DIY Chiller Experiment

I am thinking about making a chiller the same way but witht thee 50' stainless wort chiller what size pump would I need to run that will push the solution through 50' of coil plus a little extra to make it bake to the res
Thanks

superstoner1 said:

larger res is easier to cool, maintain ph stability and ppm levels stay consistant without having to add back constantly. in hydro the bigger the better on res size and a lot less work.

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I guess it's different with a chiller, cuz I had to use 2 gallons of ice every 12 hours to keep my rez cool and with buckets I use a 20 oz bottle of ice every 12 hours. Also, changing a 21 gallon res was not what I would call a lot less work... but yea I can see ppm and ph being more stable in a big res.

Malevolence said:

I guess it's different with a chiller, cuz I had to use 2 gallons of ice every 12 hours to keep my rez cool and with buckets I use a 20 oz bottle of ice every 12 hours. Also, changing a 21 gallon res was not what I would call a lot less work... but yea I can see ppm and ph being more stable in a big res.

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Super is right about more solution being more forgiving. Your PH and PPM levels swing more slowly, and you can go longer between change outs if you want and top off less often. Once you insulate your buckets/totes and the reservoir, the chiller really kicks ass. I have four 27 gallon tough box totes and a 27 gallon reservoir and I pump from the res to the furthest tote, and it gravity flows back through every tote to the reservoir. I would estimate it circulates completely every hour and a half. When I put a thermometer in the last tote before the reservoir, there is less than 1 degree temperature difference between it and the reservoir. The insulation makes the whole thing very efficient.

I suspect if you insulate everything and use ice, you will have similar results and use a lot less ice. Insulate with that silver bubble wrap rolled up insulation. It's cheap and works well. I only single wrapped mine and it kicks ass. SUper double wraps his, which should be even more efficient.

Yea, that home depot reflectix is def on the shopping list along with panda film.

Metasynth said:

First of all, wouldn't copper tubing be way more efficient for heat exchange? Secondly, have you thought about using a wort chiller for brewing? Hear me out... Instead of running your nute solution through tubing encased in a block of ice inside the freezer, what if you instead had a reservoir of antifreeze in your freezer, below freezing, and you pumped that through tubing into a copper coil inside your control bucket. That way, you have the coil in the control, and when the temp gets too high, the pump kicks on and circulates antifreeze that is below freezing in copper coils in your control, instead of pumping your nute solution through the chest fereezer.

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Copper will react with your nutrients, killing your plants, and corroding away. Why introduce poison (anti-freeze) into your system? I have no idea why the OP thinks freezing water will improve the cooling. What it will do is expand and break the freezer, causing it to leak. A freezer doesn't have that much cooling power, not as much as a chiller, anyway.

1 more time does anybody know what size pump one should use. I'm wanting to get the 50' stainless wort chiller. So it will need to pump through about 75 feet of line.
Thanks in advanced

Just found out how to clean a chiller.

1 gallon white vinegar
3 gallons water

Backflush the solution through the chiller in the opposite direction of normal. Running the solution through it backwards will help clean the exchange and temp probe located on the inlet.
Run this for a few hours, or overnight. Flush afterward several times with plain water. This will dissolve the salts that have built up inside the chiller.

Do this ever two months.