Mini-fridge as a chiller?

[Scuba_Dave]

So has anyone tried this, or know someone who has? I have a sm fridge that is just begging to be drilled. I know you would need coiled hose & slow pump to allow water to cool.

[beerguy]

Yeah I recall a couple folks trying it. I believe that what worked better then just coiling hose inside the fridge was putting a vessel of water inside the fridge and putting the coiled hose in the water; better heat transfer.

[moe_k]

I heard they're not very efficient at cooling the water.

[newreefer03]

I remember a thread from earlier this year where someone was selling a fridge rigged to be a chiller on the selling forum.

[this is me]

ahh.....just put your tank is the frig!!

[jscarb2]

it was here or over at saltwaterfish.com they called it getto chiller

[Scuba_Dave]

Well, the idea is that we are going to have a 2nd full size fridge in the basement, and as long as it is running....
I'm not looking for a huge drop
I don't think a 125g or a 180g will fit in any fridge I have

[Geepers Creepers]

I herd that those small refrigerators used for chillers will run all the time and will burn out.
I forget where I read it though.

[Brimarbio]

As I recall it's a really inefficant way to do it and really doesn't do much more than a few degrees at best. Better bet of a DIY chiller was to rig an AC unit to do it. Can't remember when it was, maybe the spring but some guy had the plans for just that here on RC... Look around Dave, you are the RC king afterall... ;)

[matt-davis sq.]

I'm sorry, Dave,

But as I've heard (I've never tried it myself), using a min-fidge as a chiller will not work -- the compressor simply isn't powerful enough, even running continuously. Moreiver, running the compressor continuously leads to rapid burn out.

Chilling 2 cubic feet of air is nothing compared to chilling 180 gallons of saltwater.

Just to prove I'm not being a naysayer, I looked up the expected energy consumption for a 2.5 cubic foot mini-fridge. They advertise it at 300kW-h. Assume the mini-fridge is 75% efficient (that is good). Now I know that is total energy for one year, but taking that energy per unit time would give an idea of how much the compressor should be running, not how much it could run. Remember, the mini-fridge compressor is not designed to continuously run. It turns out that is equal to 25.69W of cooling power on average, or 0.03442 (~1/30th) horespower.

After a bit of research, I learned that most mini-fridges come with a motor ranging from 1/8th to 1/20th horespower. This is approaching the range of a small chiller (assuming you could run the mini-fridge continuously), but would still be way undersized for a tank like the one you are planning.

Sorry,

Matt:cool:

[Scuba_Dave]

Mini-fridge would be a test. I have a 2nd full size fridge that I want to use. And the idea would be to have a "holding tank" inside the fridge filled with water, inside which would be another container. The inside container would hold maybe a couple gallons. The warm water would be fed into the fridge, thru coiled tubing in the external conatiner, then into the internal resorvoir.
Then back out, thru some more tubing, then exit the fridge.
Agin, I'm not looking for (nor expect) a huge drop - maybe 2 degrees. I just need something to mess with, and I figure I might as well try it. Can't spring for $800-1000 for a chiller sized for system (yet).

[bdr127]

I would go with that idea, Dave... Like everyone else said, I don't think rigging it to work like a real chiller would be good.... Just pumping the water through the fridge would probably be good a couple degrees. If the fridge is running for food anyways, why not send some tank water through it? :p

[Scuba_Dave]

Yes, I forgot that people have tried ripping these apart & using the fridge cooling plate to cool the water, which is not my intention. Just tubing in the fridge will not work, not enought ime to cool off. Tubing thru a separate resorvoir would be better, but having a SW resorvoir inside I think would do it.
I'll have to play with it a while once hooked up, I dont want it too cold, but hopefully that will not be a problem

[Brimarbio]

Might wanna check out CRA Dave... He's got a close out deal on a 1/2 HP chiller that's quite a deal!

