OK Here are the results of my DIY water chiller.

I have been growing in a cabinet for about a year and a half. Pretty good results in hydroton
Well now I want to try aeroponics. I got a larger cabinet and built a system out of a under bed storage container.

Thing is, I needed a chiller. I use a small res. Its actually the controller from a water farm eight pack I had drilled some holes in.
I circulate the water with a 180 gph pump.

Now I have posted this in my cabinet grow journal but I figured it was buried there and started a new post so people can find it.

First I tried the portable cooler. Low wattage thermal electric cooler.



I ran seven loops of tube inside and back to the res. filled it with water and gave it a shot.



I realize this is with no insulation and I probably could get better hose but I wanted to see what it would do.
It got maybe 2 degrees cooler. I knew that wasn't enough to continue with this.

I read a DIY using a small refer with tubing in it. Then one where a guy put the cooling tray right in the res.
I wanted to try that so I went on craigslist and bought one for $50

After I got the new small refer home I realized it was different then the DIY I had read.
The evaporator or grid was not on the back. I figured it was just inside the back panel.

I disconnected the thermostat



Then used my disk grinder to cut because I didn't have a cutting blade.



Then basically peeled back the case to find the coils were ran around the fridge.



I looked at it and thought "how the hell am I going to get this to work" I went this far, Might as well finish.



After cutting a hole for the cooling unit I slid everything out the front and left the system intact.



The lost my shade so I took a break until sundown. It was 97 degrees.

Then I took the res and set it inside the system and carefully bent the cooling tray inside.
It was still about 93 degrees outside but no direct sun.



Here is the back



I let it run with the thermostat set in the middle for about an hour.

It cooled about 4 degrees. The thermostat was under water and I didn't know if that made any difference but
I drained about a gallon of water so it set in the air. Then I realized I didn't have anything to compare it to so I
got a home depot bucket and filled it with water too. I set a thermometer it that as well.
I turned the thermostat all the way up, kept the circulating pump on and left them until noon today.

Todays outside temps are 101 degrees.
Here is the uncovered bucket of water temp 84 degrees





I really didn't think this was going to work, well I looked inside,




Then checked the temp. 58 degrees.





AWESOME! 26 degrees cooler without any insulation!
I am circulating the res with a small 180 gpm pump.

Now that is worth working with. Now I need to figure out out to insulate it.
I am thinking about sandwiching the coils between Styrofoam and venting the compressor somehow in the cabinet.
It is a sealed system so I cant extend the tube to the cooling unit and set it outside the cabinet. Unless I cut a 4x8 inch
hole in the side of the cabinet to fit the cooling unit through and then it is not very stealth.

But for those of you who have a grow room this will work well.
My guess would be in say a 10x10 room you may see a 5 degree increase in ambient temps.
But in my 2x4 cabinet with 2 foot height in the bottom I am afraid It will be more like 15 to 20 degrees.

I guess there is only one way to find out.


Oh by the way,
Here is a pic of the upper shelf of the cabinet I built. Totally stealth 48 by 24 and 79 inches tall.
I cut a hole in the floor for intake and made a window box for exhaust. I cover the build in the journal if your interested.




Here I am just starting some seeds. The aerotub is under the red tray. The T5 is just to get them started.
The HID lighting is one of those new Ceramic Metal halide 400w bulbs and Hydrofarm ballast.

The res will go on the lower shelf.

All comments, questions and suggestions are welcome.

.

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Waterfarm (completed) Cabinet to Waterfarm (completed) Nute Challange (completed)

LED/T5/400W Cabinet (completed) Dual Cabinet Build (current) Dual Cabinet Grow (current)

what are the temperatures like if you just turn the chiller off, but keep the water circulating around the insulated stuff anyway. far as i can see the bucket would be no way of working out a comparison. i don't know, i'm really really trashed on something that doesn't look, smoke, smell, taste, effect like weed, yet i'm trolleyed,

Hi Toker,

Good question.

It just so happens I turned off the cooling system and left the pump circulating the water about three hours ago.
I just went and checked the temp for you:

Home depot bucket 91 degrees
res is 79 degrees.
Outside temp's are 99 degrees.

So we lost about 20 degrees without the cooling tray.

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Waterfarm (completed) Cabinet to Waterfarm (completed) Nute Challange (completed)

LED/T5/400W Cabinet (completed) Dual Cabinet Build (current) Dual Cabinet Grow (current)

Huh?

I figure out a way to drop res temps 26° and I get one comment.

This must be the wrong category.

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Waterfarm (completed) Cabinet to Waterfarm (completed) Nute Challange (completed)

LED/T5/400W Cabinet (completed) Dual Cabinet Build (current) Dual Cabinet Grow (current)

It probably not that you put this in the wrong place... More that what you did looks rather intimidating. So you gutted the mini-fridge, and took the tray that would normally be for frozen shit, and placed in into the res? Seems simple enough.


Edit - Thinking about it though... The DIY section would be a better place for this.

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Everything I say is a LIE. I speak simply for amusement and out of boredom.
CFL Efficiency - http://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/...challenge.html

Hum, I hadn't thought of it that way. I am moving to aeroponics and realized I needed a chiller. After looking at prices of four to five hundred dollars I came up with this at a cost of $50 and thought others would be able to use it.

But yea, gut a mini fridge and put the cold shit in the res. with the attached thermostat you can control the temp and get the water colder then any $500 chiller

It really is simple.

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Waterfarm (completed) Cabinet to Waterfarm (completed) Nute Challange (completed)

LED/T5/400W Cabinet (completed) Dual Cabinet Build (current) Dual Cabinet Grow (current)

F'n Genius! Thanks for the hard work and posting all the pictures. This is going in the vault of great DIY.

So how are you planning to keep your rez at the holy grail 69 degrees? I just bought a chiller for 140 bucks new and you can set the temp to whatever you need. I looked into a lot of DIY setups but for 140 I can swing that. Good post

OH are you going to keep the compressor in the grow room? Good luck JR

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Roseman's DIY Bubbleponics-DWC Tutorial
Questions about Bubbleponic Growing Thread

Thats some ingenuity right there...

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