DYI Water cooler > to water chiller

basementdwell

basementdwell

New Member
ok just want to get the thread started but i am sure it gonna take me a couple day to get all the info written but i got pics to start. Well first out i ll tell u growing in pa out doors aint worth it so have to move inside. Well i decided to go hydro as i have had a couple out door and indoor soil grows and i wanted a change. So i chose to do a r-dwc in a 5 gal buckets. My ambient temp has been 74 with ac and about 75 in the bucket . Well as u know the higher the h20 temp the less dissolved O2 there is so i remembered that when we would go trout fishing the h20 hits 78 and their floating so i figured i got to do something as i have to move my grow to a non ac closet. SO on my home friday after looking all over the net to find a small h20 chiller and the best price was 160$. So i am driving home little discouraged i see a neighbor has a water cooler sitting at the end of the drive as if he was getting rid of it or about to have yard sale so thinking stop load it and do ask any ?s, Naa i walked up and :wood:, just wanted to know R u selling that or giving it away ? " sure take it " :slide::smokin: so i get home and start demolition to see if it works and so on. Well i come to find it has cool and heat and u use to be able to select between cold and room temp and the selector was inoperative , I assume thats why they were getting rid of it, well my gain as all i want is ac possibly heat in the winter.
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ok here it is a little mod done to remove the cup and nozzle area.

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and here is my b4 chiller temps

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i removed the upper portion of the coolers resv i wasnt plannig to use it with a bottle. Also you can see the hard pvc tubing is wraped directly on the ac coil and duct taped in place

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Next we have the inner resv coiled. I used 50' in all the coiling and taped in place

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This is a pic of the wraped coil and the coolers insulation kinda dont fit like it did b4 but its keeping so of the coolness in

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this is a pic of the disconected heat thermocouple. I am not using the heat function right now so i didnt want the cooler heating the element so i unpluged it and actually removed the thermocouple and spliced so extra wire into it and am using it as the cool side thermo and put it directly into my bucket to get the temp reading of the bucket vs the resv. the cooler is pretty smart and lets u set a cool temp setting so i raised it to the top which is 50 a tad cooler the i like but i plan to add my own thermostat which will cycle my pump as its needed.

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Next we have my present bucket resv chilled to 66 after 2 hr of consistant resv pump running not to bad seeing we started at 75 =)

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this is the actuall out let tem. at start the 75 deg water went in around the coil and came out 60 deg i am very impressed :grinjoint:



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All done and set to chill my water:thankyou::tokin:
 
wel had a little issue today. had a freeze up =( not to bad but i think putting the thermo couple in the bucket resv, instead of the cooler resv. i guess it always saw 65 instead of the 50 the cooler was set fo so it keep running and since the pump only cycles 15min every hr it gave the water in the tubing long enough to freeze. Plugging the factory installed thermo back the way it was. Also thinking of adding more tubing to the inside and maybe adding a air stoner so that ice cant form, Well atleast untill i can rig my own thermostat up. So since i got 2 buckets now i am gonna use the additional tubing to cool the 2nd bucket. I think it may be time for a resvoir and possible a smaller pump. was also thinking about going to these kinda bucket/brevrage coolers(see link lower). I do think the insulating will help esp when i light up the hps. and they also will be alot easier to drain with the oem fitting =) I fear drilling my buckets now, enough so that i still havnt put a water level checker. Can some one also post a link on how eff/ flow systems work. I know you you feed the line in and have a drain about an inch above the bottom. the drain feeds into the resv and the pump feeds the lines but how do you keep the bucket from over flowing or vesi-versa keep the resv from over flowing ? I am still comtiplating due to i dont want the 2 buckets mixing as they are on diff nute levels and risk of comtamination fro 1 to the other ??

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well had a issue with the cooler last night. i left it on and i froze the water in the tubing again. i guess the wrap around the outside of the cooler is to cold for it. Well if i were running the pump all the time it wouldnt freeze but i was cycling the pump 15 min on every hr. But was thinking of running a small cooler with a small pump all the time. Then inside the small cooler run my cooling tubing for my buckets. So the small cooler resv would house alcohol instead of water so it cant freeze in the tubing =) also it is a better thermal insulator then h20. Just hope my rain bird tubing is up to the task. i know the 20 feet for bucket #2 is chem restant but unsure of the rain bird tubings properties. well i guess this whole dyi is getting to be a pain rather then droppping 200 on a chiller ?? who knows i guess i like tinkering =) well i will update after the mods
 