[Scott Merrill]

dave,
i have an old mini fridge i can give you to test it out. want it?
you can grab it when you grab the 75g
:D

[Scuba_Dave]

Originally posted by Brimarbio
Might wanna check out CRA Dave... He's got a close out deal on a 1/2 HP chiller that's quite a deal!

I saw the chiller, but $$$co$t is beyond me right now. Once I sell my house I'll be all set, but we are buying the new house before selling the 1st. Kinda puts a kink in my SW habit right now.
Possibly have a buyer, but it will still take 45 days or so from offer to closing.

If anyone knows of someone who wants a 3 bedroom house in Hanson, new Title V septic being installed, w/unfinished new 2nd floor (if finished house would be over 1600sq ft), Cathedral ceilings, skylights, 24k A/C in main room, 10k A/C in bedroom, new kitchen, new bathroom, $2500 Soapstone wood stove, and a NICE hot tub, let me know.!!

Scott, I may take you up on that, I'm hoping that I can pu tank on Monday night - or Tues, whichever is more convienent.
The wife's foot is much better & she has just started to drive to/from the commuter rail station. Which free's me up for pu travel!

[skatezen]

Just an idea... but maybe setting up a drip plate into a reservoir would work well. Suspend the plate a good amount over the reservoir so that the water has maximum time in the air until it falls in the reservoir. Or maybe setting up something like this....:confused:

[skatezen]

Sorry forgot to include this, and place that whole apparatus in the frig.

[Willistein]

Sorry to also be against this chiller idea but....:(

Maximizing the cooling power of a minifridge involves two things:

1. Maximizing the surface area of the water lines inside the fridge. This could be done with much tubing. Maybe you would use a coil of finned tubing...who knows. The surface area between the hot tank water and the cold air is where the heat transfer takes place.

2. Maximizing the flow rate of the water through the tubes. This may not make sense initially but bear with me. Ideally you want the largest temperature difference between the hot tank water and your cold fridge air. Heat transfer is directly proportional to this temperature difference (delta T). Twice the delta T, twice the heat transfer. Therefore by letting the water move slowly through the system (essentially what you're doing with a reservoir), you lose this maximum temperature difference.

I hope this makes sense. The best you can hope for is what Matt suggested at about 25 watts of cooling power. This would be negligible in any system larger than a couple gallons.

Dan

[Willistein]

skatezen - your suggestion might be a good way to maximize the efficiency of the fridge, but you'll still only be approaching that 25 watts. I hate to say it but, there is a reason people buy chillers and don't waste their time modifying mini-fridges...:rolleyes:

Dan

[Scuba_Dave]

Well I guess the proof will be in the pudding as they say, not sure why they say that but...
Since I have a fridge available, and time to test, we'll see what happens. But we may need to wait until summer for true results
I just can't imagine that a 8g reservoir (or more) of water chilled to 40 degrees, will not have an effect on a 260g or so system.
I have added 4g of 60 degree water to a 60g all at once (sm emergency) and it had a very large effect (and scared the cr@p outta me) - turned on the lights to counteract, temp didnt dip too much.

[Willistein]

Undoubtably it would, in fact, it would make a 1.2 degree F difference. But, it would take hours to get that much water cooled to 40 degrees in a mini fridge. Are you planning to run the reservoir continuously or just every couple hours dump 40 degree water in your system?

[Scuba_Dave]

I'm not sure exacty how I am going to rig this, possibly a gate valve/ball valve combo off of return pump to tubing. I'll have to play with it & see what happens & if it will be worth it to modify a larger frig.
I may put this on a timer to coincide w/ the lights coming on (or 30 minutes after lights come on). No need to run it 24 hours
I do not have SPS at present (except for some sm frags)

[bdr127]

As I said in my previous post, there is no sense not trying in this situation, since the fridge is already set up and running as a normal food fridge. Since you wouldn't be taking anything apart, there is no reason why you couldn't just fool around with this... even if you get only a degree or two temp drop, you already had the fridge up and running anyway.

[matt-davis sq.]

