Danger Den +TEC SUX'S-226w TEC quit ?

[cowpuppy]

I started my pc up as normal this morning and the pelt wouldn't draw any amp's? I tested the psu it works with a 172w. Why would such a new pelt just quit working like that? (its days old) The wires are attached just fine.I assembeld it w/aritic silver. Is it neccesary to soft start them? low v/? By the way I was running the recomended 15v and the pelt drew 24 amps on the nose. My psu is more than enuff its rated 15v 36amp's.

Then I'm not sure about the pelts performance w/the Danger Den Maze 3. my chiller cooled the non tec set up just as well. But then it was a reall strian on the chiller it self. I couldn't belive the amount of heat the tec produced. I made a helper for my chiller i made a cool can out of a 5gal water cooler w/50 feet of cooper tubing filled w/ice. I think I will try the swifteck tec block next since I need a new pelt any ways.

[zippyc]

The artic silver may have made it's way past the ceramic and caused a short. Just speculation, but that stuff is conductive and I stay away from it when using pelts.

[Tedinde]

Sad to hear, Order another. I always seal the ends of my pelts if they arent already.

[cowpuppy]

I reversed the polarity and the pelt started drawing amp's so I fliped it over and reinstalled it. Why does it work now with the polarity reversed? Is it safe to use?

[Foghorn]

Originally posted by cowpuppy
I reversed the polarity and the pelt started drawing amp's so I fliped it over and reinstalled it. Why does it work now with the polarity reversed? Is it safe to use?

Set the pelt on a table with the wires toward you. Turn it so the red wire is on the right and the black wire is on the left. Remember this is with the wires pointing towards you. The cold side will be on top.

[cowpuppy]

I know wich side goes up and down. read my question. I hooked up the pelt backwords. red to neg and black to pos. It started working. So I flipped it over (from what it was) cold side still down.
Why does this work now? and is it safe?

[Foghorn]

Yes, it should be. Some pelts are used as both cooling and heating elements. They switch from one function to the other by switching polarity. I am not sure if there is any difference in efficiency. But then pelts aren't efficient anyway.

[Foghorn]

Something is wrong here. If it runs with the wires hooked up one way it should run with the wires reversed. Why? Because it has to have a complete circut to work at all.

I think I am going to go to the Allied Web site and do some research, about this.

[cowpuppy]

Well I have to say I'm just not happy with this whole TEC adventure. My chiller and plain water block kool better then w/the TEC added. and to make matters worse now my chiller temp rides around 39F even with a kool bucket in there (5gal bucket + 50' of copper line) so now my N.Bridge temp rises. Sure I got a 172w to throw on it but now thats just going to raise the chiller temp some more and then my cpu will run warmer. It's a circle and I'm just chasin my tail. I guess I need a custom chiller.

[Foghorn]

cowpuppy, Your chiller by itself cooling the CPU is dealing with what about 275 BTU/hour? Then you install the pelt, adding another 775BTU/hour, giving you about 1050 BTU/hour or roughly 75 calorie/second's of heat to get rid of. (Also there is additional heat getting into the system through the insluation, fittings etc.)

That is a lot of heat for a Lab chiller to get rid of in a short time even helped by a kool bucket. You are seeing that now, as the overall system temp is 39ºF. You could help thing some by adding rock salt to the ice, lowering its temperature closer to 0ºF/17.7ºC.

It might be better just using the pelt with a good radiator on the CPU and cooling the NB/SB/Mosfets/VidCard and anything else you have with the chiller.

Pelts work best with plenty of clamping force. I don't put much faith in thermal compound/grease when used with pelts. The temperature changes are too great, and the thermal materal will be probably be forced out.

[zippyc]

The challenge of the pelt cooling is really how to get rid of all the heat of the pelts efficiently enough to be able add the much smaller load of the CPU, GPU, or whatever else you are trying to cool, as Foghorn pointed out.

In my system I chose to have the pelts cool the cold loop itself, and have that cold liquid run through my existing waterblocks. My system's cold loop gets down to 1.8C and up to 14C under extreme load after hours of gaming.

Currently I have seven water blocks cooling/heating six pelts in a fairly inefficient spiderweb, soon to be replaced with three large custom copper peltier blocks that ought to ROCK in cooling capability (designed for heavy/even clamping forces and high flowrates....).

I am convinced that a window AC converted into a chiller is now the way to go, and would probably start there next if I were you (after watercooling). If I began again that is where I would go.

