Playing with a Maze 3 evap with lexan top.

[aenigma]

Here are some really old pictures from 2003 when I converted a Maze 3 into an evap with a lexan top. Teyber said I should post them here, so I obeyed, I don't want him to hurt me! :slapass:

http://ncwoutdoors.com/maze3/DCP_6371.JPG
http://ncwoutdoors.com/maze3/DCP_6372.JPG
http://ncwoutdoors.com/maze3/DCP_6373.JPG
http://ncwoutdoors.com/maze3/DCP_6374.JPG
http://ncwoutdoors.com/maze3/DCP_6375.JPG
http://ncwoutdoors.com/maze3/DCP_6376.JPG
http://ncwoutdoors.com/maze3/DCP_6378.JPG
http://ncwoutdoors.com/maze3/DCP_6379.JPG

[teyber]

i thought this was one of the coolest things ive seen :) thanks for posting!

[sjg0]

WOA THATS AWESOME! What were your pressures?

[aenigma]

I don't remember my pressures as this was 6 years ago, but since it was R290 I'd guess highside was less than 150 and low side in a vacuum. It started leaking though, but it was cool to watch! Here are a couple more picture I found when I had it on something else. Yeah, I was all about ghetto! Looking at some of my pictures makes me cringe!

http://ncwoutdoors.com/maze3/DCP_5524.JPG
http://ncwoutdoors.com/maze3/DCP_5525.JPG

[piotres]

I think I've already seen Your photos - maybe on teampuss ?

Anyway : great experiment, really cool idea !

[mytekcontrols]

Very Cool! Especially nice to see the transition from liquid to vapor.

Now if you could only find an O-Ring that wouldn't leak below -40C.

I remember many many years ago attempting to make a simple 2 stage autocascade by using 2 milled pieces of lexan sandwiched together. Even tried to mill the cappiliary's as channels directly in the plastic. Unfortunately it didn't work for very long until major leaks erupted at the extensive O-Ring seal.

I still think about the possibilities of mass producing a complete multi-stage HXC stack by some automated process similar to how plate HXC's are made. It'd sure make things a hell of a lot easier when it came time to build a unit.

[[XC] gomeler]

One of the Master's thesis I read about was a study on micro-channel evaps. They used a very similar evap system with a lexan plate on top and a rubber o-ring. They noted due to the extensive pressure and cold that the o-ring would deform and be unusable after one cycle(warm evap, cold evap, warm evap). Damn interesting to watch their various videos, I'll try to find it.

[aenigma]

Thanks for the responses guys, guess I should have posted these sooner!

I think I've already seen Your photos - maybe on teampuss ?

Anyway : great experiment, really cool idea !

I've only showed these pictures to a few people back in the day when phase-change was getting popular, so I wouldn't know where else you would have seen them? Maybe somebody else did the same thing?

Very Cool! Especially nice to see the transition from liquid to vapor.

Now if you could only find an O-Ring that wouldn't leak below -40C.

I remember many many years ago attempting to make a simple 2 stage autocascade by using 2 milled pieces of lexan sandwiched together. Even tried to mill the cappiliary's as channels directly in the plastic. Unfortunately it didn't work for very long until major leaks erupted at the extensive O-Ring seal.

I still think about the possibilities of mass producing a complete multi-stage HXC stack by some automated process similar to how plate HXC's are made. It'd sure make things a hell of a lot easier when it came time to build a unit.

That sounds really cool, man you have too much fun! :D
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=160872
This guy's amazing chiller has a distributor for his water chiller circuit using a lexan top and he is working with 150psi ~-20c liquid, and it hasn't leaked. I think he has found a way to do it!

I think it would be great to make a HX for a 2-stage autocascade out of lexan that is thick enough that you wouldn't get frost/condensation on the outside, that would really be interesting to watch.

gomeler;3654039']One of the Master's thesis I read about was a study on micro-channel evaps. They used a very similar evap system with a lexan plate on top and a rubber o-ring. They noted due to the extensive pressure and cold that the o-ring would deform and be unusable after one cycle(warm evap, cold evap, warm evap). Damn interesting to watch their various videos, I'll try to find it.

