Water chillers?

Cubes15128

Cubes15128

Well-Known Member
Hey guys I've got a 5gal dwc bucket and I've been struggling to keep my water temps consistently below 70f. I've got my bucket sitting in a tub that I fill with ice/frozen water bottles when I wake up and also when I get home from work. By those times the ice is melted and temps back up so I feel like what I'm doing is a waste xD I've heard people talking about water chillers n such but never seen what exactly I need to get to make one! I see chillers on amazon but they just look like a plastic box that I need to add parts to chill water how I want to. ?? Lol any help like parts lists would be awesome! Or even a good all in one kit! Thanks in advance guys!
 
N

Niblixdark

Well-Known Member
A water chiller has a inlet and an outlet attachment for hoses. Most require a pump to chill incoming water like the pump you would use for your main res.

So you simply use a pump in the res to pump water into the chiller inlet and the outlet of the chiller has the cool water flowing back into the res. You can set your desired temputure for the res nutes or water.

Active Aqua 1/10 HP. Is in my opinion one of the better units, it has titanium coils inside the unit. Hence the costs.
 
jonsnow399

jonsnow399

Well-Known Member
Cubes15128 said:
Hey guys I've got a 5gal dwc bucket and I've been struggling to keep my water temps consistently below 70f. I've got my bucket sitting in a tub that I fill with ice/frozen water bottles when I wake up and also when I get home from work. By those times the ice is melted and temps back up so I feel like what I'm doing is a waste xD I've heard people talking about water chillers n such but never seen what exactly I need to get to make one! I see chillers on amazon but they just look like a plastic box that I need to add parts to chill water how I want to. ?? Lol any help like parts lists would be awesome! Or even a good all in one kit! Thanks in advance guys!
Click to expand...
@ttystikk
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
Niblixdark said:
A water chiller has a inlet and an outlet attachment for hoses. Most require a pump to chill incoming water like the pump you would use for your main res.

So you simply use a pump in the res to pump water into the chiller inlet and the outlet of the chiller has the cool water flowing back into the res. You can set your desired temputure for the res nutes or water.

Active Aqua 1/10 HP. Is in my opinion one of the better units, it has titanium coils inside the unit. Hence the costs.
Click to expand...
This is the standard solution.

If you live in a low humidity area, you might try a waterfall high enough for some evaporation to occur and cool the water. This could be a challenge for several reasons, including the fact that it would have to dissipate the heat from the water pump.

Another option is to increase the surface area of the water and blow air across it, again to induce evaporative cooling.
 
ANC

ANC

Well-Known Member
I think most people aim too low. For cooling lasers, they recommend about 50W/C So, you may need to stack a few of them depending on the delta from ambient to where you want to be.
My friend is building a 150W unit for testing with a small DWC setup. I will report back on how it does with our heat. We get away with a lower rate as we are not fighting the instant heat of a laser cutter and have more time to bring the temperature down.
 
Cubes15128

Cubes15128

Well-Known Member
Thank you all for the info! I will invest in the 1/10hp active aqua chiller more than likely lol the laser thing sounds pretty complicated haha never even heard of anything like that. And I've read mixed reviews about hydroguard so idk. I've got this stuff called z7 I've heard great stuff about I'm gonna try again. I used it after I started getting root rot and it didn't help so mabye it'll work if I use it from the getgo BEFORE anything bad starts to grow lol
 
Cubes15128

Cubes15128

Well-Known Member
Niblixdark said:
A water chiller has a inlet and an outlet attachment for hoses. Most require a pump to chill incoming water like the pump you would use for your main res.

So you simply use a pump in the res to pump water into the chiller inlet and the outlet of the chiller has the cool water flowing back into the res. You can set your desired temputure for the res nutes or water.

