The ice cold water going through the copper tubing keeps it cooler longer, copper also retains cool really well, it's one of the most cold retaining metals out there.

You could do that but it wouldn't stay cool as long, or won't work as well.

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That think kinda scares me.. You could make it soo much safer using a DC fan.. Accidentally knocking that thing could be bad..
Beyond that, you're dead wrong about your copper effect..
Copper is an EXCELLENT conductor of heat, it doesn't retain anything really.. Thats a good thing for this purpose..
Still though, copper to air like that yields about 15W/sqft*dT.. That means 15W cooling power per sqft of surface area per degree celcius temperature difference between the copper & air..
With your roughly 2ft of 1/4" tubing, you have maybe 0.1sqft of surface area, and your temperature difference 'might' be 5°C since the air has already hit the ice bottles/water.. That means you get max roughly 7.5W higher power with the coil, and it will thaw slightly faster accordingly.. If 2 bottles melt in 2 hours then you've effectively got a 180W cooler btw, so the coil will likely acct for 1-3% power & time difference..

doob it looks great an this is a great tut. i will plus rep you. also as reading through here and tryin to figure out a way to improve if any i came up with the idea of instead of using bottles use ice water. you could fill the cooler with straight ice and it should take longer to melt.

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what one wont do, another one will. check out my current grow.
http://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/...ay-better.html

+rep on this one Doobieus. Great job.

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The fan can't fall inside the cooling unit, I cut the top to account for that type of fan and safety lol, the fan's bigger than the opening there's no chance of it falling in. To make that fan fall in you'd have to push it in and force it to fall in.

As far as the copper tubing thing I think I might've confused the info with glass.

Thanks Nitro, I used the bottles because you can only fill it up so much because of where the vent is. Originally I was going to have the fan/vent both on the top. If the fan were on the top you could add a ton more water. Another reason for the bottles is that you can put salt water in the bottles and it won't cause build up on the water pump from the salts, and it stays cooler longer too.

Thanks Hunt, much appreciated.

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The fan doesn't need to fit in the cooler to electrocute though, there is too much water involved..

It isn't even filled up halfway, it's been running now for like a month. I've had no issues, and I have not gotten electrocuted. Thanks for the concern though.

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People say the same thing if you build a light too. lol If it was so true there would be a lot of homes burned down!

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Lol I'd be more worried about a DIY light rather than a DIY cooler that's for damn sure lol.

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Thats only because you don't understand that its the mains potential, not the device that carries the risk..