Vapochill Tweakin'

[hallowen]

I was working on my Sys trying to figure out what I could do to bring the Idle and load temps down on my Vapo and I came up with the Idea of cooling the condenser another way.

Instead of using a lot of fans(Noisey) to cool it, why not Water cool it?

My temps on my Vapo were -34C at idle and -22/-21.5C at load(Which needed Help!).
CPU temps were around -7/-11C at load.

So, I got myself a small plastic trash container(About twice the size of my condenser) and modded It into a small resivour to house the cond.

Then I used another 5 gal trash container/submersible pond pump for a supply to the cond.

The first picture is my temps at Idle with the stock cond. fan

[hallowen]

This second picture is what I got at room temp. Water(@75F) with the mod at Idle

[hallowen]

This next picture is at load running 3DMark2001se.
I usually get about -22C when running benches/etc...

[megahurtz-oc]

cool throw some ice in that water see what it does.

[hallowen]

another at load

[hallowen]

And Finally at the end of the run.

Normally by this time my Vapo is at -21/-20C, but as you can see, its holding about 5.5/6C LOWER with the mod.

Also, my CPU temps are 4/5C Cooler!:cool:

[hallowen]

Just thought I'd Show what a difference it made when watercooling the condenser.

Maybe next I'll try Chilling the water to see If That makes it even better!

:toast:

EDIT: Tried putting -18C Ethanol/Glycol Fluid into the resivour from my GPU Chiller, but that Upset the balance in the rest of the Phase Change system so much that it tripped off the comp!(TOO Cold I guess).

Have to try ice in it like megahurtz-oc said.:D

[runmc]

Congrats on the improvements.;) Cool mod:D

[KennethChong]

nice, i did this with a custom made phase change system i had a while back, didnt get that good of results though.

[CrashOv3r1De]

Great job. Temps lookign much better. Now get a prommy and do the mod :D

[chilly1]

Try building a minicooling tower. use a 4 inch pvc and a teeput the fan off to one side, use a shower head and some plastic disks in the tube to delay the water and give it a surface to cling to. The air movment through and the falling water will cool the water. Its called a cooling tower, I have heard it caled a bong cooler. I have seen these types of coolers get temperatures of 20 to 30 degrees below ambient but this is dependant on the evaporation rate of the water which is due to the humidity.

[runmc]

Originally posted by chilly1
Try building a minicooling tower. use a 4 inch pvc and a teeput the fan off to one side, use a shower head and some plastic disks in the tube to delay the water and give it a surface to cling to. The air movment through and the falling water will cool the water. Its called a cooling tower, I have heard it caled a bong cooler. I have seen these types of coolers get temperatures of 20 to 30 degrees below ambient but this is dependant on the evaporation rate of the water which is due to the humidity.


It's also called a "BONG":D oops. sorry charlie tuna, I didn't read far enough. I let my mouth overload my eyes;)

[hallowen]

I am in the proccess of building my First R404A PC Sys.

Just waiting for a few supplies to come in and I'll start tubin' it up!

:D

When I finish this it will be for my CPU and I'll use the Vapo for my GPU cooling.

I'll get this system Super Cold Yet!:toast:

[ant1]

Diggin out an old one here but I got the same idea of cooling the condenser with water yesterday. How big is your Heatercore for the waterloop?

[saaya]

i did this to the vapochill unit of a friend a long time ago, he got even better results (7°C lower temps)

we used a heatercore that was around 2x the size of the vapochill condenser.

[Gary Lloyd]

It only works better if the water is colder than the air.

[Epsilon]

I do not agree with you Gary (first time lol :D)

If the air-in / air- out delta T of the condenser is 15c (with an ambient temp of 20c or so)

And the water is 3c above ambient (doable with a large heatercore. My watertemp in my gaming rig is also 3c above ambient).

Then it is possible that the condenser in fact is 5c - 10c lower than before. Ofcourse, the water must flow through the fins.

I must admit, i do not know the exact effects on the evap (it will not correspong 100% with the condenser temp).

But i do know that the evap temp will be lower in a good constructed system.

[pythagoras]

I plan on building an evaporative condensor like the attachment, after my first phase change system is built.

Regards

John

[froudeg]

I think gary was referring to it being 'worth while'.

Water cooling your condensor with ambient temperature water will gain you something, maybe in the region of about, at best, 5c cooler under load....compared to just putting a better fan on the condensor.

Water with it's significantly greater thermal transfer rate compared to that of air will result in you getting that condensor closer to ambient temp - assuming you can hold the water close to ambient...

But is 5c cooler really worth all the effort of water cooling the condensor?

[ant1]

Well it´s 5° + noise reduction.

[ant1]

http://www.blairwing.com/images/P1.jpg
Anyone got an idea how to watercool the condensor without screwing the copper tubes?
pic borrowed from another thread by chilly1

[Gary Lloyd]

Originally posted by Epsilon
I do not agree with you Gary (first time lol :D)

If the air-in / air- out delta T of the condenser is 15c (with an ambient temp of 20c or so)

And the water is 3c above ambient (doable with a large heatercore. My watertemp in my gaming rig is also 3c above ambient).

Then it is possible that the condenser in fact is 5c - 10c lower than before. Ofcourse, the water must flow through the fins.

I must admit, i do not know the exact effects on the evap (it will not correspong 100% with the condenser temp).

But i do know that the evap temp will be lower in a good constructed system.

That's a lot of ifs. Let me add one more:

What if the SCT is 3C above ambient (doable with a large condenser/fan combination)?

[Gary Lloyd]

Originally posted by pythagoras
I plan on building an evaporative condensor like the attachment, after my first phase change system is built.

Regards

John

You will want to place this outdoors of course, as the water evaporates rapidly, and you won't like all the humidity in your computer room.

Also, you will need a water supply with a float valve to replenish the evaporated water.

Then you will probably want a chemical feeder to take care of the algae, mineral deposits, and such.

Oh, and if it gets below freezing in your area, don't forget to shut it down and drain it during the winter. You don't want to freeze it up and burst things.

[Gary Lloyd]

Originally posted by ant1
Well it´s 5° + noise reduction.

Why not put the condenser and fan outdoors, and the compressor, too? Add a big fan while you're at it. You won't hear any of it. You will love the temps you get in cool weather.

[skate2snow]

Gary, the Water have a better thermal conductive propeties then the air. Thats why its givin the same results. Like think this way. If you take a heated solder iron. Will it take longer, sametime or shorter to cool down if you put it in water instead of let it in the air?

[Gary Lloyd]

In which case you are transferring the heat to the water or to the air. A single transfer.

But we are talking about transferring heat twice. First to the water, and then to the air. How can that be more efficient than just transferring to the air.

[froudeg]

I think they are referring to using a much bigger radiator and fan to cool the water... a lot bigger than what the small vapochill condensor is.

I know people like you and me would just fit a bigger condensor, which is definately the best way to do it - but i think they're trying to improve condensor cooling without having to break into the vapo and recharge etc.

But as you say, there will be some loss in the condensor to water to radiator to air transfer....and the gains are going to be small at best.

[gkiing]

Well i'm confused. Some peoiple have said water cooled condensers are great, others say they aren't.

Air cooled condensers are probably better in the long run, although if you want every last degree out of it i guess you could justify watercooling it.