Those videos would be nice to see, and that's definitely what happened with my evap.

[mytekcontrols]

This guy's amazing chiller has a distributor for his water chiller circuit using a lexan top and he is working with 150psi ~-20c liquid, and it hasn't leaked. I think he has found a way to do it!
The key is that his temperatures were still in the reasonable range for O-rings.

I think it would be great to make a HX for a 2-stage autocascade out of lexan that is thick enough that you wouldn't get frost/condensation on the outside, that would really be interesting to watch.
Yep that was my idea as well, but unfortunately it didn't turn out right. It was kinda interesting to watch it fail. After about 10-15 minutes operation freezing cold liquid refrigerant started spurting out the sides.

The method I used to fabricate it was that, I had suction channels on one side, and discharge on the other side of the 2 pieces of 1" thick lexan. There was a thin sheet of stainless steel plate sandwiched between the lexan blocks with a very long and complicated O-ring laid into grooves on each piece. Of course the idea was that the suction and discharge channels would perfectly line up with each other and transfer heat through the very thin stainless steel separator plate. In theory it would have worked, aside from the inherent O-ring problem.

[aenigma]

The key is that his temperatures were still in the reasonable range for O-rings.


Yep that was my idea as well, but unfortunately it didn't turn out right. It was kinda interesting to watch it fail. After about 10-15 minutes operation freezing cold liquid refrigerant started spurting out the sides.

The method I used to fabricate it was that, I had suction channels on one side, and discharge on the other side of the 2 pieces of 1" thick lexan. There was a thin sheet of stainless steel plate sandwiched between the lexan blocks with a very long and complicated O-ring laid into grooves on each piece. Of course the idea was that the suction and discharge channels would perfectly line up with each other and transfer heat through the very thin stainless steel separator plate. In theory it would have worked, aside from the inherent O-ring problem.

Yeah, that would have been really cool! :)

His system isn't as cold most single stage units dedicated to cooling a cpu only, but the thing that surprised me about his system isn't just the low temperature, but he high pressure along with low temperature since his pump delivers 150psi head pressure. It was surprising to see the o-ring handle it even at only -20c or so. If the o-ring can handle even -20c it might be interesting to make a higher temperature low pressure system using r-134a with a lexan topped evap just to see exactly how everything reacts with a load. I can just see the lighted see-through evaps now! :p:

[piotres]

The key is that his temperatures were still in the reasonable range for O-rings.


Yep that was my idea as well, but unfortunately it didn't turn out right. It was kinda interesting to watch it fail. After about 10-15 minutes operation freezing cold liquid refrigerant started spurting out the sides.

The method I used to fabricate it was that, I had suction channels on one side, and discharge on the other side of the 2 pieces of 1" thick lexan. There was a thin sheet of stainless steel plate sandwiched between the lexan blocks with a very long and complicated O-ring laid into grooves on each piece. Of course the idea was that the suction and discharge channels would perfectly line up with each other and transfer heat through the very thin stainless steel separator plate. In theory it would have worked, aside from the inherent O-ring problem.

Mytek, maybe You have some photos from this experiment ? I guess everybody trully want to see it ... :D

[aenigma]

Mytek, maybe You have some photos from this experiment ? I guess everybody trully want to see it ... :D

I'll second that! :clap:

[mytekcontrols]

Photos? I wish I did, but that was at least 20 years ago, and I'd be lucky to still have any notes from that time (which I don't).

Sorry :(

[berkut]

Teflon based seals could help with the Oring problem, at least as long as different thermal expansion rates of Lexan and Copper wont chew the oring away.

[kayl]

nice work there :oscar: the liquid flooding the evap looks nice ;)