I THOUGHT I UPDATED THIS, well since i didnt here it is since the summer weather broke here in pa, i ve had a chance to stop the dry ice and ice :) what a relief the dry ice was 99c lb and the bricks are around 10lbs. so it was getting costly. along with the ice and r/o water. any how i change from the 160gph pump in the cooler to a 225gph and since its pumping through 1/4 line its not great pressure but it doesnt ever freeze and keeps the cooler at around 55-60 the bucket pumps are the same 225gph pumps and they have about 20' of tubing in the cooler so i can get the bucket to a comfy 68-70 even with lights on the chiller does create a bit of heat but i seem to be doing great with it. cant wait to get this harvest under my belt and do some minor modification to my closet and get my ac unit in there and then i will be rocking. I also plan to move the chiller unit out of the closet into a chamber with the ac, so i can pump the heat up and out with out heating my closet.
 
ok had some acct problems but i am back just remember if you want to send me points or pm me make sure it has the 2 after (basmentdwel2) Some how the server for got my email so i couldnt reset my password :( i ve tried several time to pm the mod but to no response so i ve reregistered again. ok so i will get some better pics with a good camera.
 
Doin ok in there? I just would like to know one thing. What is the purpose for chilling the water???

My water temp without chilling is 65-70. Not sure why I would want lower. Could you please explain

And not to be a pain but, why would you use pvc and not copper inside the system itself. I see the black PVC coiled around the chilling unit. Vinyl is an insulator, so it doesn't allow for heat exchange which is the whole principal. Use coiled copper tubing inside the system and connect to PVC externally for best results. You probably wouldn't need 50' of it either if it was copper.

I don't mean to be a pest, just putting my 2 sense in.
 
well i am using hps and cfls as lighting which produces heat. My R/dwc buckets would hit into the upper 70s which can permote root rot and slime and problems over all. when i had the bucket in the ac room i was fine. But i had to move them into non climate controlled closet, which really builds up heat. Yes at first i had the bucket pumps pumping resv water through the chiller. but since i added the second bucket i didnt want any cross contamination, so i opted to go by way of cooling the external cooler and then having the buckets cool by running plumming through the chilled cooler. I also dont run the bucket pumps all the time, so when the bucket pump would shut off it would freeze the water in the line when i had the old set up. Yes copper has the best heat exchange but copper is bad for plants. didnt want to risk any thing. but now since i only circulate the water from the cooler probally wouldnt hurt. well hope fully this winter i get a break on the heat and get to save some $ to get a chiller, this one works but its big and i could use the space btw it also heats the closet too :( so i am planning to redo the closet knock down the wall on the left and get about 2 feet wider and some space to mount a chiller and do a 30gal resv and have all the bucket connected. But i am also thinking of doing a flood table/shelf instead of the buckets. they are way too cramed in there and draining and filling and topping off are begining to be a royal pain and the bucket lid/net pot leaks since day one, My dyi lid/ 6"net pot is to small for my monster plant but for my first hydro grow its going well and i got buds so must be doing some thing right. By all means i wish i could have stayed in ac till it was havested, I would have saved on dry ice , ice , freezer packs and all the hose that the cooler to chiller thing has used but leason learned :)
 
Understandable. I guess the heat created by my 250 watt HPS and my 400 watt HPS w/external ballast may be a bit much if it was in a confined space, but I'm in an attic and have a thermostat controlled exhaust and circulation fans that can refresh the room's air supply in less than 1 minute for those hot days, but overall the water stays 65-70 in the flower room and 60-65 in the veg room.
 
I'm sure I will have to do something to chill in the summer but may not be growing there anymore next year so we'll see. I will definitely keep this in mind.

Thanks for posting it.
 
basementdwell said:
i do have ventalation but probally not enough but without ac i was a gonner :) i ve tried the attic b4 and mine gets way to hot ;)
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thats where im at now it works fine in these winter months.. but summer months unless i run a a/c unit and reduce the overall room size i dont think it would be cost effeicent. atleast not like moving it to a basement somewhere.. i do like the idea of your chiller tho, as im in the market for one, and they are pretty pricey cheapest ive found for a 1/10 is about 350.. ive been asking around looing for a used one but with no luck.. altho i just missed a bid on egay for a nice 1/8 hp one brand new went for 175! 25 shipping! damn phone was late giving me the update so by time i knew i was outbid it was alreayd ended
 
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