Optimum would be to change out the cooling lead with a titanium one so it is reef safe.
The current system is not designed to be a serviceable line so once the line is broken or popped the coolant will need to be replaced.
To refill or make the system servicable you would need to soldier in a valve. Easiest way to describe would be to tell you to look under the hood of your car. there is a valve inline with the cooling system that is made just for this purpose. To evacuate and refill refrigerant for the car's a/c system.
Since the little chiller's system does NOT have a valve, one would need to be soldiered in place.
Again I hesitate to offer too much instruction on this since chiller function is dangerous if you dont know what your doing. Not rocket science but the chemicals truely can be fatal if mishandled. With such small amounts you would have to try quite hard to hurt yourself but never be careless with such chems in ANY amount.
Might seem like I am being a mother hen but I urge you strongly to do some reading and bring yourself up to speed with how each component functions before playing with these chems and systems. I found some rudementary diagrams of how it all functions so if you can follow the course of how this all works together than by all means you can do this project. Just be safe
Diagram of a typical cooling system
The compressor compresses cool Freon gas, causing it to become hot, high-pressure Freon gas (red in the diagram above).
This hot gas runs through a set of coils so it can dissipate its heat, and it condenses into a liquid.
The Freon liquid runs through an expansion valve, and in the process it evaporates to become cold, low-pressure Freon gas (light blue in the diagram above).
This cold gas runs through a set of coils that allow the gas to absorb heat and cool down whatever if touching it. IE air, liquid, plumbing ect
Mixed in with the Freon is a small amount of a lightweight oil. This oil lubricates the compressor.
So this is the general concept involved in freon cooled systems
Parts of your Chiller I built.
The basic idea behind any chiller is to use the evaporation of a liquid to absorb heat. When you put water on your skin it makes you feel cool. As the water evaporates, it absorbs heat, creating that cool feeling. Rubbing alcohol feels even cooler because it evaporates at a lower temperature. The liquid, or refrigerant, used in a refrigerator evaporates at an extremely low temperature, so it can create freezing temperatures inside the chillers system. If you place your chiller system's refrigerant on your skin (definitely NOT a good idea), it will freeze your skin as it evaporates.
There are five basic parts to any refridge, chiller, A/c unit.
x - Compressor
x - Heat-exchanging pipes - serpentine or coiled set of pipes outside the unit
x - Expansion valve
x - Heat-exchanging pipes - serpentine or coiled set of pipes inside the unit
x - Refrigerant - liquid that evaporates inside the refrigerator to create the cold temperatures
industrial installations use pure ammonia as the refrigerant. Pure ammonia evaporates at -27 degrees Fahrenheit (-32 degrees Celsius).
The basic mechanism of a system works like this:
The compressor compresses the refrigerant gas. This raises the refrigerant's pressure and temperature (orange), so the heat-exchanging coils outside the chiller (the gridwork on the back) allow the refrigerant to dissipate the heat of pressurization.
As it cools, the refrigerant condenses into liquid form (purple) and flows through the expansion valve.
When it flows through the expansion valve, the liquid refrigerant is allowed to move from a high-pressure zone to a low-pressure zone, so it expands and evaporates (light blue). In evaporating, it absorbs heat, making it cold.
The coils inside the water (drop in) allow the refrigerant to absorb heat, making the water cold. The cycle then repeats.
