Air cooled radiator

M

Mr.Rose

New Member
Has anyone here tried to cool a res with a radiator + fan. I know you can buy either an automatic transmission cooler or a copper heater core for $25-60.

I am considering running a line from the bottom of my res to a 2nd inline pump then to a radiator with 2 120mm AC fans then back to the res.

I used a standard transmission cooler in a pc water cooling project and was able to drop a hot cpu from 50C to 32C. I am just concerned if an air cooler radiator would be able to handle 12 gallons of water. My res currently gets up to 86F (26C) during the day as its usually 90F+ outside. I also already have AC dumping into the grow room and its pretty comfortable in the hottest part of the day. :(

Using (2)two liter bottles of water frozen I can usually maintain 76F with a 400watt MH setup at the moment for vegging.

Keeping plenty of hydrogen peroxide + oxygen circulating in the tank has prevented root rot so far but I fear my luck will run out and for future summer grows Id like to be prepared.

Eventually I plan to switch to 400-600watts of LED power but I figure thats still a year+ out.

:thanks:
 
Here Mr Rose , need to check this out DIY Cooler Reservoir

I like your idea but thats a lot of water to cool with a heater coil , Not saying that it wouldn't work, but kind of expensive.

I went to walmart and bought the Igloo Island breeze cooler, nice flat lid pretty much, Cut the holes for 3 in net pots and insulated the lid with the foam.

Maintains temps very well , Use chilled water when you need to add water to the plants to help keep temps stable or add a frozen water bottle once or twice a week, Works great for me.

My temps were 80 deg. and up and frozen water bottles wasn't cutting it.

This saved my grow this time.
 
Bloodshoteyes,

I do like that and the biggest point of interest to me is the insulation. My box currently has no insulation to repel heat or keep cold in.

I also gave a bit more thought on the air cooled radiator and I don't think I would need a 2nd pump.

Current Inline pump --> out of res to intake on radiator --> back into res --> into distribution hub.

On the radiator I am thinking of dual 120mm fans for a push/pull configuration. This style setup would cool the water going directly to the plants and also allow for one last cooling as the water drips from the net pots back into the tank.

I'm going to head out to the hardware stores shortly and see what I can find insulation wise for my res.
 
you wont really be able to cool the water any lower than the ambient temp the radiator is in.

If the AC has enough BTU capacity you could put the core in front of the AC.

Insulate the rez you have with a foam lined outer box and lid.
 
Snowbender,

The room temp itself is usually 70-74 so if I could get a constant res temp of 76F I would consider it a success but yes I will be looking toward insulation first and foremost.
 
So I went to lowes and overall had a pretty interesting day. Found a few items of interest.

I found some hvac installation with a R value of 6

Duct.png


So I decided to wrap the tank while eating a few of these.

white-fluff.jpg


Yummy white fluff :cool::trance:

Enjoyed a bit of

wild-turkey.jpg


Few hours later I had this finished result

insulated-tank.jpg


Very Enjoyable day and I can highly recommend the local fluff!
 
So far the temps are much easier to control. The reservoir is struggling to get above 80F with the 400watt MH light. Once I drop the res temp using Ice bottles, it will maintain the lower 70's for quite a few hours before beginning to slowly tick back up.

Now I did not insulate the lid and I believe that is still a major source of my heat. My lid currently only has a thin sheet of heat reflector on it.

heat-resistant_lid.jpg


So tonight I will be insulating the lid and setting the reservoir water pump to a timer to see if having it cycle on and off now that the roots are in the water makes a difference in heat.

Bubble pic I snapped

bubbles3.jpg


Picture of the babies

babies111.jpg
 
Last night I insulated the lid and it seems to be another improvement. After 9pm it was still 90F outside and humid...:shhh: and the tank held to the low 70s all night. 11am this morning and the reservoir finally reached 78F.

Here is a close up of what the lid now looks like.

insulated-lid.jpg


Heres a set of a before and after shots.

Before:
bare-tank.jpg


After:
complete-tank.jpg
 
I don't believe I will be needing a water chiller to keep the temps under control any longer. The insulation is doing a tremendous job and much better then I could have anticipated.

I am now finding it very easy to maintain the water temp between 67-75 all day long even when its 100F+ outside.

Thanks for all of your help! :peace:
 
Today I found a 1.6 cubic foot mini fridge. Also got some 3/8in copper tubing that I am going to coil up and insert into the freezer part then drill two holes for the copper to exit the top of the fridge. Next I plan to use some expanding foam insulation to seal up the fridge/copper ports.

I am going to use the water pump and run it to the copper coil, then back to the irragation hub and out to the baskets.

So far I spent the following for a DIY chiller,

Lowes = $59.99 1.6cubic foot mini fridge

Home Depot = $6.90 for 20' of flexible tubing, $11.85 for 20' of copper tubing, $4 for hose clamps.

I'll post some pics once I am done :tokin:
 
Mr. Rose do you still have your water pump in the res ? If your roots are in the water take it out !! That will also help with your temp issues...:peace:
 
ol hippy said:
Mr. Rose do you still have your water pump in the res ? If your roots are in the water take it out !! That will also help with your temp issues...:peace:
Click to expand...

I have the water pump currently on a timer for 15min on / 15min off . The HID lamp is just slowly heating the water even with an insulated tank.

I am getting ready to leave town for 2 or 3 days and I'd rather not have to worry about the temps any longer. I am going to at least try a DIY water chiller and get it dialed in this week before I depart.

Also I am just to lazy to keep adding 2L ice bottles :cool:
 
If your roots are in the water you don't need to supply water to the rockwool !
 
ol hippy,

I ended up disconnecting the irrigation hub as it wasn't really needed as you said. I did still build the chiller :)

Here are the pics, enjoy. Tomorrow I'll explain it better if anyone has any questions. This project really did not take long at all.

fridge-open.jpg


fridge-temp.jpg


fridge-coil.jpg


Now in the next picture you will see that I just ran the hoses above the water level and left the submersible pump in the reservoir. Tomorrow I plan to insult the hoses so that the cold temps are maintained and so that light won't reach the water for prolonged periods.

HOSES.jpg


Here is the chilled water returning to the reservoir. It has plenty of pressure to me, I might try and restrict it a bit more so that the hot water stays in the coil longer but I will figure that out once I start to dial it in.

chilled-water.jpg
 
I haven't had to lift a finger and my temps are around 68.44F at this time. So far it seems to be a success!

My plants seem to be loving the constantly chilled water. Some reason they just look happy to me :)
 

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