Well, certainly give it a try if you really need to cool the tank by a couple of degrees, and report back if it is a success.

Just remember, what a refrigerator normally has to do during its daily grind is simply cool the volume of air inside. This typically just covers the change in air temperature due to the opening and closing of the refrigerator door plus compensate for any cooling lost through the insulation while the door is closed.

Air is orders of magnitude easier to cool than water, so even just having a tank in the refrigerator is going to require full energy on a continual basis. Think of it this way: if you are the refrigerator, what will you see? The poor refrigerator will always see that its inside temperature is greater than the set point temperature* because of a certain, large volume of marine, 80oF saltwater sitting on its shelf. The refrigerator will always think that it can't reach the temperature set point, so it will constantly run the compressor. If the refrigerator can handle this, then the idea is a success. I would just hate for the motor to burn out.

I would also hate for the electric bill to pile up. Again, to run some numbers as a precaution, assume you need to lower 180gal of saltwater by 1C (like 2F) every hour continuously over the 3 months of summer. I think this is pretty reasonable.

I calculated the specific heat of water with a specific gravity of 1.025 to be 4.07 J/g*C. Our temperature change is 1C, and the mass of saltwater in 180gal is 714 kg. Assume an efficiency again of 75% which would be pretty good.

( 4.07 J/g*C ) * ( 714 kg ) * ( 1C/h ) * ( 1 / 75% ) = 3875 kJ/h = 1.075 kW.

There are 6570 hours in a summer (one quarter of a year), so you have 7070 kW*h of energy. I don't recall exactly what the cost of electricity is here in Boston. I think someone once said 11.5 cents per kW*h. That comes out to a summer cost of $813.

That $813 might be an overestimate. It might be an underestimate. Dave, I don't mean to be a pessimist and a naysayer, but from a scientific point of view, the intended process does not make sense. I'm not in business selling chillers or refrigerators. I just fear you might wind up spending as much in electrical costs as on a chiller just trying to keep that 180gal of saltwater cool over one summer. Of course, the chiller will have an electricity cost as well...

Perhaps I have overestimated the drawbacks, and I do encourage you to post back with success,

Matt:cool:

* Just a word about set points, refrigerators normally run around 4C, which corresponds to about 40F: the point at which water is the most dense. If you can, turn the temperature set point up as high as possible. That way, the compressor will not run continuously trying to cool your saltwater to 40 degrees F.

[MadTownMax]

reduce that number by 8/24 = 1/3 since you're only running it when your lights are on -so $271

and yes, I'm interested b/c my tank is smaller, so it seems like a much more adequate solution when I add halides.

so, with the equivalent calculation for my tank, cost would be $108 for the summer, not too shabby, I wouldn't even be to sad if it had to drop the temp 2 degrees :D

I think my electric is about .08, not .11, so I guess I could save even more, but hey, who's counting.

-Nick

[Scuba_Dave]

Thanx for the input, I appreciate your going to the trouble to point out why this probably won't work.
It helps me adjust the trial - set the smaller fridge higher then 40.
I'll give it a try, the electricity usage is a good point.
Maybe use this as a backup method if it works to any degree
With my current setup I only had to run the A/C 14 days Max- I think, only for 8 hours each day, and only really low.
Does anyone know what kind of power a Chiller uses? Cost to run?

[addicktz]

