Help with setup for a chiller

[Nashon]

Last night I was incredibly lucky to get a free 1/3 HP chiller. Its very oversized for my tank, but I guess I have room to grow. Its a Red Sea Chiller. Its 4-5 years old but never been used. No instructions but its got its original box. I contacted Red Sea and got the manual for it but i've still got a few questions that maybe you guys can answer.

1.) It implies that it comes with a built in pump but never really states anything about it. Do chillers normally need an additional pump?

2.) How far from the aquarium can these be? I would like to place it 10 feet or so away and plumb it with pvc.

3.) It didn't come with any hardware. Just an "In" and an "Out" threaded connection. Do i use flexible tubing with a hose clamp to connect to these?

Heres a picture of a unit like mine except mine is without the 90 degree connection.

 

[LakeEd]

Nice score!!!!

I don't personally own a chiller (Yet), but from the 3 that I've seen, they require you to supply them with the pump to move the water thru them. As for how far away you wish to put it... as long as the pump you use gives the correct GPH, I would think that it shouldn't matter how far away... just account for head/line lossage.

Hopefully, those with chillers will be more helpful.

 

[Jeff]

Yea great score.

All flow through chillers require a pump, and I have never seen one that came with a pump.

You can put the chiller as far away from your tank as you want as long as you can pump water through it. But keep in mind that you have to hit the Minimum Gallons Per Hour that the chiller requires. You can use this calculator Headloss to figure out loss from your plumbing, and keep in mind that the chiller itself is pretty flow restrictive.

You can get all of the plumbing you need at your hardware store. Flexible Vinyl with barb fittings is the easiest, but you lose flow compared to Flexible or normal PVC.

 

[LakeEd]

Lets try a "bump" for ya, to see if the evening people can give you more information... but I'm thinkin what Jeff just mentioned was very helpful.

 

[Nashon]

Well even though a 600 gph pump is listed in the manual it doesnt appear to be that way. I bought the plumbing and hooked it up to a trash can full of water. Primed or not primed it needs an external pump. Thanks for the advice and help Ed and Jeff . Now, I won't think its a busted internal pump.

 

[bc_slc]

agreed. Most chillers this size need 300-600 gph flow through the chiller. the pump and chiller can be as far away as you would like, but do remember to account for losses due to length of pipe, elbows etc. Since the chiller pulls heat out of the water and expell it into the ambient air, most would say that having the chiller remote is an advantage as whereever it is placed, will get warmer. Also, you can run it with all flexible PVC or you can run a short segment of flexible and then convert to hard pvc.

Mat

 

[Maxx]

I've got a 1/4 hp chiller, and had to do some creative thinking to add to my tank after I had everything else set up.

I went with flexible fiberglass reinforced vinyl tubing to take water from pump to the chiller. The most efficient way to set this up is to run your tank return through the chiller directly to the tank. You will in all probability need to buy a larger return pump in this case. Things to keep in mind...

The chiller has an internal titanium coil heat exchanger that the tank water flows through to transfer heat. In my case this heat exchanger is only 3/8 of an inch in diameter...so my flow is severely choked through this. My chiller has a reccomended flow rate of 600-1000 gph, but I'm only getting about 400 with an Iwaki 40 RLT pressure pump (which is rated to move 750 gph). Things are just that restrictive inside my chiller. You should ask Red Sea what happens to the chiller if the flow rate requirements arent met. I suspect they'll tell you the same thing PCI told me, your chiller will just short cycle, (meaning run more frequently). Which can use fuses more often. See where the fuse is on your chiller (assuming it even has one) and find out how to get more for replacements later on down the road.

When buying a pump for this, I would look at pressure rated pumps. Both Iwaki and PanWorld make great pumps. Iwaki has the name, PanWorld has the better price, (and the former Chief Design Engineer from Iwaki if the manufacturer is to be believed.) I've heard nothing but great things about both of these pump makers, so you'll be great either way IMO.

Good luck with your new chiller.

Nick

 

[bc_slc]

Nick,
Do you really think you need a pressure rated pump for a chiller?

Mat

 

[Maxx]

I think it depends on how much flow you need to run through the chiller and what diameter the heat exchanger coil is. I went with a pressure rated pump because I'm unaware of any pump that moves enough water through a 3/8's inch tube and moves 600-1000 gph. The guy I bought the chiller from was running it on a Mag 9.5 and getting roughly 200 gph through it. Non pressure pumps will move alot of water, but they get really bogged down against any back pressure.
So as I saw it, I could buy a pressure pump to run my chiller or I could buy an incredibly oversized non pressure pump and try to get the job done that way. I didnt like that idea since I felt I would be using about the same amount of electricity to run a non pressure (oversized pump) as I would using a Pressure pump...but I'd be putting more stress on the non pressure pump and would most likely have to replace that pump more often...costing me even more money in the long run.

Like I said...this was just my situation. To really determine what the best solution to this situation would be to contact Red-Sea and ask them what the diameter of the heat exchanger is. Thats ultimately going to be your choke point in the whole thing....

Nick