What is the cheapest water chiller I can get for a 20 gallon reservoir?

X

Xearoveg

Well-Known Member
Hey fellow :420: growers! What is the cheapest water chiller I can get for a 20 gallon reservoir?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I saw someone on here converting a freezer unit into one but I can't seem to find it. Any cheap method would work great. Is there some sort of aquarium chillers that are cheaper? There's no way I can drop $350 on one of these quite yet, and dropping in two 2 litters every 12 hours is taking a lot of man power and time and sometimes we forget so it's all for nothing.
 
There's no way around it, they are expensive units. You can convert a small fridge (like those on hotels) if you have the technical knowledge, know how and clever engineering skills, but after you get all the parts and such you might end up spending the same amount of money or close enough to make no difference.
It might be that you don't even need one, what temp is your res as it is?
 
It ranges from 75-85 degrees, so I certainly will need one. Right now I can't keep my entire grow room cool enough for the summer months so I'm just trying to at least keep the water temp cool enough. But I think I'm gonna try to make something work. Got a freezer and such.
 
Well, if you don't feel comfortable disassembling a fridge and adapting the parts into a chiller, I think a very easy way is to drill two holes through the door and run a copper tubing (better heat-exchange) into the fridge, make it coil in the freezer area around ice cubes of ice packs or whatever and back into the res. Once out of the fridge you can use any hose or vinyl tubing to get the water from and to the res. A common pump (has to be powerful enough) inside the res can move the water through the hoses so it goes into the fridge and back out.
 
+1 on the small fridge. Even a $99 window A/C should be pretty easy to adapt.

You should be able to find a small fridge used on CL.

I saw a YouTube vid where a guy tore apart a small window A/C and made a nice chiller out of it. Some of these special devices like a water chiller, are really over prices. They all use the same parts as a fridge or window a/c. the only difference is how the parts are laid out.

One cheap option would be to take the window a/c and place copper tubes right up next to where the cold air comes out. You could take a car heater core, place it in the a/c where the cold air comes out. Run water thru it with hoses and get a small pump. Probably cost $50 if you already have the a/c.

Doesn't need to be fancy.

Also one of those styrofoam ice chests would help to keep it cool, those are cheap.
 
Jimmycricket said:
75-85 is fine. Ideal no, fine yes.

But if you insist on chilling it anyways. Here you go. Merry Xmas

Water Chiller Hydroponics & Aquarium made easy - YouTube
Click to expand...

No offense but the video only shows what part of a fridge/ac/dehumidifier to use for cooling, however I believe you need to have a certain understanding of how a system like this works in order to even understand the video, and in the end this is useless if you want to build one of your own, basically because whoever did the video concentrated on the specifics of that particular model of dehumidifier and didn't really show anything other than removing a few screws and some insulation.
 
They r not cheap! Lots of ways to chill water, google the question and check youtube. best to find an aquarium chiller on Craigslist or ebay, you only need about 1/8 HP (a small one)
 
i dont see how you could have watched the entire video. The principals are the same for any cooling unit that uses coils.

You take unit apart and put the coils into the water.

Who cares about what actual unit the guy in the video used. You asked how to make a chiller for cheap and that is how. Taking apart a condenser and sticking its coils into the water.
 
It might be better done with an A/C unit, if nothing else they are easy to find for cheap.

What he's doing is using the coils to directly cool the water, with an A/C you can leave everything in place and use a heater core to transfer the temp to the water. Just run the water thru a heater core in the path of the cold air from the A/C. Not as effective, but is sounds like not much temp change is needed. He said you can freeze a 5 gallon bucket of water... You might only need a 10 to 15 deg drop... Also you get more cold air in the grow area if you need that.

remember that ice is made with the cold air from the cooling system in the fridge.
 
Jimmycricket said:
i dont see how you could have watched the entire video. The principals are the same for any cooling unit that uses coils.

You take unit apart and put the coils into the water.

Who cares about what actual unit the guy in the video used. You asked how to make a chiller for cheap and that is how. Taking apart a condenser and sticking its coils into the water.
Click to expand...

You actually need to put the evaporator into the water, not the condenser, the former extracts heat from the environment (water in this case), the latter dissipates heat into the environment.

On a common fridge, the evaporator coils are inside the unit and the condenser coils are on the back and outside the unit.

Like I said, you need some technical knowledge in order to pull this off.
 
Rodrigo said:
You actually need to put the evaporator into the water, not the condenser, the former extracts heat from the environment (water in this case), the latter dissipates heat into the environment.

On a common fridge, the evaporator coils are inside the unit and the condenser coils are on the back and outside the unit.

Like I said, you need some technical knowledge in order to pull this off.
Click to expand...


It takes about the same logic as learning that the red faucet means hot and the blue means cold water.

@Xeroveg if you take apart an A/C or some type of cooling system you will typically have two sets of coils, one runs very hot the other will be cold. Stick the cold ones in the water. Done deal. Don't listen to Rodrigo this is quite easy to do.
 

Similar threads

B
Can anyone suggest an aquarium chiller?
Replies
2
Views
1K
BrokrnEyes
B
Baja Big Dog
Water chiller questions
Replies
7
Views
1K
Baja Big Dog
Baja Big Dog
I
CoolWorks IceProbe experience?
Replies
0
Views
1K
IceCoast
I
The Happy One
Looking For Expertise: Chiller Reservoir Issues
2
Replies
29
Views
4K
Manny D
M
F
4 Reservoirs - 1 Chiller
Replies
6
Views
3K
fortphoenix
F
Back
Top Bottom