Active Aqua 1/10 HP. Is in my opinion one of the better units, it has titanium coils inside the unit. Hence the costs.
Click to expand...
I found what you were talking about, but do I need a special water pump for it? And what kind of hoses/tubes do I need? I've seen people with metal or copper coils in their rez? And sorry one more question lol how would I incorporate the pump and hoses/lines along with my air stone in my 5gal bucket? Seems like it'd be super cramped lol
 
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Niblixdark

Well-Known Member
Cubes15128 said:
I found what you were talking about, but do I need a special water pump for it? And what kind of hoses/tubes do I need? I've seen people with metal or copper coils in their rez? And sorry one more question lol how would I incorporate the pump and hoses/lines along with my air stone in my 5gal bucket? Seems like it'd be super cramped lol
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Stainless and Titanium are safe. Copper and Galvanized steel are not. Salts will corrode those metals and cause toxicity to the water/res.
 
ANC

ANC

Well-Known Member
Small pumps will only have metal exposed in the rotor shaft, you also get some with ceramic shafts, I'd buy a spare impeller though. It is pretty much the only moving and serviceable part.
 
Budley Doright

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
As for the copper coils I've have not experienced any issues with my one copper heat exchanger but my chiller has cuppernickle as do most of my coils. I would love to see the results of a 150 w Pelletier cooler myself. I've heard of a couple of guys using them in 5 gallon pails but keep in mind the heat removed is added to the room.
 
chasingwaterfalls

chasingwaterfalls

Active Member
Niblixdark said:
A water chiller has a inlet and an outlet attachment for hoses. Most require a pump to chill incoming water like the pump you would use for your main res.

So you simply use a pump in the res to pump water into the chiller inlet and the outlet of the chiller has the cool water flowing back into the res. You can set your desired temputure for the res nutes or water.

Active Aqua 1/10 HP. Is in my opinion one of the better units, it has titanium coils inside the unit. Hence the costs.
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Using the 1/10 for a 20 gal dwc, absolutely worth it
 
N

Niblixdark

Well-Known Member
Budley Doright said:
As for the copper coils I've have not experienced any issues with my one copper heat exchanger but my chiller has cuppernickle as do most of my coils. I would love to see the results of a 150 w Pelletier cooler myself. I've heard of a couple of guys using them in 5 gallon pails but keep in mind the heat removed is added to the room.
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That's why I put my res outside the room running the hoses through the wall, but doesnt even help much for heat. Copper & stainless coils are ussualy made for wort cooling in the production of beer. Not really a salty mixture or environment they are going to be in for a long time. Over time copper in salt water will break down. You'll see, it takes awhile but starts to break down eventually.
 
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FennarioMike

FennarioMike

Well-Known Member
Niblixdark said:
In a perfect world. Try cooling 45 to 100 gallons of nutes with multiple lights and pumps. You need "DO"
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I run a 6 pot Under Current - 56 gallons, with a 64 gallon rez under a pair of HPS. I didn't say do away with aeration - I know you need DO... I'm saying that with beneficials, root rot is kept in check and there is plenty of DO without the need for a chiller. I ran side by side comparisons of sterile rez, beneficials and chilled vs not chilled. I used to swear by sterile rez with a chiller - I even have a backup chiller - which now I don't need.

Again - hydroguard/Mammoth P and you don't need a chiller.
 
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Niblixdark

Well-Known Member
You are using one of those somewhat new cutting edge DWC setups nice $$$. Plenty DO in those systems. With that system you can get away with bennies allot easier as the way that setup works. No clogging.

My LGS has a 6 bucket setup on display in a tent. Its a pretty neat system. Might invest in that setup down the road but am still going to run a chiller and SM90. Haha
 
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FennarioMike

FennarioMike

Well-Known Member
Niblixdark said:
You are using one of those somewhat new cutting edge DWC setups nice $$$. Plenty DO in those systems. With that system you can get away with bennies allot easier as the way that setup works. No clogging.

My LGS has one on display and they are pretty nice units or setup. Might invest in that setup but am still going to run a chiller and SM90. Haha
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I ran my comparisons in 5 gal DWC buckets with an air stone in each. On top of that - to really push it - I didn't change the nutes for the entire veg cycle - I just topped with RO or fresh nutes as needed. I don't recommend doing that - but I had the space and more plants than I needed so I wanted to experiment. This was in the early summer and the tent was regularly in the upper 80's and the rez temps had to be close to that.

I also was spending a lot on electricity and the RDWC was very resource intensive so I wanted to see if I could reduce expenses. Hydroguard is a whole lot cheaper that electricity.
 
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