Refrigerator Recirculating Deep Water Container system

[PapaFunk]

This is a plan that I'm putting together. I tried a grow once using the DWC system. When the plant were ready to go into the flowering stage, they started dying back. I didn't know why until I researched and found out that I had to keep the water on the roots cold. The roots were turning yellow and mushy. So I never tried again. I recently saw another post about water chillers and saw the cost. Then I saw different methods to build your own water chillers out of AC units, water coolers etc. I didn't see anything on refrigerators. Here my take on this problem. I went as far as I could with the design, now I need some professional input. Take a look as see if you can see what needs to be reworked before I start building it. It going in a 4X8 grow tent outside.

 

[iwltfum]

I think a refrigerator is meant to run at about 35f (food bacteria growth roughly triples at 40f). This would be too cold for your roots. The pump and exposed lines could heat up the water enough though. Best to get a res thermometer. (I know people that would say differently, but I try to keep my water in DWC around 55f). I would expect that you would have to keep this system running at all times to keep the lines in the freezer from freezing up on you. Other than that it looks like a great idea if you have an extra fridge lying around. Plus refrigerators only put about a 300w load on your system (and that's only when the compressor is running, which is about a third of the time)

 

[PapaFunk]

When I originally thought about this, I was going to use it outside during the summer. But it would put too much of a load during the hottest parts of summer so I'm going to put it in my garage. It gets hot in there too but it not as bad. Also, I plan on a constant circulation so I don't think I'll have a freezing problem.