ok, well, i just took an old minifridge, drilled two holes in the door, took a rio 600 turned practicly all the way down, coiled 25 feet of hose inside the fridge, got a crappy timer that has an on/off switch for each hour and boom its up and running, oh, and i took a bunch of old empty 12fl oz water bottles, filled them up, and put them inside the fridge. I did this because my AC went out, and my xenia prop tank went up to 87 degrees, now i didnt get this timer with the on/off switch til just like 10 minutes ago, i had a different timer that was firing 5 times while the lights were on over a 10 hour period and once during the night, it brought the tank down to 81 degrees, which just isnt enough so thats why i went out looking for this on/off timer that has a on/off for each hour of the day, i just set it up to fire every hour for 15 minutes while the lights are on, and every 3 hours for 15 minutes while the lights are off, so lets see what happens tomorrow night, i have a 250 watt heater in the tank just incase it goes below 76 degrees, btw scuba dave, i screwed one mini fridge up by drilling thru the top, i dunno if i just drilled in the wrong area, but right after i cut thru the metal i hit a cooling coil and freon went all in my face, so round two i drilled thru the door with no problems, i would assume most fridges dont have coils in the door. now what ive found is that, when u run water constantly thru the fridge it is ineffective, u gotta let the water in the coiled pipe cool down then send that right into the tank, let the pump shut off, and do it again for best results, i placed all the full water bottles in the fridge to keep the temp inside the fridge cool, the smallest setting on the timer is 15 minutes, while the water in the pipe actually takes less than a minute to come out, it begins to heat up the fridge for the next 14 or so minutes. Ill let you all know what the temp drops too tomorrow night.

[addicktz]

oh btw i should prolly add that my xenia prop tank is a 33L and a 20L algae filter, so a total prolly accounting for sand/rock/sump area in the filter/prefilters i may have a total of at most 40 gals, prolly less =P

[matt-davis sq.]

reduce that number by 8/24 = 1/3 since you're only running it when your lights are on -so $271Actually, I had assumed an average of 1C over 24hours, but this is the weak point in the assumption,

Matt:cool:

[addicktz]

what do u mean by 1C over 24 hours? that would be a drop of 17.2222 degrees in a day? what are u trying to say by "but this is the weak point in the assumption?

[Scuba_Dave]

Thanks for the feed back addicktz, just what I'm looking for!

[matt-davis sq.]

what do u mean by 1C over 24 hours? that would be a drop of 17.2222 degrees in a day? what are u trying to say by "but this is the weak point in the assumption?Okay, you have two questions there.

The first question has to do with the heat capacity of water. What I am saying is that I am assuming, for the sake of computations here, that Dave's 180gal of saltwater is always 1C (like 1.8F) greater than it needs to be. The chiller (or refrigerator) is always putting forth an energy equivalent to dropping 180gal of saltwater by 1.8F.

Now for the second question. This 1.8F is a very broad assumption, but thermodynamics is not my field, and I felt that it certainly wasn't unreasonable. In order to really do the calculation, I would have to know how much energy is being transferred to the tank (by everything), including the ambient temperature. This is not possible, but should not preclude us from doing rough calculations.

My main point is that the numbers aren't even close to working out in favor of this, and neither are anyone's previous experience with trying to ghetto-rig a chiller. I would bet that you would still get a substantial (like $50 to $100) increase in energy cost every month, if the idea even worked.

Matt:cool:

[Scuba_Dave]

Thanks Matt. I think this will make a good backup plan (in case A/C dies), but from thinking it thru (with the eventual size of my system), would be too expensive to run 100% of the time.
It just seems like it should work :)

Just for my own curiosity I will set it up as a test. Without SPS I have never been worried about the temp in my tank. It goes from a low of maybe 76.5 at present to a normal high of 82.6
Extreme low was 74-75 when I stupidly added chilled water. Alltime high was 85-86, when I forgot to plug the fans back in after redoing the sump

[nickoz]

Maybe its just assumed when talking about the full size fridge but Ill ask it anyway..

Since you have a full size fridge to work with, why not rig something up in the freezer?

-nick

[Scuba_Dave]

I'm scared of drilling the freezer....plus the big fridge is almost new, and possibly will be in the bar in the great room. I'm just interested in testing, and given the discussion so far it seems that this will be a backup device.
I was just down at CRA looking at the chiller.....

[matt-davis sq.]

Since you have a full size fridge to work with, why not rig something up in the freezer?Hmmm... Don't give me any temptation to start rethinking this!

Of course, I have an old mini-fridge, and I cannot afford a chiller. I also have a heat problem in the summer. I ran numbers every which way trying to see if I could get this idea to work, despite all the other naysayers at the time. I had no such luck. I never considered a freezer, though....

