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$20 diy water-cooled co2 generator.

Bobby Boucher

Active member
These probably belong in the "funny pictures" thread, but I figured this was as good of a place as any.

Gets my 3x3 tents up >900ppm on the tiniest little pilot. Pretty sweet. I've been using some pretty embarrassing versions of this the past couple years but I think I got all the logistical kinks out.

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AgentPothead

Just this guy, ya know?
So if I'm parsing that picture correctly, it's a continuous boil? Where does the water come from? A hose or your reservoir? Have you had any issues with it running dry?
 

Mate Dave

Propagator
ICMag Donor
Veteran
YeeHaw. I like it.. can you explain the build to us? I am making a room @ a clients & I have free reign to do whatever I like. I need Co2 for when it gets really really hot. What did it cost to build & what are the problems you force with it in the future?
 

Bobby Boucher

Active member
So if I'm parsing that picture correctly, it's a continuous boil? Where does the water come from? A hose or your reservoir? Have you had any issues with it running dry?

It doesn't get the chance to boil. The water is fed into the 1/4" copper inlet via 1/4" vinyl tubing coming from a 20w submersible pump in a 10 gallon external reservoir. The flame is lit manually in the morning, and turned off at night, only running for <12 hours. The 10 gallons of water sits on a cold concrete basement floor. The water only ever goes up 10-20 degrees.

If a pump fails, the hose melts. The pilot flame is pretty small to begin with, and I have to tend to my tents every 12 hours anyways.

The build consisted of 2 x $5 copper cups, 2 spare submersible pumps, 1/4 and half inch copper and vinyl tubing, and some spare sheet and wire I had laying around + a couple well placed tacks and brazes.

Its essentially just a 1/8" steel coil wrapped around the mouth of the cup, and then back down around the bottom of the propane bottle and then tacked down onto a 3/8" base.

The coil was wrapped tightly around a much smaller cylinder and then bent back out to size.

The cup feeds by 1/4 copper and vinyl, and drains by 1/2 copper and vinyl. The vinyl was flared out quite a bit to fit.

I know that without a welder and some brazing skills, along with scrap metals ('spensive), the point is kinda moot. There was just something really.. rudimentary about these guys that I wanted to share. Funny little steampunk contraption looking things. I've got one running in each tent and their lack of symmetry really adds to it.
 

GOT_BUD?

Weed is a gateway to gardening
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Looks like something you'd brew some jailhouse rum in or something.

I LIKE IT!!!
 

CrushnYuba

Well-known member
It does look a wee bit dangerous... You know those small chinese tankless water heaters are 50$. That is what proper water cooled generators are, small tankless heaters.
 

Bobby Boucher

Active member
I've got a 4 burner and a co2 controller, I just hated looking at big propane tanks sitting around indoors, especially being that they were hooked up to cheap chinese grow trinkets.

I considered getting a prefabricated water heater.. but the safe guard here with this design is that it can operate at a flow rate of ~.01-.02 lbs per hour, whereas I would think that would be much too slow to keep any kind of conventional burner lit or combusting properly.

The pencil tip and the manually adjustable valve allow for this set flow rate.

Even if the burner was situated in a way that would allow for either condensation or air movement to extinguish the flame towards the beginning of the day, only ~5g of propane would leak out per hour at max flow.

If the burners from a prefab'd generator got locked open... who knows how quick they would empty out a 20lb propane tank.

The design could be sturdier.. but fwiw the metal wire is almost unbendable by hand, and the bases are much heavier than they look.

:dunno:
 

CrushnYuba

Well-known member
I've got a 4 burner and a co2 controller, I just hated looking at big propane tanks sitting around indoors, especially being that they were hooked up to cheap chinese grow trinkets.

I considered getting a prefabricated water heater.. but the safe guard here with this design is that it can operate at a flow rate of ~.01-.02 lbs per hour, whereas I would think that would be much too slow to keep any kind of conventional burner lit or combusting properly.

The pencil tip and the manually adjustable valve allow for this set flow rate.

Even if the burner was situated in a way that would allow for either condensation or air movement to extinguish the flame towards the beginning of the day, only ~5g of propane would leak out per hour at max flow.

If the burners from a prefab'd generator got locked open... who knows how quick they would empty out a 20lb propane tank.

The design could be sturdier.. but fwiw the metal wire is almost unbendable by hand, and the bases are much heavier than they look.

:dunno:

I am all about the redneck engineering. I Just can't imagine turning it on every day. The tankless heaters dont have a pilot. They ignite when they need to burn.
You could hook up your controller or a timer. I would imagine those little tanks would get expensive. Also i have had weird experiences with those torches. When I'm using them, the valve slips open farther and the flame gets bigger and yellower. Less complete combustion.

I like your ingenuity. If you are around to turn it on and check to make sure it's ok, go for it.
 

Bobby Boucher

Active member
I've got a refill adapter, so I can just refill my small tanks out in the garage, where I prefer to keep my big tanks.

As far as incomplete combustion goes, haven't seen it out of these tips. Seen it out of all the other tips but this heavy duty bernzomatic burns true blue all day with a very precise point on the flame.

The flame will gradually increase in size throughout the day as the fuel inside the canister warms up from the heat of the room and the heat transferred from the burner, but not by much.

I just set the valve at a bare minimum and tap it with a lighter a few times to make sure its wiggled open.

Lighting it and putting it out does kinda suck, but that's the price I'd assumedly have to pay to bypass the possibility/eventuality of an entire tank dumping out due to a valve that had gotten stuck wide open.
 
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Bobby Boucher

Active member
Looking at the schematics of these tankless heaters, there's a couple problems that come to mind.

1. Size.

If you are just trying to supplement a small area, inches start to matter.

2. Water psi.

A small flame in a small area doesn't need very much water passing over it to carry the heat away. These things are designed to be hooked up to a garden hose, and shut off automatically without sufficient water pressure.

3. Gas pressure.

When these valves open, they open wide, as to heat a large volume of water in as expeditiously a manner possible. I'm really not an expert on the electrical components found within these units, but logic tells me that it isn't terribly uncommon for these electrical valves to fail and empty out whatever gas source they are connected to, making them better suited for use outside of living environments.

4. Heat.

Wide valves, big flames, indirect heat. Hard to beat the efficiency of a pencil tip when it comes to directly heating a small surface. I would think that this janky little system is .. probably quite a bit more efficient at carrying away the heat than the prefabbed units..

Not saying that I've got anything particularly special or inventive here.. but the pros have outweighed the cons thus far.

If there's something obvious I'm missing here though, I'm all ears. I can use all the help I can get.
 
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