basic chiller questions

[gouda96]

I am planning on building a chiller in the next few weeks (I am being optimistic...school is a biznitch) and I have a few realy basic questions. It is going to be used to cool my gpu for now, and when I get my dual evap phase change unit (hopefully before the summer) it will be used on the cpu of a secondary rig. From what I have seen this could get me down to the -20c's if I get a nice size res and good insulation, does that sound about right?

I was thinking of using an ac unit like this (http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/diy_main/pg_diy.jsp?CNTTYPE=PROD_META&CNTKEY=Products_2%2fHeating+%26+Cooling%2fAir+Cond itioners+%26+Access.%2fAir+Conditioners&BV_SessionID=@@@@0011460762.1080631902@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccedadcldiigjikcgelceffdfgidgmk.0&MID=9876) 5200 but unit unless otherwise suggested.

How would an eheim 1060 work for the pump being that is the only one I have atm. I guess it would be tough to fit that in one of the slim beer coolers that I see alot of people using, but I can probably find another good cooler for the chiller res.

I am also unsure about the power wiring...infact I realy don't know what needs to be done with it.

Does anyone know where to get a pipe bending tool for a good price?...I didn't see any on home depot's site, so I am gonna check a few local hardware stores. I picked up this (http://www.rparts.com/Catalog/Tools_&_Equipment/benders.asp) link as I read through about chillers, but the person who posted it said you could possibly find them locally for a better price.

Thanks alot for any help, and thanks for all the oustanding threads and posts about chillers. I was able to learn an incredible ammount in a short period of time thanks to all the awesome members of this forum!

[Charles Wirth]

The home depot link doesnt go to the right spot

Why not buy a small chest freezer? Chong345 sealed it and filled it with antifreeze. This works well as you can dump in a few bags of ice or make a complete ice layer on top with block of dry ice on top of that.

I used a 10 gallon chili pot inside my freezer.

http://fugger.netfirms.com/woody.JPG

maxed out around -27c with a cheap digital thermometer.

[gouda96]

How much did that cost you, and where did you get it? I had seen people warning against freezers because they weren't designed to deal with the constant heat load.

[Charles Wirth]

I paid $168 from best buy

It handled the constant heat load and I would use blocks of ice for benching.

"seasoned"
http://fugger.netfirms.com/frozen.jpg

[gouda96]

you just drop the ice in next to the res? What kind of load temps would you get without the ice?

[Charles Wirth]

Check the pic from ice build up on the inside of the freezer. took months to get that much building.

[gouda96]

ah, so you it will build up ice when not under load, so that it will be harder to raise the temps when your cpu puts out alot of heat?

[Charles Wirth]

I ran 24/7 and that was a gaming machine overclocked.

I also used a submersable pump that adds more heat load.

[kommando]

Man i've been trying to build chillers and i've failed because i've always had a dodgey unit :(

[JWB]

Originally posted by kommando
Man i've been trying to build chillers and i've failed because i've always had a dodgey unit :(

Is that why you thread has stoppped being updated kommando? Hope you find a good one soon :D

JWB

[JWB]

Originally posted by gouda96

Does anyone know where to get a pipe bending tool for a good price

You can bend them by hand if you are careful and take you time, especially if your ac has quite long pipes.

[gouda96]

So the question is $170 for the easy ice chest, or about $90 for converting an ac unit to a chiller, but with a risk of breaking it and wasting $80...hm...

[water_cooler 20]

I would go with the AC since it cheaper and it would get colder results
and if your woried about breaking the lines u might want to buy a tube bender

[JWB]

I would also get the ac because is it cheaper and will get colder results as water_cooler 20 said. Although it would not be a bad idea to find a cheap second hand freezer if it is just eventually going on your second computer.

[gouda96]

ok, so it looks like I will go with ac unit and just try to be realy careful.

What about my eheim 1060, will that be good?

Also, what do I do about the power wiring.

[dexx]

I like the idea of using a chest freezer - nice and neat. I imagine you could also get a small bar fridge and submerge the evaporator (usually the freezer compartment or ice tray) in a bucket of water.

