Cheap Chiller Idea?

robf · Jul 14, 2012

I see these usb beverage coolers on sale for 20 bucks and am thinking they might make good small tank chillers. You might be able to drill a hole and run a line through them. What do you think?

http://www.amazon.com/Desktop-Fridge-Cooler-Personal-Black/dp/B005JAVC94/ref=sr_1_23?s=appliances&ie=UTF8&qid=1342290991&sr=1-23&keywords=refrigerator

SPSjunky · Jul 14, 2012

I dont know if it will work or not but if you need a chiller and fans arent working for you,$20 isnt that big of a gamble.I'd say go for it and post pics :xd:

Reef Breeders · Jul 14, 2012

No it will not work! Check out beananimals site. Also, buy a $99 window ac unit, I use one and it keeps my 150 reef tank cool all summer.

Young Frankenstein · Jul 14, 2012

anemonekeeper said:
No it will not work! Check out beananimals site. Also, buy a $99 window ac unit, I use one and it keeps my 150 reef tank cool all summer.

Agreed to all except bean animal ......................pleaseeeeeeee

Reef Breeders · Jul 14, 2012

There is not nearly enough btus in the fridge, you need a titanium exchange coil, and the fridge compressir will blow. Bad idea. Just check the site, I believe he did the math

AZDesertRat · Jul 14, 2012

They, just like dorm fridges and all the others, are not designed for continous duty and will quickly burn up. That plus the fact plastic tubing is a horrible conductor of heat and cold so exchange of heat for cool is not very good.

tangs are awsome · Jul 14, 2012

I beg to differ. I know a few people that have sucessfully done so. But with a bigger fridge. Not to big. Like a hotel mini fridge. small plexi sump. the trick is to figure out how many loops of hose you need in the fridge to keep your tank cool. the less loops ( footage of hose) the less coller it gets. If you leave the whole roll of vynil tubing in the mini fridge it will get colder. You also have to find the right power head to get the flow pressure right. After all this you will be at a few bills. If you can get the fridge used, make the sump tank, and use a small pump it could be a good cheap fix. Start off warmer than needed and add more hose till you get the temp you need

AZDesertRat · Jul 14, 2012

You can beg to differ all you want but there are literally hundreds of very detailed articles on the reef forums detailing failures and why it does not work. Read up on BTU's, heat exchange and any number of principles of heat and cool and you will understand why. The power required to run the fridge, the heat created by the pump to circulate it and the poor thermal properties of the tubing are just a few of the many issues.

cparka23 · Jul 15, 2012

Dorm fridges could work... and then again, so would slathering the sides of your aquarium in ice cream.

The fact that someone has used a mini fridge to cool down a tank doesn't mean that it's the best avenue to pursue. Continuous use of a dorm fridge will blow out their compressors fairly quickly. Given that one costs about 1/3 of a small chiller, saving up for a chiller makes better sense IMO. Fans can be used in the meantime or even indefinitely.

As for the USB fridge, the point is that it isn't efficient nor powerful. I forget the USB specs, but you're getting 3.3V and maybe a few amps? We're looking at cooling an aquarium with ~10-20W of power for a USB-powered device, assuming zero efficiency loss. Add the fact that vinyl tubing is an insulator, which severely cuts into its efficiency, and the USB fridge looks like it's a no-go.

cryptics · Jul 15, 2012

What if instead of coiling the tubing in the college fridge you have it empty into a 6-8 gallon bin. Whatever you can fit in there. This way the fridge is cooling the reservoir. This does add another pump and a float switch for the return and to prevent overflows respectively. This of course would need a pretty low flow so wouldn't work for a large tank and I would hook it up by itself and not on a return line or anything. I would hook it up to a controller and have it only run when the temp goes high Say turn on at 79.1 and off at 79. This way the reservoir would get pretty cold and would probably not have to run very much. What are your thoughts? If it makes no sense I am exhausted right now. I will reread this in the am and revise anything needed

Young Frankenstein · Jul 15, 2012

You could build an aquarium inside a walk in cooler

but that wont be cost effective

listen to the desert rat.

Scott S · Jul 15, 2012

cparka23 said:
Dorm fridges could work... and then again, so would slathering the sides of your aquarium in ice cream.

The fact that someone has used a mini fridge to cool down a tank doesn't mean that it's the best avenue to pursue. Continuous use of a dorm fridge will blow out their compressors fairly quickly. Given that one costs about 1/3 of a small chiller, saving up for a chiller makes better sense IMO. Fans can be used in the meantime or even indefinitely.

As for the USB fridge, the point is that it isn't efficient nor powerful. I forget the USB specs, but you're getting 3.3V and maybe a few amps? We're looking at cooling an aquarium with ~10-20W of power for a USB-powered device, assuming zero efficiency loss. Add the fact that vinyl tubing is an insulator, which severely cuts into its efficiency, and the USB fridge looks like it's a no-go.

This is probably the best response on the thread so far.. EVERYONE is so quick to jump and insist that it wont work ... so many other have tried and failed... your wasting money... it'll burn up...

