DIY dorm fridge chiller

[Guest]

I have seen several DIY chiller discussions lately.
http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/dyiprojects/l/bldiydonchiller.htm
This design is considered impractical for aquaria use. Inert Plastic tubing is needed so not to react with the aquarium water. And it is a very poor conductor of heat. The pricey aquarium chillers have titanium coils. For our use perhaps copper or aluminiun coils might improve the efficiency Check out John's plans!

 

[mushupork5]

nice find, that will totally work for our purposes, we are already sending water through plastic and copper tubings for recirculating systems. now i have something to do with that mini fridge in my garage...

 

[Guest]

nice find, that will totally work for our purposes, we are already sending water through plastic and copper tubings for recirculating systems. now i have something to do with that mini fridge in my garage.
Google dorm fridge chillers lots of info available Might be practical on a small system if designed correctly.

 

[Duncan Rider]

Cool find. It pisses me off though... I threw away a small fridge that would have been perfect for this project a few months ago. Oh well, those are the breaks I guess. I like the project. The links to the important Addendums and modifications don't work. I wonder what they were about?

 

[Guest]

Tried to find link for the modifications with no luck. The mods concerned placing the coils in a container full of water to improve effeciency and another pump tied in to prevent the lines from freezing.

 

[raeky]

Just a thought to anyone who plans on doing something like this, the compressors in these mini-fridges (or for that matter large ones) are not designed to run continuously, they run to cool down the compartment and then shut off. The fridge is generally well insulated so it warms slowly with the door closed, allowing the compressor to only sporadically run. If you do this you will cause the compressor to run much more and wear it down far faster then it normally would, shorten it's life drastically.

I'd definitely be interested in seeing just how long a cheap wal-mart mini-fridge will last if rigged to be a reservoir cooler. ;-)

 

[Guest]

If anybody is interested, Here is a much better link on DIY dormfridge chillers.
http://reefshow.com/html/go.php?filnavn=chiller_diy_project.htm