anyone used a transmission cooler as a water chiller?

Roger A. Shrubber

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
i was thinking about buying one of these
http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/555/6037...sUJBPk2svhlzKraSxYl0xc7BUXdxFdJX9IaAsSd8P8HAQ
and using it with my aerocloner to keep the temps down. i plan to run hot soapy water through it a couple of times then clear water to rinse out any oil they may put in to stop corrosion...but theres the rub, will the water, cloning solution, small amounts of pool shock, etc. corrode this thing and poison my cloner res?
 
I was doing some reading, the pump i have is 18 watts, and pumps 317 gph. Thats grossly over sized for a 2.5 gallon res, i just bought a smaller pump that uses 7 watts and pumps 130 gph, which ought to be plenty for what i'm using it for, and should produce a lot less heat, so the question is moot, for now anyway. i'll have to see what the temps are with the smaller pump before i do anything else
 
Roger A. Shrubber said:
I was doing some reading, the pump i have is 18 watts, and pumps 317 gph. Thats grossly over sized for a 2.5 gallon res, i just bought a smaller pump that uses 7 watts and pumps 130 gph, which ought to be plenty for what i'm using it for, and should produce a lot less heat, so the question is moot, for now anyway. i'll have to see what the temps are with the smaller pump before i do anything else
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Keep us up to date. YouTube has examples of people building Peltier DIY chillers for cheap. One guy has a little one and he says it keeps his water below 60 deg F and he says he like it that cold for his MMJ setup.
 
After struggling with heat issues all summer I have dreamed up some similar ideas. And then I remembered ever time I reinvent the wheel it turns out square lol. My problem is it is to damn hot not to use a refrig of some sort. I looked at a bunch of utube and if you have a old dehumidifier it's can be recycled into a chiller.
Peace out Bare
 
Transmission fluid is extremely corrosive. I wouldn't worry at all about using it. Just clean it well after each grow.
 
rkymtnman said:
how do you know how all the salts in nutes react with aluminum? and he said he's using chlorine too.

i'd worry about it.
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Becuase I actually know what I'm talking about. He said he was using a SMALL amount of chlorine not 60+ %. A transmission cooler is designed to be used in 250* temperatures of acidic transmission fluid and modern day oils that are LOADED with detergents. Soap and salt from nutrients are NOT going to destroy it regardless if it was alauminum or SS.

I've used nearly every style make and model through my 15 years of race car building and we've used them with every fluid and every possible temperature extreme you can think of. Trans/oil/fuel/coolant/gear oil etc.

Again. It's not going to be an issue with minimal regular maintainence.
 
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its for a 2.5 gal. aerocloner, not a 2500 lb. car, if it can keep a transmission cool it ought to be able to keep a 2.5 gal res cool, when it has 73 degree air being blown through it by a small fan.
i just got the smaller pump. as soon as i can get things cleaned up and set up, i'm going to run if it to see if it has enough pressure, and see what the water temp is after 4 or 5 hours.
 
Roger A. Shrubber said:
its for a 2.5 gal. aerocloner, not a 2500 lb. car, if it can keep a transmission cool it ought to be able to keep a 2.5 gal res cool, when it has 73 degree air being blown through it by a small fan.
i just got the smaller pump. as soon as i can get things cleaned up and set up, i'm going to run if it to see if it has enough pressure, and see what the water temp is after 4 or 5 hours.
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Good deal. Report back I'm interested to see how it works.
 
sgrowdum said:
Becuase I actually know what I'm talking about. He said he was using a SMALL amount of chlorine not 60+ %. A transmission cooler is designed to be used in 250* temperatures of acidic transmission fluid and modern day oils that are LOADED with detergents. Soap and salt from nutrients are NOT going to destroy it regardless if it was alauminum or SS.

I've used nearly every style make and model through my 15 years of race car building and we've used them with every fluid and every possible temperature extreme you can think of. Trans/oil/fuel/coolant/gear oil etc.

Again. It's not going to be an issue with minimal regular maintainence.
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No-one is worried about the effect of the water/chlorine/fluids are gonna have on the tranny cooler, they're concerned with the effects aluminum, stainless, and possibly and residual fluids are gonna have on his clones... I'd also be worried... Copper will leach in a res full of nutes which is why copper wort chillers aren't used, stainless is the choice for those but I've "heard" aluminum will do the same so... but if the coils/tubing are stainless I'd think about it but the residual oils is where I'd stop and find a different solution to the problem... If you were gonna "dip" the cooler into your res and run chilled water in a closed loop, I'd say go for it seeing it's easier to clean the outside of the tranny cooler.... But running your res water through anything with any kind of oils aside from hemp or hash oil (just a pun, not serious)....I don't care how good u clean it, it's still a liability... And it's most likely not gonna just fuck up a batch of clones, it's gonna coat the inside of your cloner with the same shit possibly permanently, so again....I'd also be worried...

