hey rfb or any other mad scientist types

seasalt101

Active Member
is it feasable to make your own chiller out of a mini fridge sorry this should go in the diy section i guess feel free to move...tobin
 

reefkprz

Active Member
definatly, get a spool of tubing and coil it many many times inside the fridge, hook up a thermostat for on off controll, (the more expensive the thermostat the better) use the thermostat to conroll a powerhead or similar device running water through the fridge.
 

reefkprz

Active Member
I would go with 1/4 inch inner diameter poly tubing, (you can get it at home depot or lowes). I cant reccomend a specific thermostat because I havent researched wich would be best for this project. maybe some one else who has made one can chime in. I do know the more coils you put inside the fridge the more back pressure you will get reducing flow but you will also make it cool the water more efficiently (50 coils will drop water temp twice as much as 25 coils will) when making the coils I would use a ventilated structure, make a basice frame work and notch where you want your coils to sit so the notches hold the tubuing in place, then start wrapping the coils around the structure leaving at least a 1/8th inch gap between each coil to allow air flow on all sides of the tubing and preventing the tube from insulating eachother, if you cant get as many coils as you want build a double structure (frame with in a frame) and you will get more than double what you can fit on the first frame as the second outer frame will have a larger overall diameter.
drill through the side of the fridge file the edges to remove sharpness, use either a rubber gasket or spray foam to insulate the hole after the tubing is through it.
Make sure you leave enough slack inside the fridge coming off the coil so you can pull the entire fram out of the fridge without disturbing the tubes passing in and out of the fridge just in case you ever need to do some thing either to the frame or tubing on it.
I also cant reccomend the pump you would need I havent looked into that at all either. hope this info helps a little.
 

reefkprz

Active Member
interesting. I didnt realize the size of the tank was so large. a mini fridge chiller would probably work for a small tank, like a 20-55g I didnt look at your profile untill after tobin to realize you have a 150.
ach I typed all that for nada. oh well. it was fun to theorize about anyhow.
 

reefkprz

Active Member
I wonder if an old chest style freezer would work? probably cost less in the long run to just go buy a chiller.
 

seasalt101

Active Member
that is the other way i could go (chest freezer) there i was thinking a quick connect (intake and output) on each end and then like 3 layers of tubing i'm thinking about 300ft per level of coiled tubing with a quick connect at each end and each level with an aproximate intake/output of 10-20 gal.per hour, now mind you i have not done any research as how feasible this is or if the numbers given will work they are just guesstimates...tobin
 

reefkprz

Active Member
If this got moved over to DIY maybe SCSI would see it his DIY knowledge is vast, and he could probably help you pound out the hard facts alot better than I can. Maybe you could request a mod move this over to equip and DIY.
 

seasalt101

Active Member
there is a thread that i read from him which is not good to hear he claims that he is a diy guy, he bought a chiller...tobin
 
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