DYI Water cooler > to water chiller

Just wondering do you think a Coleman ThermoElectric Cooler could be re-appropriated for use as a chiller? It's basically an electric cooler. It keeps everything 10 degrees below room temp. and you just plug it in...What do you think? I mean I'm sure it can but would you have to dismantle it and assemble it different or could you just cut holes in it and use grommets for input/output lines? Or do you think that wouldn't work because I'm not sure where the internal components are located. Probablly in the sides and bottom but what about the top/door (if you sit it like a regular cooler it's the top/ it you sit it up like a mini fridge its the door)?
 
i am sure u could use it. basically u would have to coil some tubing around the inside of the cooler along the walls like i did. Some will say copper tubing, i preferred to use drip tubing as copper ions can mess with some nutes. then once u have lined the cooler then add some liquid into it as this will help with maintaining the temp. From the looks of it the cooler are priced the same as the water cooler and mini fridges. If i were to do it again, i would probably go with the dorm fridge and either wrap the tubing around the freezer tray. one thing u must do is get a good enough pump so that the water doesnt freeze in the tubing. one of the problems i had.
 
See I had htought about a dorm fridge conversion as welll, I wonder how stainless wold handle then nutes? I think ametal tubing wouldbe better as it gets colder than plstic
 
I didn't plan on using it to chill the res. I was going to make a DIY icebox and attatch an inline fan to it so I wouldn't have to run ac. And if the room is cooler the res. will stay cooler anyway in theory besides radiation heat and convectional heat but I line the outside of my rez with thermal insulation (silver bubble wrap) I was just looking for a cheaper way of cooling my room as a whole really...
 
ok then i would think it would be underpowered, IMHO. I would suggest a portable ac unit or do one of those window ac conversion to chiller. basically u remove the ac unit from the housing and stick the evaporator right into the ice boxs resv u would still need to have air flow past the condenser but i ve seen one of those 150$ 6000K ac units cool a 50gal drum for ebb bucket set up. it kept the drum at 68 deg and seemed to run minimally he had 5- 1000 watters daisy chained with air cooled reflectors, his ambient temp were 70-85 so not bad vs the cost of a 1hp chiller
 
Hi. Hope your still around. Im thinking about pinching your design. It looks real nice and I have access to 6 different coolers. I have a question. What size pump did you finally get your system work with. How many gph?

Thanks
 
well i had first used a 160 gph through 1/2 tubing and cycled it well that didnt work cause the water froze in the line so i had to run the pump 24/7 and the 160 work ed great till i aded a second light. it will cool a 5 gal bubble bucket great but i am running 15-20 gal resv now so had to upgrade to a chiller :) but sill have my cooler for a spare bubble bucket project i plan to run the next run :)
 
I just spent about a week trying to conceptualize a rigged chiller of some kind using blue ice packs, coils, and pump, or even one of the thermoelectric cooling modules from a 12v cooler or refrig, or even a mini refrig that I could modify the cabinet on. There are many people building their own aquarium coolers as well but they're pretty kluged up systems in the end. After looking for used chillers, coolers, and everything else I could think of, I finally broke down and bought a 1/10 hp Active Aqua chiller. Found a great deal on it at a hydro store about 100 miles away from me and since it will cool bigger reservoirs than I currently have, it'll be able to grow with me as I move up to bigger grows after moving to a new home across the country next year.

All of the rigged systems I could think of ultimately seemed to be potentially troublesome to build and implement, not to mention the potential for disaster causing errors like freezes of just not working well enough to make a difference. So I finally bit the bullet. Waiting for it to arrive some time this week so I can plumb it into my system and bring my mid light cycle peak solution temps from mid-high 70's back down to 67-68 like they were before this early spring & warm temps hit us full force last week.

I was advised by several 420 members that even though they're expensive, they're well worth the expense and that the girls in the system will show how they love it by really responding dramatically.

Can't wait for it to arrive so I can get it installed & up & running. :thumb:
 
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