Not one response in here asked what size tank he wants to use it for.. He did say small tank didn't he? For all any of us know it could be a nano tank..
I agree though a USB cooler will not cool even a tiny tank for any type of time. Just cant pull that much heat quickly enough.. A small dorm fridge WILL work just fine if the tanks not very large.. ie.. 20 gallons or less and having a resivoir in the fridge like you suggested is the way to go.. A five gallon bucket in there filled with water. Run 1/4" line through the door into the bucket, loop it inside the bucket with "XX" feet of tubing then back to the tank.. Feed it with a small powerhead on a temp controller.. The fridge will keep the water in the bucket cold and the compressor will will only kick on as needed to keep the bucket cool.. No the fridge wont last 10 yrs like a normal fridge.. Then again I dont know of any dorm fridge that lasts more than 5 yrs.. Dorm fridges can be had on craigslist for very cheap to free..

Keep in mind.. There are those that will always say NO and follow others,, and there are those that step outside the box to try something new... If it wasn't for ppl stepping outside the box we would still be drawing pics on cave walls and eating bugs and berries..

Reef Breeders · Jul 15, 2012

Scott S said:
This is probably the best response on the thread so far.. EVERYONE is so quick to jump and insist that it wont work ... so many other have tried and failed... your wasting money... it'll burn up...

Not one response in here asked what size tank he wants to use it for.. He did say small tank didn't he? For all any of us know it could be a nano tank..
I agree though a USB cooler will not cool even a tiny tank for any type of time. Just cant pull that much heat quickly enough.. A small dorm fridge WILL work just fine if the tanks not very large.. ie.. 20 gallons or less and having a resivoir in the fridge like you suggested is the way to go.. A five gallon bucket in there filled with water. Run 1/4" line through the door into the bucket, loop it inside the bucket with "XX" feet of tubing then back to the tank.. Feed it with a small powerhead on a temp controller.. The fridge will keep the water in the bucket cold and the compressor will will only kick on as needed to keep the bucket cool.. No the fridge wont last 10 yrs like a normal fridge.. Then again I dont know of any dorm fridge that lasts more than 5 yrs.. Dorm fridges can be had on craigslist for very cheap to free..

Keep in mind.. There are those that will always say NO and follow others,, and there are those that step outside the box to try something new... If it wasn't for ppl stepping outside the box we would still be drawing pics on cave walls and eating bugs and berries..

BeanAnimal's Bar and Grill - Dorm Fridge Chillers Fact and Fiction Do a little reading, if a mini fridge can lower a 75 gallons system .28 degrees F an hour, lets say it can do about .84 degrees an hour, while running non stop, on a 25 gallon system. That is generous, considering loss of cooling in the line, and assuming a titanium heating coil is used, again not considering the loss. Now, let's say it is 100 degrees in your house, and you have no ac. The fridge will lower you tank .84 degrees evey hour, while the outside temp will raise it 2-3 degrees an hour. so evevry hour, you get an 80 degree tank, then an 82 degree tank, then an 84 degree tank and so on, even though the fridge is constantly running. That is with only 25 gallons. Why not buy a window unit with 5000 or so BTUs for 100 bucks, and cool the whole room. No drilling, plumbing, or burnt fridges/boiled fish, and as a bonus, your whole room is nice and cold. The usb fridge is meant to chill a can of soda, not a nano, or even a pico tank.

AZDesertRat · Jul 15, 2012

Even on a small tank it is not cost effective nor efficient. You would need to have access to titanium tubing for starters as plastic does not work well at all. The other is a cooling compressor that is rated for continous duty, the dorm fridge is not and quickly burns up.

robf · Jul 15, 2012

Great discussion. Thanks everyone. I did read the beananimal's article and it does make a lot of sense. Perhaps a better solution is an evaporative chiller such as this one: DIY Evaporative Chiller Another big consideration is the cost of operation. We spend $100 bucks or more a month on electricity for a medium tank. Think about it. The evap chillers use less expensive fans to chill. Ideally you'd evap fresh water and run a coil through it to avoid salt creep and spending a bunch of money on ro/di water. I mainly wanted to find a smaller profile chiller. The ones commercially available are so bulky. I want my tank components to be invisible and not to distract from the tank's magic. I don't have the luxury to put the gear in a separate room. This thing is in my living room. It has to look clean and natural imo.

robert · Jul 16, 2012

Ok - here's my contribution to thinking out of the box....

You can use the heat from your metal-halides to recharge the system...we're on to something...I can feel it!

pickupman66 · Jul 16, 2012

So I did an experiment with my tank last summer. I have a large 6 foot long chest freezer next to my sump in the garage. it stays set at -5 ~Zero. I took a 5 gallon bucket full of water and placed it in the sump. then put 50' worth of plastic tubing coil in the bucket and let it freeze. after a day I turned the water on and let it flow at maybe 40-60GpH. Not only did that thaw the ice in the bucket but it also thawed some of the food that was near the bucket. the water would cool 2-4 degrees as it passed thru the tubing, but that was not enough to sustain my tank.

Because of this test, I dont think a fridge like the one in the OP will suffice.