Air Pumped Through a Freezer to Cool Bucket Temp

T

Tilopa

New Member
I'm planning a DWC with 5 gallon buckets. My biggest hurdle to overcome (especially this time of year) is the heat of the water. I had the idea of taking a small cheap chest freezer (about 7 cubic feet) and drilling holes in it and attaching my air pumps inlet hose into the freezer. Then drilling holes in the other side of the freezer so air can come in. My pumps move 200 liters/min and the volume of air in the freezer is about 200 liters.

Has anyone ever tried this? I am leery that the freezer can cool the hot air coming in fast enough before it is sucked out by the pump.
 
Tilopa said:
I'm planning a DWC with 5 gallon buckets. My biggest hurdle to overcome (especially this time of year) is the heat of the water. I had the idea of taking a small cheap chest freezer (about 7 cubic feet) and drilling holes in it and attaching my air pumps inlet hose into the freezer. Then drilling holes in the other side of the freezer so air can come in. My pumps move 200 liters/min and the volume of air in the freezer is about 200 liters.

Has anyone ever tried this? I am leery that the freezer can cool the hot air coming in fast enough before it is sucked out by the pump.
Click to expand...


I think it is a good idea. Try it out and keep us all posted, I'd try it too if you get the results I think you will get. I doubt it'll be efficient because the freezer isn't made to do what you seek rather it is made to produce freezing temps and hold that (thus super insulation) whereas an A/C unit is designed to expel the cooled air. Biggest difference BUT could possibly work. Also could still keep things frozen in it but might cause it to run constantly then it'd burn out. Not sure either way, but try it and let us know. Thanks. See it's collective thinking that benefits everyone, on way or another...
 
Ok, I'm definitely going to give this a try, but I won't be able to get to it until this weekend. But I'll let you know my results.
 
unless you have hundreds of feet of tubing in your freezer there is just no way this will make any real difference.

If you want to get it done like this rather then just buying a water cooler.

Run water pipes through your freezer instead. make sure you have at least 1.5 gallons worth of tubing inside the freezer. You will set up your water pump for something like 1-2 minutes on then 15 minutes off. The exact timings will depend on the power of the water pump and just how much cubic feet of water all the tubing holds.

But the idea is there is water in the tubes and most of the tube is of course inside the freezer. It sits there for a period between 10-20 minutes. Then the pump runs long enough to pump out that cool water into the buckets and push in new hotter water from in the buckets. Then that new hot water will sit there for 10-20 maybe even 30 minutes and then once its cold it will be pumped out and replaced with new hotter water.

The water pump heat will be negated by the short time its actually in use compared to the water cooled from the freezer.

It seems liek a lot of work for 5 plants, but if I was growing like 30 DWC plants I could total see doing this kinda shit.
 
Jimmycricket said:
unless you have hundreds of feet of tubing in your freezer there is just no way this will make any real difference.

If you want to get it done like this rather then just buying a water cooler.

Run water pipes through your freezer instead. make sure you have at least 1.5 gallons worth of tubing inside the freezer. You will set up your water pump for something like 1-2 minutes on then 15 minutes off. The exact timings will depend on the power of the water pump and just how much cubic feet of water all the tubing holds.

But the idea is there is water in the tubes and most of the tube is of course inside the freezer. It sits there for a period between 10-20 minutes. Then the pump runs long enough to pump out that cool water into the buckets and push in new hotter water from in the buckets. Then that new hot water will sit there for 10-20 maybe even 30 minutes and then once its cold it will be pumped out and replaced with new hotter water.

The water pump heat will be negated by the short time its actually in use compared to the water cooled from the freezer.

It seems liek a lot of work for 5 plants, but if I was growing like 30 DWC plants I could total see doing this kinda shit.
Click to expand...

You were right it did not work. I was able to get the water temp in the freezer down to 15 Degrees F but the air going through 50 feet of copper and into the bucket did not change the temp of the bucket water one degree. I came in today and my bucket water temp was 88 F, so I ran out and bought a portable air conditioner.

I appreciate your ideas and suggestion Jimmy, but whenever I talk about water temp issues everyone says get a chiller, but how is a chiller going to be used with traditional DWC? Or is everyone doing RDWC now. And If I get my room temp down to 78F with an air conditioner then eventually my water is going to be 78F, no? So I still have a dilemma about how to keep the water temp at 68. I've heard the one about throwing frozen plastic bottles in your buckets once a day, but (no offense to anyone) that seems ridiculous to me. You get the water temp down for a brief period and then it goes back up again.
 
Tilopa said:
....everyone says get a chiller, but how is a chiller going to be used with traditional DWC?
Click to expand...

A chiller is very easy to use with DWC. I've been doing it for quite awhile now. All it takes is a submersible 160 gpm pump inside the reservoir. You then bring 1/2" black plastic tubing from the pump (along with the power cord) thru the lid of the bucket to the chiller. The return from the chiller then goes back using 1/2" tubing again thru the bucket lid. It's just a simple loop. I use a 1/10 hp chiller and it handles up to a 30 gal reservoir. My current reservoir is 27 gals so it's perfectly sized. I originally used it with a 5 gal bucket and with only 5gals to chill, it ran very little. It runs for a longer period of time with the 27 gal reservoir.

It's very easy to do with DWC though because it's just a loop of tubing to run from a pump in the reservoir. to the chiller, and them back again. The pump runs 24/7 or else the chiller won't know when the water temp needs lowering.

:morenutes:
 
newcs said:
x2
Click to expand...

I know this is an old post but I'm looking for a way to lower temps in my DWC. In theory putting the air pump into the freezer sounds like it might work. Has anyone tried this yet? I may have a go at it but I think I'll try small scale first by using a box full of dry ice with the air pump inside drawing out the cold air into the buckets.
 
What about pumping water from your bucket into the fridge's freezer section. Spiral the pipe in the freezer to get as much surface area possible then pump it back into your bucket. Hook up the fridge and water pump to the same power and add a thermostat. When the water goes over the pre determined temp, the thermostat kicks in and keeps the water on the right temp?????
 
image13338.jpg
image13337.jpg

heres what i did i found one on internet ay for 160.including shipping 1/10 hp
 
Do you happen to have a old dehumidifier laying around ??? You can look up on you tube how to convert it to a chiller I was gonna do this but once I put a AC in didn't have to but chiller are kinda spendy but most of us have a dehumidifier laying around worth a try :)
 

Similar threads

raphie6
DWC with a freezer to cool reservoir
Replies
7
Views
7K
WillyBudz
WillyBudz
J
Quiet air pump
Replies
14
Views
4K
pulpz
P
K
Centralized Oxygenation Instead of Pump per Bucket
Replies
5
Views
2K
Mayne
Mayne
N
Ultimate Stealth Grows inside a Freezer!
Replies
3
Views
5K
TorturedSoul
TorturedSoul
LEDBud
20w or 40w commercial Aerator pump with 4x5g buckets ?
2
Replies
34
Views
4K
LEDBud
LEDBud
Back
Top Bottom