Part-time chiller, possible?

[benny08]

Hi

I've been doing a fair bit of reading about chilling, and phase change in general. I'm sure in the future that there will be many more questions, but for now, just a couple...

I've heard that it is possible to make a chilled system that uses the regular watercooling methods, eg pump-block-rad etc..., and then if a certain temperature is reached, it is somehow redirected into the chiller section and the water is cooled back down to negative temperatures? Did i mis-interpret somewhere along the way, or is this actually possible? If so, do normal pumps like swiftech work, and is clearflex or tygon tubing alright to use or does the system need to be copper piping and heavily insulated?

Thanks

PS. i did search and didnt find anything, but maybe my searching sucks hehe

[Dragoon42]

A chiller just makes the water cold. It doesn't wait until a certain temp is reached or anything

[jinu117]

It is possible to control it to only cool down to certain temp so that it doesn't have to operate all the time... sort of like refrigerator at home.

[RussC]

Mine will do this with a simple capillary thermostat, see here
my chiller w/thermostat (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=78141)

RussC

[expansionvalve]

Another thermostat user here, I chose eliwell digistat, works well.

[chew*]

It's actually quite easy to control chiller temps........ I have a sporlan chill control. I can dial in temps from room temp all the way down to -50F. Whats the advantage? well say i just wanted to keep a cpu below ambient and not insulate... i dial in about 55f and load it up and adjust temp from there. running a chiller at full load 24/7 is kinda pointless imho to bench yes but for everyday use not necessary. Russ if you insulate your res extremely well it will hold temps for alot longer time than you would think. I would toss the radiator design out though as that will negate temps imho by blowing room temps on chilled liquid.

[RussC]

I agree,
Umm, my res will be insulated. I'll end up with 1" Armaflex all around. I have the first 1/2" layer on now, and the other when I get my pump/tubing to the head done. I hope it will be today.

See this pic for res insulation:
http://img468.imageshack.us/img468/8981/resevor15bn.jpg

RussC


It's actually quite easy to control chiller temps........ I have a sporlan chill control. I can dial in temps from room temp all the way down to -50F. Whats the advantage? well say i just wanted to keep a cpu below ambient and not insulate... i dial in about 55f and load it up and adjust temp from there. running a chiller at full load 24/7 is kinda pointless imho to bench yes but for everyday use not necessary. Russ if you insulate your res extremely well it will hold temps for alot longer time than you would think. I would toss the radiator design out though as that will negate temps imho by blowing room temps on chilled liquid.

[chew*]

I went one step further and bought a small 1 gallon cooler/thermos then insulated it. you might want to rethink your res as even though insulated that thin plastic is going to lose temps faster than lets say a 2 layer thermos with styrofoam center then insulated again on the outside.

http://members.cox.net/wmdieselmc26/chiller%202

[RussC]

Umm,
yea, but I wanted a resonably sized resivoir. I think the 1" foam will be OK, for now. I have all the stuff installed now, so, unless I'm going to rebuild it, Im stickin with this for now.

RussC