DIY Vertical Cooler System

[Alex-F]

Any updates my little goat?

Priceless.

You've got some good ideas here mate. I'm happy diggin dirt for now, but at least I know where to come when a move to hydro is of interest. :wink:

 

[DJ_highst_]

Glad to see the this thread has some new life, hope to see some cool stuff come from this.

Dont they make that same material in black? What made you go with white? Are they both just as light tight?

Good luck and thanks for the rep GDW.peace_highst

 

[Guest]

Thanks DJ and Alex.

Ok, back to work.

Well, the system i'm going to be showing. Was the bucket system. As we saw awhile back. The bucket lid wasn't a good idea, so i made a table top and place the bucket under the table and used is as the rez. Well, the pumpe i was useing at the time. Was the EcoPlus Submersible Water Pump - 396gph and ran me 20 bucks for the unit. Well the maxium height lift is 6'.3" and at that height. You lose alot of gph and pressure. Well, all the lines where just dripping and i wanted something with alot better flow. So, one day at Harbor Frieght. I saw all their pumps in the pumps section and i notcied a couple that would do the trick. As some of you already know. I'm trying to make a some what cheaper version of a Verticle unit and trying to keep the price down on just about everything. Well, at Harbor Freight. They have a nice section of pumps for a great price. Well, I bought the Chicago Electric Model 37952 Submersible Pump.
115v/60hertz/100 watts/1.9amps
19' power cord 18-3
20 gallons per a minute "NOT per hour" @ 2 ft lift
Maximum Lift 18' "here's what i like" taller lift
accessories 5/8",3/4",1 hose adapters

The main thing i really like about this pump. Is that it has alot taller maximum lift and is powerful for the amount of watts and amps. Another good thing i really liked alot. Was the price of the unit 50 bucks. Shit, a small ok hydro pump cost that much at a hydro shop. These pump are call stump or trash pumps. Here are some of the first pictures and i'll go over as i post them

First is the unit



Next, is the unit in a normal 5 gallon bucket. This gives you a general idea of how much room the unit uses in the bucket

 

[sugabear_II]

cool idea - can't wait to see it in action!

 

[Guest]

Next is the unit being tested before marrying to the Verticle unit. As you can see. The pump has very nice flow. One thing i will mention here. If you get a kink in the soft hose. You do loss some pressure. I'm thinking about correcting this with normal stiff garden hose.




Here is a picture of the unit together for those that haven't read through the whole thread and is just catching the end of this thread. Standard setup, two verticle tubes. Six grow sites with feeder lines under flex net baskets. The feeder hoses will be feeding to the top of the net baskets. I just have them this way, because i have no medium in them and the spikes used to hold them in place won't work.

 

[Guest]

One thing i need to mention and other might already know this. If your going to build a table for one of these units. What ever size it might be. Please seal the wood with some protector. I'm going to seal my table with some fiberglass resin. Resin soak into the wood well and the unit will last longer then i'll ever need it. You can use anything else and don't have to use resin. Thompson, Varnish, Polyurethane, lacker, etc. Just something to keep the wood from rotting if you get water on it and you will spill water on the unit. Seal the wood please.

Next you will see the water flowing out of the verticle tubes below. You can see alot better flow then the older pump. Boy, was i happy to hear the difference and yes. You can really hear the difference in this pump as the water drains back into the rez bucket below.




Her you will notice the better flow out of the feeder tubes. This is about 500% better then the other pump and is going to work just great. I'm really happy with this pump so far.

 

[Legit_User]

Wasabbii GDW!!
Nice to see you updating.
I want to urge you to buy a second one.
Harbor frieght has great deals but the quality is hit and miss.
In a full blown aero setup I would always keep a backup.
Roots can cook pretty fast as you know.
Stay peaceful

P.S.
Hope you don't mind me coming in here giving my .02
I love DIY projects and can't help help it..lolol
Love your show bro

 

[Guest]

Ok, that's all i got for now. Tomorrow night, I'm going to test this unit with 2 tubes and a total of 12 grow sites. This will give me what i will call my maximum lift for me. Members can go higher, but i'm setting 6 sites verticle at my limit for now. That will give me plenty of room for the last top grow site and i don't have to worry about that plant hitting 8' max. Sunday, i should get around to breakin out the cooler unit and testing this pump with more grow sites and seeing if it can handle the load. If not, there are about three other pumps at the store for under 70 bucks that can handle it for sure, but i'm trying not to use them if possible. If anyone got's any questions. Please feel free to ask anyway. Thanks everyone for all the kind words and support. More to come in the next couple of days. I'm back on the job.lol
Take care,
BG

 

[Guest]