If you do not plan to introduce a bunch of peltiers into the loop too, a $85.00 5000BTU window unit from home depot could cool your water loop to well below freezing and have enough headroom to cool your CPU, GPU, and NB all at once. Just a thought....


I'm going to get a big ole sucka (10-12K BTU) in a few months to take care of the 1000W or more of pelts I will have in my loop by then (currently I'm running appx. 800w total of TEC's). With the
-20C chiller cooling the "hot" side of my pelt loop I should get very good cooling results at the cold loop (-30? -40? Don't know yet.)

And the big problem with pelts as I see it is that they are horribly inefficient and generate tons of heat, and you will see peltier use impact your electricity bill too...

[cowpuppy]

Originally posted by zippyc


I am convinced that a window AC converted into a chiller is now the way to go, and would probably start there next if I were you (after watercooling). If I began again that is where I would go.


I have a chiller that reaches -10F water temp (pic included)

[zippyc]

cowpup,


How many BTU's is it rated for? How did you handle the immersion and flow over the evaporator coils? And you have a 226W and a 80W tec you are cooling, right? Is -10c under full load? Any more pics, or do you have a good thread started already....?

Blue makes it run cooler, I'm sure!

:toast:

[cowpuppy]

I'm not sure of the BTU's. This -10 water temp was on a very cool morning before I ever add my 226w pelt. This was Idele temps load temps went to 0F after a 3d benching
I bought this unit off ebay for a 100.00 and it cost me 80.00 to have it shipped from CA.

I can say one good thing that I like about the TEC setup is it get cold right away. Where My chiller takes about 4hrs to settle down into its running temps

[zippyc]

I see.

Well, low BTU systems can also start at very low temps, but temps would rise pretty rapidly once you fire up.

You may not have the BTU's to handle the TEC's..

[cowpuppy]

Ya I hear that. Maybe I just need to go Promi on my cpu and let my chiller take on the pelts for the N.B and GPU. It's just that I've spent a lot of money on 3 pelts and 2 psu's and I'm just not happy w/the resuts

I'll try to get some more pics of my rig latter. I have to buy some batteries for my web cam so I can take it off the usb cable.

[Foghorn]

cowpuppy,

That unit has a heater also doesn't it? I think its a lab unit, and ment to maintain a set temperature, not be an active cooler. In other words you pick a temperature, set the thermostat and later on after everything has stabilized, you make any adjustments you need. It would be used to maintain an experment/speciman at this set temperature. I don't think is was ment to be an active cooler, it just doesn't sound like it has the capacity.

[cowpuppy]

Yes it has a heater and it is a lab unit. I dont use the heater I keep it on full chill. I havn't tried recharging the system yet it's still the same as the day I recieved it. All I did was pug it in and fill it. It out preforms my Koolance Exos a 100 times over and was worth every penny in comparisson.

I hope this thread and my problems help others contemplating adding TEC's to thier set-ups and the trubles involved.

TEC's create Extreme heat that must be transferd

[cowpuppy]

I removed the TEC from my cpu last night. While I had the system down I changed out TEC's in my GPU block and slipped in a 175w unit. I'm only able to run it at 15v as I havn't recived my 24v psu yet. Initial runs look good. I reached some of my highest clocks on my vid card yet 524/384 and hope there is more after I recieve my psu.

Before I go back to the TEC on the CPU and ad one to my N.B I need to figure out how to get my chiller to cool the water down more. I have a air conditioner that is not being used.

What do you guy's think? I need some Ideas here.

[zippyc]

If you have an air conditioner that is big enough, you could convert it into a water chiller. For your two pelts. a 5000 BTU unit should do it no problem.

You would have to take out /lower the evaporator coils into your res. (a cooler maybe?), then run water by the fins to facilitate heat exchange.

In theory....

Bowman or oppainter might be able to help you with suggestions.

Also you can look at http://phase-change.com/phpBB2/index.php for info., ideas, and similar projects.

[SpicyHuevos]

18,500 btu's of pure cooling power in my chiller;)
Dont get a small one you will be sorry.
Always better to have more then less.
I only paid $25.00 for this mammoth window unit at a garage sale

[zippyc]

Sure would like to see your res, and how did you drop (seperate) the evaporator? And how did you choose to run water by it?

I'm looking at every example out there for ideas...

How about some Pics or a Link?

Thanks!

Zippyc