I know, I know. It really seems like it should work. Its just that a mini-fridge isn't built with a large enough compressor or a compressor thats designed to run continuously. Moreover, your means of cooling the water is very grossly inefficient, as you have to pull heat out of the water via the air inside the unit (air is a poor conductor of heat), as opposed to direct coil-to-water contact that you would get with a chiller,

Matt:cool:

[addicktz]

ok, so the new timer i had got sucks, instead of staying on for 15 minutes at a time it actually stayed on for 30 minutes at a time, making the 1/12th HP compressor work way too hard, so this evening I went out and found a digital timer that has 14 on/off settings with a minimum of 1 min on time, exactly what i was looking for, it shouldnt make the fridge run hard at all in my opinion, and im not good at math, i have no idea how i would go about calculating too complicated of things, i know how to calculate amps X watts to figure out how much it costs to run an appliance for the day, but i dont believe this fridge is going to be running more than 10-15 minutes every hour considering it just isnt that much water it has to cool, im thinking about upgrading from 25 feet of coiled hose to 50 feet of coiled hose, which should make the fridge run a lil harder, but im gonna wait til tomorrow night to decide on that.



ok with that said, from what i know, all it takes for a fridge to run is a compressor compressing freon in one location then letting the condenced freon into the coils slowly thru a condenser (spell check screwed me as a youngster so pardon my spelling.) and it all loops together, im prolly wrong about this, but do any of yall really know what it takes to do this, ive seen home made chillers using a compressor, condenser, with coils inside pvc where the water runs thru it, right now i can get a 1/12th HP mini-fridge at home depot, from what i can tell it wouldnt take much to take the compressor out, i wouldnt want to use copper piping as coiling heh, but from that all u would need it is a condenser, and some titanium coiling inside some pvc, then run some water thru it, correct? let me know guys this is the next step in the DIY chiller =P i dont expect a 1/12hp compressor to cool a 180, but it would definetly cool my xenia tank, oh and the home made chiller i saw was cooling a 400+ gal lobster holding tank at this seafood store next to where i work, and it was dropping the temp in the 50- range, the water was sickly cooled, and im pretty sure they had a 1/2 or less, the compressor wasnt that big.

[addicktz]

Here's a link that would explain how to make a real chiller outta parts, only thing is im sure yall know that you wouldnt wanna use copper tubing heh, ive heard of titanium tubing used, i wonder where they get that stuff.

http://www.wc101.com

[lcsonka39]

im wondering if a deep freezer would work in a case like this... you could put the hose in, cover it with water... and have the water freeze over, thust creating an effective method for transfering heat out of hose and into the frozen ice...

i really should have paid attention to the second half of that term of physics i took freshman year.. lol

[fishreefoctobreed]

well all i can add to this conversation is that water has the amazing ability to resist change in temperature and thats why we use it to cool everything (drinks and car engines) and so the best way to set the chiller up would definitely be to have some free space of water frozed around a coil of tank water because as that water flows the ice resists the change in temp helping the crappy chiller. air however changes temp very quickly and using this chiller with just the coil would probably burn it out.
one more thing! i dont think anyone on here should say that this cant be done. but perhaps maybe "i cant think of a way to make it work" because im sure if you put the right team of people on this job it could be solved. so it can be done its just gonna take the proper motivation on the builders part to do it right. even if it takes buying another fridge (addictz)

[Scuba_Dave]

It just so happens I have a piece of cr@p old freezer too.....geez why did you have to remind me. Now I have 2 projects to add to my list

[lcsonka39]

lol... sorry... all in the name of science though!

[matt-davis sq.]

i dont think anyone on here should say that this cant be done. but perhaps maybe "i cant think of a way to make it work" because im sure if you put the right team of people on this job it could be solved. Oh no, it really cannot be done (practically), with or without the right people.

Sadly, that's not my opinion, its just the numbers.

