using an old fridge to cool my res

whats up guys.I live in a very tropical climate (93 degrees plus without the heat index)my whole setup is in my very warm garage.i have my grow closet cooled off by my central air but my res is getting way too hot as it sits outside my closet in the HOT.I would just put it in the closet with my tray but its pretty crouded in there already.
The things ive tried:
insulating res and ice blocks,a big pain in the ass
fans blowing across the top of the water,too much evaporation on top of the fact a fan really doesnt drop temps that much especially in a already warm room
and the coo degras, a titanium water chiller,i burned this up after 1 week
Now i have a new idea with a few bugs i hope someone can help with.I had an old fridge in my garage,i moved it next to my box and fit my res into it and let it run all night for a test run.I set the dials all as high as they would go( for higher temps) and i cant get above 45 degrees. way too cool for nutes
Any and all ideas much appreciated

You may want to try and use a colman or igloo cooler as a rez that will help with the temps for about 3 to 7 days. I have the same issue, so I have 2 GB's 1 in the garage for the winter and a smaller one in the house for all year round. Good Luck. 1

one idea would be to put the frig on a timer to limit the amount of time its on, or go get indoor thermostat,transformer and relay.

dimesak said:

You may want to try and use a colman or igloo cooler as a rez that will help with the temps for about 3 to 7 days. I have the same issue, so I have 2 GB's 1 in the garage for the winter and a smaller one in the house for all year round. Good Luck. 1

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Yae i tried the coleman cooler trick and it works as long as i keep feeding it ice blocks but for the most part my temps ranged too greatly,by the time i would get home from work to put more ice blocks in.

richwayall said:

one idea would be to put the frig on a timer to limit the amount of time its on, or go get indoor thermostat,transformer and relay.

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I just might try the idea of the fridge on a timer.it will take a little trial and error but ive got nothin but time.
all growers i talk to in the area all shut down operations in the summer months because of heat issues.I know there is a way around it being summer lasts for quite a while temperature wise and i cant go that long without growing something

hey thanks you two.Ive also come up with an idea.
what if i took a piece of celotex insulating sheathing and divided the main fridge compartment leaving a small space for cooler air to flow down to my res. this way the friges thermostat would still work properly,it would cut down on the actuall space the fridge would have to cool allowing some cooler air around my res but not too much and no on again off again that would eventually burn the fridge up

Dowd1 said:

I just might try the idea of the fridge on a timer.it will take a little trial and error but ive got nothin but time.
all growers i talk to in the area all shut down operations in the summer months because of heat issues.I know there is a way around it being summer lasts for quite a while temperature wise and i cant go that long without growing something

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only problem is when the temps starts dropping outside so will the temps in the fridge averages out like for every 1 degree it falls outside it will drop 2 degrees on the inside, but if you have the time to constantly moniter it you can work it out.

Dowd1 said:

hey thanks you two.Ive also come up with an idea.
what if i took a piece of celotex insulating sheathing and divided the main fridge compartment leaving a small space for cooler air to flow down to my res. this way the friges thermostat would still work properly,it would cut down on the actuall space the fridge would have to cool allowing some cooler air around my res but not too much and no on again off again that would eventually burn the fridge up

Click to expand...

the insulating will not help you it may slow the process down by a few hours but by design the fridge will pull the heat from your res.
by using the timer you are basicly doing the same thing as your in line thermastat on your fridge which shuts the power on and off, as long as you do not set it to turn on and off every couple of mins

another idea would be to replace your in line thermostat with a window unit thermostat both are the same in design and function only diff is the a/c one is set to shut off at higher settings.