First off, go very slowly. Bend carefully. DO NOT CUT OR KINK ANY COPPER LINES. Make long sweeping bends instead of sharp ones.
This is a 5k btu window A/C I turned into a chiller for my dwc setup. It cools a 30 gal setup and a 20 gal setup that each run separate nutrients. It should easily cool a set up much bigger than this.
Remove the case from the unit, usually just a few screws.
You want to use a manual unit, not one with a digital thermostat as it will reset if power is lost.
Remove the thermostat from the unit. It will be a knob with a small copper tube and some wires attached to it.
Place the end of the small copper temperature sensing tube into your container.
Cut and lengthen the wires if needed. DO NOT cut the copper tube.
Separate the cold evaporator coil from the hot condenser coil side. This usually involves some screws and removing some styrofoam.
Carefully bend the copper lines allowing you to place the evaporator side (the side that gets cold and faces inside the house) into your container. I use an ice chest. Fill the container with water.
Leave the condenser coil and fan attached to the unit. Set it somewhere where the heat it puts out wont be a problem, or remove the built in fan and duct the heat outside.
I use 1/2" vinyl tubing and a small fountain pump. Pump from your reservoir through a loop of tubing inside your container and back to the reservoir.
Res -->loop of tube in container-->res.
Your reservoir water never touches the water inside the container. The heat transfer is done from the cold container water through the walls of the tubing.
You can run multiple reservoirs off the same container each with it's own pump and loop of tubing. Vinyl I've found works fine. Copper would be bad due to exposure to the nutrients. Titanium supposedly works fine, but is expensive and not needed for me.
With room temps of 85f I kept my res at 67f easily. The unit ran maybe 5 minutes every 30 minutes. This setup was used over several summers with no problems.
The same thing can be done with a mini fridge but only for very small setups without much of a load on it. The mini fridge cooled my setup but was on constantly and got very hot.
This is a 5k btu window A/C I turned into a chiller for my dwc setup. It cools a 30 gal setup and a 20 gal setup that each run separate nutrients. It should easily cool a set up much bigger than this.
Remove the case from the unit, usually just a few screws.
You want to use a manual unit, not one with a digital thermostat as it will reset if power is lost.
Remove the thermostat from the unit. It will be a knob with a small copper tube and some wires attached to it.
Place the end of the small copper temperature sensing tube into your container.
Cut and lengthen the wires if needed. DO NOT cut the copper tube.
Separate the cold evaporator coil from the hot condenser coil side. This usually involves some screws and removing some styrofoam.
Carefully bend the copper lines allowing you to place the evaporator side (the side that gets cold and faces inside the house) into your container. I use an ice chest. Fill the container with water.
Leave the condenser coil and fan attached to the unit. Set it somewhere where the heat it puts out wont be a problem, or remove the built in fan and duct the heat outside.
I use 1/2" vinyl tubing and a small fountain pump. Pump from your reservoir through a loop of tubing inside your container and back to the reservoir.
Res -->loop of tube in container-->res.
Your reservoir water never touches the water inside the container. The heat transfer is done from the cold container water through the walls of the tubing.
You can run multiple reservoirs off the same container each with it's own pump and loop of tubing. Vinyl I've found works fine. Copper would be bad due to exposure to the nutrients. Titanium supposedly works fine, but is expensive and not needed for me.
With room temps of 85f I kept my res at 67f easily. The unit ran maybe 5 minutes every 30 minutes. This setup was used over several summers with no problems.
The same thing can be done with a mini fridge but only for very small setups without much of a load on it. The mini fridge cooled my setup but was on constantly and got very hot.