Trying to use a mini-fridge to cool a 180gal tank is like putting a lawnmower engine in a standard car and expecting it to go 60 mi/h.

The energy balance just doesn't work out.

Matt:cool:

[matt-davis sq.]

ive seen home made chillers using a compressor, condenser, with coils inside pvc where the water runs thru it, right now i can get a 1/12th HP mini-fridge at home depot, from what i can tell it wouldnt take much to take the compressor out, i wouldnt want to use copper piping as coiling heh, but from that all u would need it is a condenser, and some titanium coiling inside some pvc, then run some water thru it, correct? I am far more optimistic about this approach.

All you have to do is determine whether the compressor in the refrigerator is of the same quality as a chiller compressor. If that is the case, then you could get 1/12 hp (less efficiency losses) worth of cooling out of that unit.

The reason this works better than the tank of water in the mini-fridge is that the coils are in direct contact with the water. You cut the whole refrigerator part out (with its door, air, insulation losses, temperature switches, etc.), which is, odly, the most inefficient part of the system.

No, 1/12hp will not really cool a 180gal tank, but it should work on a small tank, at least in theory. I think this is a very good idea, and I encourage you to post back with success.

The same approach would work for a larger tank. You just need a larger compressor.

Matt:cool:

[addicktz]

did any of yall look at the plans for water cooling units on that website i posted? it basicly tells u how to make a chiller for a pc, but see the only difference it would be for an aquarium would be that instead of pumping water to the cpu to cool it, u would pump water in from the tank and have it lead back to the tank. im actually on my way out to find some the materials im going to need for this project, Im gonna put this one on my 155bowfront to see how cold it will make it, since i only have two florida lobsters in there right now.

[addicktz]

matt-davis, do you know what the length and width of the evaporator should be for a 1/12th hp compressor? is there a formula out there? if it doesnt matter what would be colder a longer evaporator or a shorter one? ive located my titanium tubing, and im pretty sure im ready to go, just looking for some final answers on a couple of questions ill keep yall up to date

[matt-davis sq.]

matt-davis, do you know what the length and width of the evaporator should be for a 1/12th hp compressor?I am sorry but I don't, I don't even know what direction to point you in:( Thanks for stopping by, and let us know how this goes,

Matt:cool:

[redpaulhus]

I tend to see this as a BTU problem - how many BTU's can a typical appliance (dorm fridge, regular fridge, freezer, water cooler, etc) deal with in a given timeframe (BTU/hour)...

If I remember correctly, one BTU is the energy required to heat\cool one pound of water one degree... since water weighs about 9 lbs per gallon, it would take approx 9 BTU to cool 1 gallon ... so a 75 gallon tank needs about 675 BTU/hr for each degree of cooling...

sooo -- how many BTU is the fridge\freezer rated for ?

(Most of these household devices work on the principle of cooling a small volume that is well insulated over a long period of time... an area that is experiencing no ADDED heat ... not a tank with powerheads, skimmer pumps, and halides adding heat... so they tend to be fairly low BTU )



http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~cap/raid/chillers/dormfridge/index.html

http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~cap/raid/chillers/diy/index.html

[addicktz]

thats pretty discouraging, does this btu thing deal with cooling water thru pipes in a fridged area, or is this water being cooled with direct contact with the evaporators? thanks for the info anyhow, im ready to try my chiller with direct contact from evaporator to water flow, and in one of those articles i believe i read that 1/6hp is 1500 btu, so that makes 1/12hp 750 btu correct?

[Scuba_Dave]

So what about the rating of a full size fridge, or a freezer?
I'm have a 2nd fridge & an old freezer that is just sitting around.
If a long lenth of tubing were encased in a block of ice in the freezer, would this work?
Any BTU on freezers? How did you find out BTU of the dorm fridges (I guess that is out now).
Thanx for the info

[3_high_low]

Originally posted by matt-davis sq.
I'm sorry, Dave,

But as I've heard (I've never tried it myself), using a min-fidge as a chiller will not work -- the compressor simply isn't powerful enough, even running continuously. Moreiver, running the compressor continuously leads to rapid burn out.

