The hot spell is over and um?

[NWDiver]

Akunochi- Oh it works, the little fridge just does not have the cooling capacity that I expected. It did not keep the tank cool, even coiling as much pex as I could fit in the freezer. A thinner walled "heat exchanger" would have helped some.
Oh yeah, Ti is expensive, and really, really tough to bend!
I did make a chiller that kept my 55 gallon tank 25Deg F below room temp though. A cooler filled with RV antifreeze, the guts of a dehumidifier, 5 feet of Ti tube, and a MJ1200.
In time, it probably cost as much as buying a chiller

-Todd

 

[menace78]

I remember a DIY chiller build out of a mini fridge before.
With a Ti heat exchanger and something like antifreeze to speed the exchange, it worked but just barely.

The cost of the electricity to run the fridge outweighed an actual chiller considerably if I remember right, but the biggest issue was with the fridges themselves.

they are designed to cool there interior then hold that temp, they are not meant for 100% duty cycle and the compressor failed quickly on 2 different fridges before the guy gave up and bought a purpose built chiller.

On the flip side. DIY chillers built from AC units and Dehumidifiers seemed to be alot more effective, but they run ~ the same cost of chillers so unless you have one laying around and want to hack it up, it's not worth it in my book.

edit:
I use a 24k btu window mounted air conditioner 2 feet from my DT and fans.
So for this is my 1st year with this setup and once the AC was kicked on, temps settled, but I do keep frozen RODI in the freezer just in case