If i wanted to avoid the bother of condensation due to cooling below dew point. Would a temperature controlled chiller be too slow to respond to the varying heat load of a CPU? ie water would get too warm under load or freeze when idle.

[kommando]

Maybe heat up the tubing while bending it up to bend stoof?

[zakelwe]

Originally posted by dexx
I like the idea of using a chest freezer - nice and neat. I imagine you could also get a small bar fridge and submerge the evaporator (usually the freezer compartment or ice tray) in a bucket of water.

If i wanted to avoid the bother of condensation due to cooling below dew point. Would a temperature controlled chiller be too slow to respond to the varying heat load of a CPU? ie water would get too warm under load or freeze when idle.

I am still testing a chest freezer and about 5 gallons of fluid in it ( not touchiing the sides, in it's own container )at -20C. It takes 2 hours for the liquid to get to 0C with only 80w load. Therefore I am going to follow advice and make it waterproof and have direct contact with the liquid, hence pulldown time should be shorter and warm up time should be longer ( I am aiming for 6 and 4 hours respectively which will suit my normal 3dmark benching runs).

Regards

Andy

[hallowen]

Using a 5 Cu Ft Chest freezer to cool my 9800XT mcw50-t/172W pelt Only!

Works pretty good, but I have to add more Glycol 'cause it's freezing the liquid at @-12.5C

[kayl]

a airconditioner evap submerged into an esky of 20l coolent can go from room temperature to 1deg in about 20mins.
below there takes a little longer.
2.5hours to get to -20deg or so

and the best bit dont have to turn it back on again for 3 plus hours, even using a 226tec
well just surfing the internet and playing games online.

[gouda96]

What kind of airconditioner did you use? What cooler did you use for the res, one of those slim coolers?

[gouda96]

I was wondering...what type of temperature difference would you expect to see between a 5200 btu unit and say a 6200 btu unit and an 8000 btu unit?

[kayl]

i couldnt get a slim cooler so i lay mine in the wrong way it the esky i already had laying around
does ok but could do better if i laid it in upright.

i have a 5,900 and a 6,500 but airconditioners.

anything above 5,00btu should get as cold as the others,
the bigger the unit the quicker the pull down (well in theory other factors can effect it too)

[gouda96]

could anyone point me at a post that shows what kind of wiring I would need to do for a kenmore 5200btu unit? I mean for an on off switch. Hopefully I will be geting my ac unit this weekend, being that I only have to read 600 pages of crap for my english final on mon, so I should have plenty of time to get started.

[gouda96]

K, got the unit running, and I am gonna chill my mcw50-t. No load, it dropped to -34c in a few hours (can't believe I didn't look at the clock when I turned it on :mad:).

What is the suggested anti corrosion additive? Also, I have a mix of 80%h20 / 20%methanol (4gal/1gal) and didn't have any freezing problems, but I am gonna add an extra 1/2 gallon of methanol to be sure. Even with the cooler closed a small amount of methanol gas escapes. It is only noticeable if you have your face near the area of the cooler where I cut a 2" hole for the pipes in the side of the cooler.

My first question is, are these fumes dangerous? Is there any risk of fire? My water heater is about 30' away, and I have been sitting 3' away from it on my computer for about 16 hours a day for the last week (DAMN FINALS!)so I realy don't think there is any problem, but my mom is a little worried about it, and I just wanted to make sure that everything was okay.

Second question: What spray insulation is suggested? I only know of Great Stuff, but there are 3 kinds.

[gouda96]

no more time...going to get the stuff. I will probably go with the great stuff for big cracks. And I will tell my mom that I have to hold my breath the whole time I am in the basement :D

[Blergo]

lmao @ holding your breath, pop down the army surplus store and get yerself a gas mask / respirator of some kind :D only thing you have to watch for then is vapour build up ;-) otherwise one spark and BOOOM!!!!!

[gouda96]

Yeah, when I took the lid off for the first time in a week it had quite a bit of vapor build up. Guess it might be a good idea to periodically open it up and let it air out.

Anyway...I got some great stuff, but didn't use it. I bought some armaflex and some butyl setting tape. I am gonna try using just the armaflex first, put a second layer if needed, and if that doesn't work well I will cover the whole thing in butyl tape and then arma flex.