And for what it's worth... a water temp of 73 degrees for aero cloning is mint, basically anything below 75 is primo... I run mine with no additional cooling at all and it ends up in the 80's most times in the hotter months... Roots in 7, plantable in 10-12 days usually... 60 site Ez cloner, filled with municipal tap water, 15 ml of protekt silica, 3-4tbs of hydrogen peroxide... Add those run it for 24 hours, add clones...smoke joint... Ive never checked ph....never checked ppms.

The plants can't eat anything due to not having roots so checking all that is wasted energy until they have roots and even then it's really not a concern because you don't want feeding/growth, you want root growth and only root growth... The added silica is to help with transpiration but honestly I add what I add and don't come back for 5 days other than a peek here and there to make sure a timer hasn't malfunctioned or something... Water level is my only concern aside from the afore mentioned... As long as u keep the RH and room temp normal-ish you won't have any issues... If your room temps and more importantly your humidity....are higher than they should be; by all means seek additional cooling for your cloner, but it would serve you better to get the room temp and humidity in check...

Also the thing generating the heat in your cloner is the pump, you can run a timer on 15 on/15off up to 30on/30 off...helps keep the res cooler by the pump not running 24/7... Supposedly it speeds rooting as well...? A suggestion by one of the builders of the ez cloner... I recently did the 15/15 and it work as advertised... Didn't really notice a difference in rooting times but they looked all perky n normal beginning to end... But initial start up is what kills most electrical things like pumps so take that into consideration...

One more thing as if I haven't said enough, cooling with air is way less efficient than with water... A chiller like the above mentioned diy dehumidifier and stainless wort chillers would be a better investment... Especially if u have other resivoirs that need cooling...
 
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Stainless and aluminum are industry standard materials.. Is a car HE food grade? No but aluminum or SS isn't going to leach a bunch of harmful chemicals into the water. You guys are VASTLY over thinking this. Don't be stupid. Flush the system thoroughly and have it.
 
Thanks that
whitey78 said:
No-one is worried about the effect of the water/chlorine/fluids are gonna have on the tranny cooler, they're concerned with the effects aluminum, stainless, and possibly and residual fluids are gonna have on his clones... I'd also be worried... Copper will leach in a res full of nutes which is why copper wort chillers aren't used, stainless is the choice for those but I've "heard" aluminum will do the same so... but if the coils/tubing are stainless I'd think about it but the residual oils is where I'd stop and find a different solution to the problem... If you were gonna "dip" the cooler into your res and run chilled water in a closed loop, I'd say go for it seeing it's easier to clean the outside of the tranny cooler.... But running your res water through anything with any kind of oils aside from hemp or hash oil (just a pun, not serious)....I don't care how good u clean it, it's still a liability... And it's most likely not gonna just fuck up a batch of clones, it's gonna coat the inside of your cloner with the same shit possibly permanently, so again....I'd also be worried...

And for what it's worth... a water temp of 73 degrees for aero cloning is mint, basically anything below 75 is primo... I run mine with no additional cooling at all and it ends up in the 80's most times in the hotter months... Roots in 7, plantable in 10-12 days usually... 60 site Ez cloner, filled with municipal tap water, 15 ml of protekt silica, 3-4tbs of hydrogen peroxide... Add those run it for 24 hours, add clones...smoke joint... Ive never checked ph....never checked ppms.

The plants can't eat anything due to not having roots so checking all that is wasted energy until they have roots and even then it's really not a concern because you don't want feeding/growth, you want root growth and only root growth... The added silica is to help with transpiration but honestly I add what I add and don't come back for 5 days other than a peek here and there to make sure a timer hasn't malfunctioned or something... Water level is my only concern aside from the afore mentioned... As long as u keep the RH and room temp normal-ish you won't have any issues... If your room temps and more importantly your humidity....are higher than they should be; by all means seek additional cooling for your cloner, but it would serve you better to get the room temp and humidity in check...

Also the thing generating the heat in your cloner is the pump, you can run a timer on 15 on/15off up to 30on/30 off...helps keep the res cooler by the pump not running 24/7... Supposedly it speeds rooting as well...? A suggestion by one of the builders of the ez cloner... I recently did the 15/15 and it work as advertised... Didn't really notice a difference in rooting times but they looked all perky n normal beginning to end... But initial start up is what kills most electrical things like pumps so take that into consideration...

