Chillers

Alright, perhaps this one is just me, as I'm sure there's info out there, but I've been looking and so far I got nothing...

I'm using an Aeroflo2 30 (16-25 gallons) and reservoir temps are creeping up to 80°F, at the moment I'm using 7 liters of ice at a time (frozen in bottles), and that's keeping it just below 70°F. I'm very seriously looking into getting a chiller though, however my issue is I can't figure out how powerful a chiller I need. Most are rated by horsepower, some in watts, but even the few which list how many gallons total they should be used with... they are all talking about aquariums which DON'T have water circulating under HID lighting...

So... how powerful a chiller should I be looking at? I'd like to get a larger system in the future, so I may buy one I can then later use with that, but for now... what should I be looking at while choosing?

I'd go with a 1/4hp just to make sure it has enough power to cool all those nutes, and wont have
to work very hard doing so. I had an aeroflo 60 and was using a 1/4hp activeaqua chiller with
complete control over my nutes temp. My first chiller purchase was a 1/10hp as I didn't want to
spend that much and it worked fine during winter months, but come summer I was having heat issues
again and had to buy another chiller. Save yourself the hassle and get a nice one that will be more than
you need for just in case purposes.

There are other means of dealing with high temps in your res and preventing root rot like brewing beneficial
teas or using a reservoir conditioner like Dutch Master Zone. I liked the chillers because they gave me the
ability to not have to worry about it at all anymore, and was able to get my dissolved oxygen levels up higher
thanks to them keeping the nutes chilled.

I swear I am not a rep for this company, I just swear by them. Best prices and a helpful staff. Check out www.plantlightinghydroponics.com. They state on their site to call them before buying a chiller because chillers are the only item non-returnable there. So even if you don't buy it from them you could call them and talk to them about what you need. A 1/4HP chiller there is $399, which is over $100 cheaper than anywhere else I've seen. If you find a cheaper price please post a link and let us all know. I need to buy 3 chillers, and any time I spend more than $1000 it makes me want to cry.

I keep 2 seperate 100 gallon rez's 67 degrees in a 85 degree room with a 1/4 hp chiller and a 20 gallon rez

Hey smurf, i saw an active aqua 1/4 hp on line for $380.

My local hydro guy matched it.

Well, I've done a lot of looking around, and I would say fuck the cheap electric ones, simply because fuck the horse power. You can find a BTU rating on most chillers if you look for it, and in my searching I've seen lower horse power cheaper chillers with more BTUs than others, and so on... I am, of course, assuming BTU ratings are somehow controlled, and you can't just pick a number...

The Active Aqua series seemed like a winner in general when I was looking.

i81two said:

I keep 2 seperate 100 gallon rez's 67 degrees in a 85 degree room with a 1/4 hp chiller and a 20 gallon rez

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How do you do that? Are they all connected?

I pump from the 20 rez thru the chiller, from the chiller it gets split, one hose goes to one rez and the other goes to the other rez.

Both lines run thru a copper coil and then up and out where they T back together and dump back into the 20 gallon rez to be recirculated thru the chiller again and so on.

I am using 5/8" goodyear hose and if i remmember correctly 1/2" soft coppper coil, so it slides rite into the hose.

Shit, if your pump is strong enough you could T it more and run it thru some ice box's and cool your lights too.

I also help the 20 gall cooling rez with 2 1/2 gallon nute jugs that i freeze and put a fresh one in every morning. You can also insulate your rez.

You would be suprised how much a smaller chiller will cool if you help it a little.

Peace

Thanks for that i81, I am looking into chillers for lights as well as res and dont want to buy and run a new chiller for each res. Prolly just get 2 one for nutes and one for lights.

Citrus said:

Thanks for that i81, I am looking into chillers for lights as well as res and dont want to buy and run a new chiller for each res. Prolly just get 2 one for nutes and one for lights.

Click to expand...

Check out ChillKing, just get one of their spot chillers, up to 2 HP and it mounts in a window like an AC so it's out of the way and the heat from it will go outside, just like an AC. They have coils you just put in line for each reservoir... They also have controllers for that, but you probably don't need them, the water/water heat extraction should keep your reservoirs about the same temp easily.

No, their stuff isn't the cheapest, but it looks fucking bullet proof!