I am in a tent with a new setup. Last one failed due to water Temps. I pose a question to the knowledgeable. Setup is 4 bucket rdwc. 4x4x8 tent. Running a small ac unit for temp control. Reservoir is outside tent. Could I grow 3 plants and locate my ac unit to blow cold air on 4 th bucket without a plant to chill the water! Does this sound feasible. Also 480 watts led for light and will scrog this grow.
Water Temps for RDWC
- Thread starter Raymont
- Start date
You could even throw an ice bottle in the 4th bucket which should cool it down, you would have to change it out regular which could be a pain in the ass, but it should work. Keep a eye on the temp till you see if its doing the job or to much. You could maybe even throw it in the reservoir not sure.
The Phantom
Member
I’m making a DIY chiller today, if you’re interested I can drop the link to the journal once it’s done and posted. It’s nothing more than a mini fridge with a coil of hose in it ran through two holes in the side and will circulate via my water pump from the setup.
FatBeaverBuds
Well-Known Member
What temps are you seeing?
The Phantom
Member
I have the new mini fridge being tested right now for the next few hours before drilling two holes in the side. I paid $35 for the used fridge, the landscaping tubing that I’ll use for my coil I had laying around, and the pump is already part of the rdwc system. I’d call that a $35 DIY chiller, now to see how well it will work.
The Phantom
Member
I like the copper pipe idea, an ideal conductor plus I’ve seen diy brewing wart chillers/copper cools for sale. I just went with what I had laying around. I think the irrigation hose I’m using now is too big and the pump flow too high, I’m not getting a really long contact time inside of the mini fridge but it has dropped over 2F over the last 24 hours and is actually below my house temperature. I might look for some gel ice packs or a wet towel to wrap around the coil of hose. I have the chiller inline with my recirculation line but if i ran it separately from the recirculation line on its own pump just going from the reservoir to the fridge and back I could use a small pump or throttle back the pump to slow the flow. If I really had balls I’d demo the whole fridge just for the compressor and expansion plate then just put the expansion plate in my reservoir.
@raymont look in my signature for the Cherry Cookies grow for my diy chiller. It honestly isn’t much more than a $35 mini fridge with two pipe sized holes in it, some extra piping I had laying around, and some fittings. If anything I wished I had used smaller diameter piping to get some surface area and volume to cool or like @Sgtsativa said and went with metal for its better conductivity.
@raymont look in my signature for the Cherry Cookies grow for my diy chiller. It honestly isn’t much more than a $35 mini fridge with two pipe sized holes in it, some extra piping I had laying around, and some fittings. If anything I wished I had used smaller diameter piping to get some surface area and volume to cool or like @Sgtsativa said and went with metal for its better conductivity.
The Phantom
Member
My first thought on how to cool my water was just to freeze ice cream pails of water, put the lid on, and everyday just drop a new one in the reservoir and re-freeze the old one. It then went to a styrofoam cooler with saltwater, ice, and a loop of hose in it. Now I’m here. Haha I’ll run this little fridge until she dies now but I do need to figure out a solution to the other two tents I plan on running as well. I would like to be able to chill all three separate systems with one chiller since all three will be in the same room. I was thinking something along the lines of a chiller with three lines to each reservoir with a coil in it and using glycol or similar in the chiller lines. I have a year until I’ll need something since the other two tents won’t be running until the fall and it will be cool again then.
Yeah freezing water jugs would be a pain .
might be worth spending a little money on to just be done with it if you need it. Hell three of these might not even break the bank. 220V Industrial Water Chiller CW-3000 for CNC/ Laser Engraver Engraving Machines
might be worth spending a little money on to just be done with it if you need it. Hell three of these might not even break the bank. 220V Industrial Water Chiller CW-3000 for CNC/ Laser Engraver Engraving Machines
Dr Fish
Well-Known Member
I doubt if three if them would do the job.. Might as well buy a 1/10 or 1/4 hp chiller meant for hydro.. Then insulate the buckets and the reservoir.. Water temps have no easy get-around.. Been there, done that, with the frozen water bottles..
Just what is the new setup? I know what the old one looked like.. Is this go-round with different buckets.. If you were worried about the containers being white, a spray paint can change that.. You didn't need a new system, with water problems, the only real solution is a chiller..
DWC Waterloo Scrog - Recirculating Reservoir - DS-200 LED
This is my attempt to beat the summer heat using daily changed frozen water bottles... The tubing will be insulated with split foam pipe insulation when it warms up.... We've already hit 90*f on 3-28, but are dropping back into the 70*s... The igloo build can be found in my diy thread in diy...
www.420magazine.com
straightup
420 Member
No offense, but that is a highly inefficient way to chill your water. For one, refrigerators cycle on and off, and they don't produce enough of a drastic temp change to really cool the water in your wort chiller.
A much better and easier way to do it is with an old (or new) dehumidifier. It will work just as good, if not better than a proprietary water chiller. You basically pop off the front cover to access the evaporator, which simply looks like a car radiator. It will be connected to another radiator, called a condensor. The trick is you gently bend the copper piping so the evaporator hangs below the entire dehumidifier unit. You then place the evaporator in a bucket of water and it will near freeze that water, and very quickly, when it's turned on. I ordered my dehumidifier off ebay for $40, brand new. I then placed the evaporator in a little ice chest that is filled with water. This really cold water gets pumped into a wort chiller in my reservoir, so I'm not pumping nutrient salts through the evaporator water. I then use one of those little garden timers to turn it on for 15 minutes once every 4 hours and I can run 68 F water temps in an 86 F tent. If you let it run too long, frost starts to develop on the exposed metal.
For $40 you can have something that easily rivals a $700 water chiller. There are more specific plans on how to build this on the Internet - just search for DIY water chiller. It's literally as easy as I just described.
The Phantom
Member
Inefficient or not it’s still keeping around 80+ gallons of water at 70 degrees in my 80ish degree house, so it works for me.
I will add that I do need a better solution because next summer I’ll have 3 tents running with around 250 gallons between the three. I think at that point I either do soil grows during the summer or invest in something commercial and serious to handle my needs.
I will add that I do need a better solution because next summer I’ll have 3 tents running with around 250 gallons between the three. I think at that point I either do soil grows during the summer or invest in something commercial and serious to handle my needs.
straightup
420 Member
They make all manner of sizes of dehumidifiers, ie., you can buy bigger ones that have bigger evaporators.
If I understand correctly, OP has a 4 bucket RDWC, so I'm assuming 5 buckets total.
That's exactly what I have - 4 13 gallon EZ stor containers with a reservoir that is the same. They hold about 10 gallons each, plus another 5 gallons for the pipes, and that little dehumidifier is easily cooling around 55 gallons. It could do twice that.
Yes a $40 dehumidifier really has a condensor coil and evaporator. Go to Alibaba if you want cheap and brand new. Or look on ebay for used ones.
- Thread starter
- #17
Well the a/c blowing on a bucket is keeping temps at 72. Been reading on diy with dehumidifier and was planning on that build but this worked. I am running a plant in the bucket also. Temp equal throughout ...order hydroguard also for the bennies for roots......put a blanket on resevoir also
Pick up a used 5 gal water cooler and tear it apart. Use the coil in your rez. Some coils have a coating on them, if not I just use a plastic bag to stop corrosion
Hey @Hellbent where have you been my friend since 2006.
I'm in Ontario also.
But this thread is over a year old and they may not answer you.
Good idea though.
Bill
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