Ice Cooled Lines...

nasd90

nasd90

Well-Known Member
So, I'm coming towards the end of my 2nd week as a newbie grow in the deep south and had an idea.

I've noticed that my temps are generally all over the place, I have a small grow and lets just say it kind of shares the temperature with outside. Well, now it's been cold, so throwing a heater out there did the trick nicely and the 400w HPS helps the outside temps.

So my idea ? Well, I know it's about to get freakin' HOT in another few months and didn't want to go the route of an A/C unit, that's ridiculous. And when I upgraded my Bubbleponics to a much better 2 line air pump, I noticed I had a lot of left-over hose because I had to buy that package separate.

So, how about getting a separate container, filling it with ice every day or every other day and running the lines through the ice/ice water ??!! This would cool the lines, basically pumping COLD AIR into the reservoir.

Now, some of you might say... Well, you'd freeze your plants. And my answer is... Well, you may not know what it's like at 110F in July...

Let me know if anyone has tried this or has any ideas.

THANK YOU.
 
nasd90

nasd90

Well-Known Member
TOKEMASTERFLEX said:
my flower room used to be in the 100's....so i used to chill my water down to 50 degrees with no problems:)
Click to expand...
I'll be in the 100's soon... I think I'm going to test my little experiment out and post the results. The hardest thing will be finding about 10 feet or so of that small hose that comes out of the air pump. I'm sure it's online somewhere... I know Home Depot didn't stock it in that length.
 
multisonic

multisonic

Well-Known Member
try a pet store. heck even wal mart has like 5ft lengths i think, and i know they have the parts to link a few together too. check in the section with the fishies.
 
multisonic

multisonic

Well-Known Member
on 2nd thought. an a/c is what like 80 bucks?
so let's do the math...
Cooler: 20 bucks,
air lines: 10 bucks,
a 2.00 bag of ice every 2 days for a 2 month flowering cycle: 60 bucks.
You just paid for an air conditioner.
just my 2 cents man.
 
closetkiller

closetkiller

Well-Known Member
nasd90 said:
I'll be in the 100's soon... I think I'm going to test my little experiment out and post the results. The hardest thing will be finding about 10 feet or so of that small hose that comes out of the air pump. I'm sure it's online somewhere... I know Home Depot didn't stock it in that length.
Click to expand...
walmart has 8' packs, and connecters:eyesmoke:
 
B

blueybong

Well-Known Member
Or how about getting a fountain pump and a lenght of 1/2" hose. Run the hose from a cooler/ice chest into the SH tub and then pump chilled water through the hose. My thinking is that the cold water flowing through the hose inside the tub would help to keep your water temp down inside the rez/tub.

Wouldn't cold water last longer(keeping cold) than cold air?

I don't know, so I thought I'd throw it out.

Yea, come April 1st, it'll be getting hot.

Oh, another thought. How about using the air pump to circulate cold air within your grow room?

Again, just thinking out loud!
 
B

blueybong

Well-Known Member
multisonic said:
on 2nd thought. an a/c is what like 80 bucks?
so let's do the math...
Cooler: 20 bucks,
air lines: 10 bucks,
a 2.00 bag of ice every 2 days for a 2 month flowering cycle: 60 bucks.
You just paid for an air conditioner.
just my 2 cents man.
Click to expand...
I like your idea better than mine.
 
diggitydank420

diggitydank420

Well-Known Member
Bro, check out craigslist.org and find the closest city. I'm sure you could find many many used a/c units for less than $100
 
nasd90

nasd90

Well-Known Member
diggitydank420 said:
Bro, check out craigslist.org and find the closest city. I'm sure you could find many many used a/c units for less than $100
Click to expand...
It's hard to explain but I can't really put A/C in there... I need to find a way to cool the water. The area around the plants won't be bad because there's a vent above the area for heat to freely disperse.

Good ideas though... Thank you!
 
N

netpirate

New Member
What you could do is put your tub into a shallow clear tub (the ones that are in wal-mart with white frames) Fill that up with water and ice then dump salt into it. It will super freeze for a long time!

My friends and I would do that to chill beer really fast. It cools almost instantly.

This is a Q&A I found

salt water cooler​

Q:Why does adding salt to ice and water cool my six pack faster than just ice and water alone?

-Jeff (age 21)
Cincinnati, OH U.S.A
A:The six pack is mostly in contact with the liquid. The liquid stays near the melting temperature so long as ice is floating in it. The melting temperature is lower for ice in salt water than in pure water. We explain the reason in other answers on this site. The essential idea is that as the water melts it gives the salt ions more states to run around in, i.e. increases their entropy, and that promotes melting.

Mike W.
 
nasd90

nasd90

Well-Known Member
netpirate said:
What you could do is put your tub into a shallow clear tub (the ones that are in wal-mart with white frames) Fill that up with water and ice then dump salt into it. It will super freeze for a long time!

My friends and I would do that to chill beer really fast. It cools almost instantly.

This is a Q&A I found

salt water cooler​

Q:Why does adding salt to ice and water cool my six pack faster than just ice and water alone?

-Jeff (age 21)
Cincinnati, OH U.S.A
A:The six pack is mostly in contact with the liquid. The liquid stays near the melting temperature so long as ice is floating in it. The melting temperature is lower for ice in salt water than in pure water. We explain the reason in other answers on this site. The essential idea is that as the water melts it gives the salt ions more states to run around in, i.e. increases their entropy, and that promotes melting.

Mike W.
Click to expand...

GREAT INFO !

I wonder if anyone has ever used DRY ICE in this capacity ?

It seems as if I went this route, I wouldn't have to switch it out that often. Then again... I'm not sure where to get dry ice.
 
closetkiller

closetkiller

Well-Known Member
nasd90 said:
GREAT INFO !

I wonder if anyone has ever used DRY ICE in this capacity ?

It seems as if I went this route, I wouldn't have to switch it out that often. Then again... I'm not sure where to get dry ice.
Click to expand...
dry ice is expensive. it would probably freeze the air line to the point of cracking(7th grade sceince)
 
diggitydank420

diggitydank420

Well-Known Member
Well, if you are dead set against an a/c unit, here's an idea.

Use copper tubing for your "air chiller" make a coil with it as big as you can. Wrap the tubing around something, if you just try to bend it freehand it will collapse.

Keep this coil in a ceramic pot (insulates against heat) and fill with cold water, salt and ice.

Hook up your air lines and give it a shot.
 
AeroKing

AeroKing

Well-Known Member
Air does not exchange heat the way that you are expecting it to.

Blowing "cold" air through an aquarium pump is going to have little to no effect on the ambient temperature of your room.

There is an item on the market that emulates that link. It is called a "swamp cooler". They still consume energy and their effect is minimal, maybe a couple degrees below ambient.

You'd be better off just blowing a fan over the ice water.

Better yet, you could design a heat exchanger to store the ice water/dry ice solution in and run a fan across that.

Running a fan across dry ice will make it dissipate faster, cool the air faster and has the benefit of supplementing CO2.
 
nasd90

nasd90

Well-Known Member
AeroKing said:
Air does not exchange heat the way that you are expecting it to.

Blowing "cold" air through an aquarium pump is going to have little to no effect on the ambient temperature of your room.
Click to expand...

I think you got off track there... We're not talking about blowing cold air THROUGH an air pump TO cool a room.

We're talking about blowing air through a freezing area of tubes TO cool the RESERVOIR.

No biggie.

Thanks though, good info...
 
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