time but for the hottest days of the year it just might work.
Thoughts, suggestions or experiences?

 

[sato]

The only kind I have ever heard of is using a minifirdge and running coiled tubing through the freezer area. From what I have heard its very very difficult to keep a constant temperature out of that method though.

 

[nosliwekim]

yeah i think we both read the same article that way is also more expensive but i would think that you could control the temp as long as you were watching it closely and simply turn off the pump when the temp comes down enough and just run it off and on....its a pain....but have you seen those chillers? they're huge and suck a lot of wattage

 

[dmc888]

Thats a good idea with a mini fridge.
Maybe it wouldn't be too hard if the fridge has adjustable settings.
If it was on the cold side i think if you had strong enough heaters it should keep up the temp where you want it.
I would probably experiment with the length of the tubing also.

 

[dburr]

Your ice would melt fast. If you want to fill the bucket every hour......
Same with the frige, it would warm up and be "on" all the time. Their goes the electric argument. You would be spending the electric and not get the cooling.

 

[nosliwekim]

Originally Posted by dburr
Your ice would melt fast. If you want to fill the bucket every hour......
Same with the frige, it would warm up and be "on" all the time. Their goes the electric argument. You would be spending the electric and not get the cooling.
Do you have a chiller? Is it really worth the investment? Not that everything you probably have living in the tank living isn't an investment.

 

[pyro]

I think the bottom line with chillers is they all cost money.
Depending on how often you need to use it, depends on what type you need.
If you use it a lot, it's worht forking over big bucks for an efficient one. If you dont' need it, tape a window air conditioning unit in you stand and duct it to the sump.
...In the meantime, however, if you find an alternative let me know

.

 

[slock]

Originally Posted by Pyro
If you dont' need it, tape a window air conditioning unit in you stand and duct it to the sump.
.

That would heat your room up pretty good. Used to sell air conditioners, and hear funny stories all the time, someone would complain that it was blowing cold air but the room would never get cool, you would always have to ask if they had it in the window because some brain surgeon would put it on a chair in the room and wonder why it didn't work and leaked water everywhere, they need to dissipate hear to the outdoors from the coils.

 

[golfish]

Originally Posted by dmc888
Thats a good idea with a mini fridge.

Their just not efficient and wont drop the temp more then a degree or two. Most people I know that have tried em have no luck dropping the temp at all. I have read about people using office water chillers (5 gal bottle) with better luck then the mini fridge.
IMO, a chiller is worth every penny.

 

[dmc888]

Well when i do upgrade to my 125 or larger i will give it a try.
I have a mini fridge already.
If it doesn't work then it would cost me about 8 bucks for tubing.