DIY Chiller idea

S

Shiftaltumlock

No mater where ya go, there ya are
Sep 4, 2001
66
0
0
Hurst, TX
shiftaltnumlock.cm.nu
Let me start by saying I live in Texas. I gets very hot in the summer. From June to September, the temp averages in the high 90's. I have a sun room that I would like to keep a 60 gallon cube in. There is just no way to keep a tank in this room with out a way to cool the water.

Instead of an expensive chiller, how about one of those little refrigerators(allready own) that are 2X2X2. I was thinking of drilling a hole in each side of the fridge. Install about 20 feet of aluminum tubing coiled to fit inside. I would just use a powerhead to drive water thru the chiller. I was hoping to control the temp by the gph setting on the powerhead.

Do you think the fridge would be able to cool 60 gallons of water from 90+ degree's to 78 degree's?
 
It can be done, I've seen/known a few ppl in the computer area who used a mini fridge setup to cool their cpus. From what I here it works out pretty good... cpus that normally would fry under overclocked situations stay cooler than a normal cpu with a standard heatsink+fan. Let me see if I can pull anything up.

-Richer
 
http://www.overclockers.com/tips1030/index02.asp
http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/11oct99.shtml

Not the best links, but its all I could pull up in a few minutes... I'll see if I can find better ones tomorrow.

*edit* Just a note, I like the idea of using a water reservoir instead of a coil of tubing inside the fridge. Keep in mind most of these guys are cooling cpus that would hit temperatures of 300+ degrees C without a proper cooling setup (for the AMD chipsets anyways). Since you are only cooling down a few degrees (10-20?) at most, you probably don't need extreme cooling. The reservoir would also make it easier to refill the system if water levels would drop a bit.

HTH
-Richer
 
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Richer:

That is too funny. As much money as that 1st guy sunk into cooling, He could have upgraded 2 CPU's.

Thanks for the links, I got some idea's from them.

DarkAngel:

I went with aluminum because it seemed like a better conductor than vinyl. Copper would be even better if it were not toxic in the aquarium environment. If vinyl would not be too much of an insulator, I would prefer it over aluminum.
 
The thinking with many of these overclockers is not "I wonder how fast I can get this computer going with standard parts." Its "I wonder how overclocked and how cool I can get this thing to be." Be it ram, video gpus, cpus, etc.
Admittingly I am sorta one of those ppl... computer window+light and all. Cept instead of overclocking, I just leave my things at stock levels and see how far I can cool those. So far using air cooling only, my computer case is near room temperature with a cpu running at 40 degrees =). My name is Richer, and I have a computer modding addiction. :D

-Richer
 
Would it be possible to scrap the fridge and keep the condenser/refridgerant unit and thermostat? Then you could immerse the refridgerant coil right into a separate tank or sump.
 
The vinyl would not be an insulater I do not believe. After a short time the hose would be the same temperature as the fridge. The water flow will not be so fast as to heat up the vinyl. You will as you said be having 20 feet of the pipe in there. The ones I have heard talked about all used vinyl hose. I will admit I have never done it but am only going by what I have read. For the price of the vinyl I would give it a try first. Just my two cents worth of course.
 
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