Chilling 2 cubic feet of air is nothing compared to chilling 180 gallons of saltwater.

Just to prove I'm not being a naysayer, I looked up the expected energy consumption for a 2.5 cubic foot mini-fridge. They advertise it at 300kW-h. Assume the mini-fridge is 75% efficient (that is good). Now I know that is total energy for one year, but taking that energy per unit time would give an idea of how much the compressor should be running, not how much it could run. Remember, the mini-fridge compressor is not designed to continuously run. It turns out that is equal to 25.69W of cooling power on average, or 0.03442 (~1/30th) horespower.

After a bit of research, I learned that most mini-fridges come with a motor ranging from 1/8th to 1/20th horespower. This is approaching the range of a small chiller (assuming you could run the mini-fridge continuously), but would still be way undersized for a tank like the one you are planning.

Sorry,

Matt:cool:

I agree, Matt. A fridge cools a few cubic feet of well insolated air. A reef aquarium chiller cools a few cubic feet of water that is un-insolated and being heated by pumps and metal halide lighting. Big difference. It won't work.

[addicktz]

basicly if u can run water over the evaporators it will work, i would agree after making a mini-fridge chiller that it isnt the most energy efficient item, im still looking for my titanium tubing locally so i can rip the compressor, condenser and capillary tube off this fridge and run water directly over the evaporator, its just not energy efficient to cool water by air. the smallest chiller csl makes is a 1/8hp i believe, im not sure what its rated at, but from my experience my 1/12hp mini-fridge will for sure drop my 40+/- a couple gallons 2 degrees, and im pretty sure if i could find a timer that would run for 1 min every half hour, instead of 1 min every hour it would drop it more, the only thing is, it runs constantly and i dont believe the compressor will be able to take that for too long.

[o0synge0o]

Was just doing a search on freezers and came across this post... I have at my disposal a 7.2 cubic foot freezer and was thinking of using it as a Ghetto Chiller. Planned on placing some sort of vessel inside it and coiling a good amount of tubing inside the vessel(could put quite a bit of tubing inside it, as the dimensions are H.34-1/4" W.35" D.23-1/4") and then filling said vessel w/water(could be done in stages, a few gallons at a time, over a matter of days so that the poor thing wouldnt be running constantly, trying to freeze 30gal+ of water all in one go) and then pumping the tank water through the newly created block of ice and great length of tubing at a slow rate. The inlet and outlet would be plumbed through the top of the freezer, as it is a chest freezer and the lid is on top. Wondering if this would be worth anything to the 100gal. Power consumption shouldnt be too much more than normal operation and use as a household freezer, since the Ice would be frozen solid at the time of use and the door wouldnt be opened and closed at all really. Only thing I wonder about is how long the big block of Ice would last, being as the warm tank water running through the tubing would cause some sort of melting, but would it be enough to cause the block to melt at an exponential rate? Maybe when the lights are off the pump could be turned off and the tubing isolated so that all of the water was pumped out of it, allowing the block to re-freeze the small amount that did melt, and the resume operation upon re-lighting of the MH on the next day?


Wow, long post, hope it all makes sense to someone other than just me.

[Scuba_Dave]

I think the main problem w/stopping pump for water thru the freezer would be having the pipe freeze...

[o0synge0o]

Originally posted by o0synge0o
the pump could be turned off and the tubing isolated so that all of the water was pumped out of it

[Scuba_Dave]

Originally posted by Scuba_Dave
I think the main problem w/stopping pump for water thru the freezer would be having the pipe freeze...

perhaps if you stated how you were going to assure that all of the water was pumped out (using a pump?), when you can't see the tubing. How are you going to make sure it is all "Pumped" out when you can't see to verify?

A gravity drain would be better, but still not foolproof

[addicktz]

word to the gravity drain