cheap and EFFECTIVE DIY water chiller

Ok.. the ref. is here .. I will read this thread in all its glory later and decide who is the douche' ....swift justice& sentencing to be held afterward..

Like watching two kids fight over a drunk slut..LOL entertaining!!!

Off to work,,, getting closer on the prototype light,, will keep you guys in the loop , and will ship you one Legal... asap

Ohh frogster. That is almost as good as an idea as using chicken wire as a SCROG screen. Lol

Sorry, I had to.

Wait till you see the next grow. "mega-SCROG". 3600 watts and 70 sq ft of back breaking SCROG screen.
Shooting for 6lbs off of 12 plants, 6 week veg.

does you still use your diy chiller? anything you would change or improve on?
i skimmed thru this thread not sure if this was settled but the fridge/freezer idea wont work you will burn it out and waste power running it all day. same thing goes for water cooler chillers for office break-rooms.

that people that brew their own beer do is buy a chest freezer and build a wooden "collar" so u take the top hinges off from the body build a frame and glue it to the top of the freezer and attach the top to the wood and that way you dont have to drill wholes into the freezer you drill the wood and they put their kegs and tap the wood for a at home beer bar. also the purchase sumthing called a freezer temperature control and connect it to the wall outlet and the freezer to the controller and place the temperature probe into the freezer perferable in a small glass of water to get the liquid temperature in the freezer and it will cut power to the freezer and so on keeping temperatures at plus or minus 5 degrees from your set temperature the controller is 100 and a chest freezer from craiglist or kijiji is 40-80 and then the wood to build the coller and i dont no the cost of wood. what you do is you keep your res in there with the probe in it and it will stay the same temperature or u can get the controller and attach it to your dehumidifier and your golden. your idea is pretty cool im a diy person and i give you a thumbs up

I found this temp. controller while looking for a stainless wort coil. I like the idea of using it with a freezer. So many ways to go. You could even put the whole reservoir in a big freezer, and set it to whatever temp you want.... Almost all 5 star reviews http://www.amazon.com/Johnson-Controls-Digital-Thermostat-Control/dp/B00368D6JA/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

hey legal so ive found a few threads from you on some stuff and you have had great ideas and even better input. So now I have a question about this seeing as I am interested in doing the same thing.

So first off is i read through the link you posted and followed how he did it. With his idea he has the cooler in his own box like how your using the cooler. But where he just adds water and runs and inlet and outlet to his tank you used the wort chiller to hold and circulate the nute solution through the cooled water in the cooler from the radiator on the dehumdifier ? Hope you follow me. lol.

I just want to make sure I do it the most effective way now that its been done a few times and people have an idea like you. lol.

Then there's the question of should i try a mini dehumidifier for the ease of just being able to keep its running instead of having to put it on a timer ? I bought a brand new 70pint dehumidifier I didn't end up needing so I'm going to return it and get a mini one depending how much new. Or I seen a mini one and a reg one for a couple bucks on cl i might go get instead.

I like the cooler just fine. I haven't looked through the thread in awhile to see what I put in here but I did purchase a tempwrature controller to turn the dehu on and off. It was like $60. Very nice unit that is fully adjustable for turn on, turn off, and dead band

I do not chill the Nute solution. I filled the cooler with water and added a little bleach to keep it clean. The water goes through the coils and comes back to the cooler warm and gets chilled and back to the coils

But, since it is winter. I just stuck a 20 gallon tote outside and use that water (which is cooled by the air) to chill the Rez. You just need a good pump to be able to lift the water up and out the window. Free chilling!!!
I would buy a SS coil and give that a try

Cheers

Ok so now I have a question or idea I want to run by you...

I have a brewery store like right next door to my house and I went in and they have copper wort chiller's. I have him looking into a stainless steel one but he's not sure if his guy has it or not and I forgot to even ask a price. lol. I looked online and can easily find one but just didn't have the money to order it.

Now I really need to get a chiller in my res and I don't have the time to order one. So I am trying to think of a way to either cover the copper or so other way to use it even till I get a stainless steel one ordered.

I'm going to go pick up a used dehumidifier this weekend and hopefully get a chiller built. My plants are suffering in the UC and growth rate is so slow because of it. It's killing me watching them.

I did this with a dehumidifier I had... It works, it absolutely does... BUT, and a BIG BUT, the heat put off by the dehumidifer (maybe just mine) increased my closet temp to 100 effing degrees... I had the coils in one bucket cooling that water and a tube going from my main bucket, through the chilled bucket and back, so no water got contaminated from the metal coils... All in all though, it didn't work for me, and dehumidifiers are LOUD AS SHIT... What I ended up doing is getting Ducting Insulation... I used it to reduce noise when I got HID's and a fan/filter, and used the extra to insulate my rez... Everything except the bottom... I now have air temps in the mid to upper 70's and my res NEVER goes above 68 degrees... The cold nights help chill it good to and the insulation makes the cold last all through the lights on period.

Yah but every dehumidifier is different concerning the noise aspect. Either way I'm not worried about noise. I run air pumps, ventilation,a/c, water pumps. lol. Only thing doesn't make noise are my lights and ballast's. lol

As for my situation though I run an under current with 4 sites. 13 gal grow mod's so I circulate 50 gallons of water through a 1300gph pump that's on 24/7. The heat from the pump alone keeps my res temps in the high 70's if I don't keep on top of it with 2L Ice bottles to get it to a hair below 70 and that's a lot of work for me. Like changing out 2 2L bottles every 8 hrs. Doesn't sound like a lot but staying on top of it is just another thing for me to forget.

As for heat I am running an a/c right now to keep my temps where ever I want but I plan on going get a nice 10 or 12 in fan to vent my whole room and it keeps it nice.

For the money to build my own right now and get my plants on track is worth what ever else until the time comes I can buy a nice chiller. Already have my eye on one.

Are you running any CO2? You can increase the concentration up to 2000-2100 ppm and the plants won't get stressed during the hot times until you can get the coil straight.

No I don't run co2. Plus I am having water reservoir temp issues. Not air temp issues.

The CO2 helps the plants deal with all kinds of heat stress issues, water and air.

#1.. don't put the chiller in the room with your plants. Pretty easy solution.
#2. Running above 1500 PPM is a complete waste of co2. Mine is essentially free and I still only top out at 1500.

I think I should also add that even with CO2, you don't want to be running those high temps in the end of flower.

Cheers.

That doesn't help me with my situation. lol. You went to his issue's and not my dilemma. lol.

I'm thinking of maybe finding a stainless steel box the coil will fit in so I can just pit it inside the stainless box and then drop that in the res. a little more work and pieces but if i can get it to work for now then Ill be happy to get my plants happier. lol.

Bend radiator into a cooler. Pump cold water through tubing and SS wart chiller coil. Throw the wort chiler coil in your in your return box or whatever the hell its called in the RDWC system. the "manifold" or whatever.

That's what I did when I was running an undercurrent. here is a picture.

lol. Thanks but I got that part man. I was just curious about some idea's using a copper coil because I have a brewery store like right next door to me and he's got a couple. Just doesn't have stainless on hand and would have to order.

So I was thinking of a way to use the copper one some how.

If if I can find a place that sell's stainless steel tubing or coil would be great too. I would just make my own lines or coil.

Only reason I am going about it the hard way instead of just ordering the stainless one is due to time constraints and not having money to order one during the week. I have some cash now that its friday. So ya follow me ? lol.

eBay $40 if i remember correctly