Wasabbii GDW!!
Nice to see you updating.
I want to urge you to buy a second one.
Harbor frieght has great deals but the quality is hit and miss.
In a full blown aero setup I would always keep a backup.
Roots can cook pretty fast as you know.
Stay peaceful

P.S.
Hope you don't mind me coming in here giving my .02
I love DIY projects and can't help help it..lolol
Love your show bro

Hey, nice to see you around. Man, your more then welcome to post any words of advice or just shooting the shit. I'm all open to anything. One thing and i think you might not know. I'm not growing aero with these units. I will be just top feeding each grow site for now. I will then play around with aero later on, but at that time. I will be using top of the line pumps. I know what your saying and agree about pumps failing. I also know about the tools from this store. lolol. Thanks for reminding me. Yes, i would agree to buy a extra for sure. Don't get me wrong. These pumps looks well and sounds good, but you never know with stuff coming from China at this cheap price. Thanks for the help
Take care,
BG

 

[HarryNugz]

Fun and well put together thred GDW. Can't wait to see it's trial run.

 

[Guest]

Morning all, just wanted to let everyone know. I'm putting together the cooler unit now. Got to run and grab some supplys and will be back on it. Should have some updates by early afternoon. Stick around.

Other Note

Didn't know if i already said this, but the pump has a super long power cord and make using this unit very easy. Really stoked about this pump and hope it will power the cooler higher lift to the feeding sites. I guess will see soon enough.
Take care,
BG

 

[Guest]

Afternoon all,
Well, i got the unit together and up and running. Here is the unit together




Here is the inside of the unit. Where you can store everything. There is enough room for four tubes three grow site high. I think it can handle twice that but, I have to make up more tubes and see.

 

[Guest]

Here is the pump in the Rez tank all hooked up and ready to pump.





Here you will see that i'm getting a nice steady flow of water. I don't know if it will stay the same at another three grow sites high, but will see soon. I've got to cut up some more PVC pipe and put together somemore Wye fittings.

 

[Guest]

Here you will notice in the next couple of pictures. We are seeing the water draining back into the rez tank. One thing i will be doing soon. Is notching the corner of the lid on the rez tank. This will allow the power cord not to get damaged. Also, if i don't like the pressure flow. I'm going to up the power on the pump and buy a different and stronger one. Might bump the pump up one more time to 3/4 HP, but will see. This pump works well for this size of grow sites.

 

[Guest]

Well, I'd like to hear from others. I think the feeder heads might be reducing pressure to all the lines. I just used the pump to pump down the Rez tank and that pump has got alot of flow and pressure. Hose almost came out of my hand once i plugged her in. I'm going to read up on the heads and see what they list for pressure. If they are causing the pressure to drop. I've already got a design for a 1/3" manifold to plug all the feeder lines into. I'd like to hear others thoughts on this little problem. Thanks again for all the help everyone.
Take care,
BG

 

[DJ_highst_]

I think its cool as hell!!!

It looks awesome all set-up. Do you have any leaks? I thought ealier in the thread that was an issue. Did you get that all figured out? I really want to build another set-up and there is a good chance I might build something like this.

Fill that bad-boy up with some ladies already why dont you, lol. peace_highst

 

[Cannapits]

Awesome BG...you slipped right by me and started the project up again...I'm so glad as i'm close to doing my own..I'm so excited..thanks again for the inspiration.

 

[Guest]

Hey DJ, yes i had a few leaks.. Mainly they where because i didn't use enough teflon tape. Remember kids, Teflon tape is your friend when it comes to threaded pipes. Sorry, i can't grow right now. I'm on probation and doing this unit and other project's till i'm released in Nov. Once released and totally free. I will be relocating to new and safe location. I'll be in Spain for good by spring of 08, but will be growing before then. Believe me, I'd love to fill this unit and build three others. So, i can have a cube with a total of four unit. I will harvest a unit every two weeks and be able to run four totally different strains with each cool. Pretty cool idea Harvest every two weeks. Hell Yes.


Cannapits, thanks for the kind words. I've noticed that we are pass the 9,000 view mark, so someone is watching. Glad to hear your thinking about building one. I'm sure you'll be happy with your unit. I'm thinking if a person didn't want to use the cooler. The could build a larger table like the small one i built and use a runnermaid container below. I know i will be changing out the bucket on the smaller unit. Just because the bucket is only so big and the drain off kind of misses in some area's. Plus, i can have a large Rez i would think also. Well, let me know if you need any help or if you have any idea's.


I'd like to thanks everyone for following. Can't wait to see other's building one of these unit or something along the lines. Take care all and have fun.
Later,
BG

 

[Haggis123]

Just read the thread from start to finish and would like to say "absolutely inspirational", will be checking back often with interest.

 

[Cannapits]

Yeah thats my plan on building a platform...I want to be able to get into the res with ease...Thanks again...