DIY chiller help

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
ok so i might of had the dial cranked up already oops lol...but turns out that i can get the fridge down to 45F i am trying to see what the warmest i can get the fridge to now. but 45F is pretty cold, i hope this works. might start drilling holes tonight
 
so everyone should disregaurd my last two posts lol, i was wrong again, but i have figured out how my fridge works now, my temp range is 16F-45F. thats a pretty good range
 
expkeeper19 said:
so how does the temp controler get hooked up to the fridge, i dont follow?
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The controller has a slot for a plug. You plug the fridge into the controller. The controller has a probe that goes into your tank water. This tells the controller what temperature your tank is. You set the controller to whatever temperature you want your tank at... Say 60 degrees. When the tank rises to 61 degrees or so, the controller turns the fridge on... Once the temperature is back down, the controller senses it and turns the fridge off.


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aclockworkorange said:
The controller has a slot for a plug. You plug the fridge into the controller. The controller has a probe that goes into your tank water. This tells the controller what temperature your tank is. You set the controller to whatever temperature you want your tank at... Say 60 degrees. When the tank rises to 61 degrees or so, the controller turns the fridge on... Once the temperature is back down, the controller senses it and turns the fridge off.


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Click to expand...

Sounds cool.


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Oughtsix said:
In all practicality a keg/tank cooler would only work if you like drinking your beer at the same temperature you want to keep the tank?

My suggestion for a long tube is based on surface area and heat exchange. The Rena filter has a small surface area with relatively non heat conductive plastic. I question how much heat the Rena casing will give up. A copper tube would be great for heat exchange but I have read that copper is not good in tanks???? Plastic tubing is a pretty decent heat insulator so you will have to make up for this with a longer run.

You will want to set the refrigerator at the temperature you want the tank water to be at. If you set it considerably lower than your desired tank water temperature you will have troubles keeping your tank at a constant temperature. With a long tube the exit temperature should be very close to the refrigerator temperature once the system reaches an equilibrium.

While the tank is initially cooling you will need to remove heat from the water plus any heat the tank collects from the atmosphere. Once the tank reaches the set temperature you will only need to remove as much heat as the tank collects from the atmosphere to maintain the tank temperature.

A large diameter smooth wall tube, say 1" or so, should provide minimal back pressure.

Having to pull the filter out from the refrigerator every time you need to maintain the filter sounds like a pain.

Hunting down a leak inside the confines of a compact refrigerator doesn't sound like it would be easy. A continuous run of tubing inside the refrigerator would have practically no potential for leaking.

I have a XP3 but I forget if it is a totally submersed pump? If it is air cooled then you are disipating the pump heat as well as the water heat inside of the refrigerator. If it is a submersed pump then it doesn't make a difference since all the pump heat is going into the water.

These were my reasons for suggesting a plastic tube... feel free to evaluating their validity for your project.
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Oughtsix said:
"Great Stuff" expanding foam.
Click to expand...

Oughtsix, you always come up with great advise. I know it's great because I completely agree with you! :)

I had a computer geek friend in the 90's back when everyone was over-clocking their PC's. He bought a used full sized fridge and put his computer in the top freezer part, ran the cables out for the monitor, key board, and so on. The bottom part was a Keg with a tap on the door. Fricken genius in my opinion.

To the OP. Coil a bunch of PEX line inside the fridge. You can keep it all on just one shelf and keep your fish food in the freezer and beers in the rest of the fridge. If you run the PEX with just a pump, no filter, you can turn the pump on and off with a temperature controller. I just set up a fan on my tank that turns on and off depending on the water temps keeping the tank cool with just evaporation. Works great but will only drop the tanks temps 5 degrees or so.
 
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