One more thing as if I haven't said enough, cooling with air is way less efficient than with water... A chiller like the above mentioned diy dehumidifier and stainless wort chillers would be a better investment... Especially if u have other resivoirs that need cooling...
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Thanks that says a lot ( literally ) lol. I'm about to go hydro for the first time, and was freaking out a little over res temps. I can't afford a chiller right now and I'm going to go ahead with the grow. Hoping for a cool fall. If you have any advice for me that would be great ( like the silica idks so if you feel long winded that cool too ) .
Peace out Bare
 
sgrowdum said:
Stainless and aluminum are industry standard materials.. Is a car HE food grade? No but aluminum or SS isn't going to leach a bunch of harmful chemicals into the water. You guys are VASTLY over thinking this. Don't be stupid. Flush the system thoroughly and have it.
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You gotta post thinking the worst bro, I'm not trying to hack at u personally or something... But think as if the poster posted a link to a new tranny cooler but was gonna grab one that's been used already or something... I half agree about going for it but also say for errors sake there was a 5% chance it/something/anything was gonna cost you a lost harvest/start whatever.... Would you take the shot? I've been outta the game for a few months, none of my own herb on hand...freaking the fuck out because I'm just getting into hydro myself...and if there's any % of a loss....I couldn't risk it... I'm all for diy everything, but come on bro if you know about cars, you know the kind of solvents these company's use in manufacturing and corrosion prevention etc... They don't come off that easy, it may seem like it but you never know what's used but if your gonna consume the buds your gonna grow, or if you were just selling it even more so, things should kinda be running on food grade if at all possible for me anyhow....as close as I can get to it... I think of growing herb as gardening, I wouldn't be chancing something I'm gonna grow to eat to something like this... But I've grown organic for ever so even dipping my toes into the hydro side and using synthetic nutes and that shit bothers me so I guess I'm being a bit tree huggerish but thats me..

But just the air to water/fluid is nowhere near as efficient as fluid to fluid or whatever u wanna call it... Im inclined to think a fan blowing on a tranny cooler with 2 pumps circulating water is gonna create more heat than it pulls out, so if your gonna spend $, spend it on something that's gonna actually make a difference and minimize risk as much as possible, that's all I'm saying...


Bareback said:
Thanks that

Thanks that says a lot ( literally ) lol. I'm about to go hydro for the first time, and was freaking out a little over res temps. I can't afford a chiller right now and I'm going to go ahead with the grow. Hoping for a cool fall. If you have any advice for me that would be great ( like the silica idks so if you feel long winded that cool too ) .
Peace out Bare
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If your taking clones now and aren't somewhere that it's still 100 degrees all day and have a semi climate controlled area you should be ok but I'd use some h202 or something that does the same thing if your actual growing res starts heading over 70-72ish is kinda pushing it... Clones I wouldn't be concerned 1 bit... Put a 15 minute interval timer like I said if your worried... I honestly couldn't tell u what my cloner temps were at any time except when it requires an aquarium heater (temps below 65) and the only reason I'd know is because that's what I set the heater to...and when I open up the cloner for the final time which is usually after I've given the losers of the bunch a few days to catch up to the majority if they're gonna..bonus clones if u will... But usually at that point as of recently the little stick on fish tank thermometer reads 82-84... So it's up there... But don't get carried away with clonex and all those crazy cloning products... A few are good but I can't justify buying them... Also a larger than you need res will help keep temps down too... Say u need a 30 gal res, go with a 40 or 50 and just run your nutes a bit longer in between topping off to justify using more nutes initially...


But as I take my cuts I have a small bucket that I put 2-3 capfuls of Olivia's rooting hormone to a 1/2 gal of water... your supposed to use like 20 times that amount but it's not necessary... I usually scrape the bottom
1.5-2" 's of the cut, a little less that what'll be in the cloner... Once I take a certain # of cuts (I take 10 at a time because that's a row on my cloner) and then I dip it in rooting powder and lay them on a paper towel next to the cloner, then I go grab 10 more and come back n dip those in another bucket to rinse off most of the rooting powder (it'll clog your shit up if your sloppy with it) and stick in those 10...dip the next 10 in the powder and throw them on the paper towel....and so on... Just my method, everyone has their own...

Just learn to stay calm when shit goes wrong or isn't going right fast enough... That's about the best advice I can give...as I said I'm I ust getting into the "dro" myself but I've grown plenty of soil, but mixing bags of soil where I am these days is a bit impossible so I figured why not try hydro for once... I've always wanted to, I have the temperment for it now after fucking up enough in soil....
 
whitey78 said:
You gotta post thinking the worst bro, I'm not trying to hack at u personally or something... But think as if the poster posted a link to a new tranny cooler but was gonna grab one that's been used already or something... I half agree about going for it but also say for errors sake there was a 5% chance it/something/anything was gonna cost you a lost harvest/start whatever.... Would you take the shot? I've been outta the game for a few months, none of my own herb on hand...freaking the fuck out because I'm just getting into hydro myself...and if there's any % of a loss....I couldn't risk it... I'm all for diy everything, but come on bro if you know about cars, you know the kind of solvents these company's use in manufacturing and corrosion prevention etc... They don't come off that easy, it may seem like it but you never know what's used but if your gonna consume the buds your gonna grow, or if you were just selling it even more so, things should kinda be running on food grade if at all possible for me anyhow....as close as I can get to it... I think of growing herb as gardening, I wouldn't be chancing something I'm gonna grow to eat to something like this... But I've grown organic for ever so even dipping my toes into the hydro side and using synthetic nutes and that shit bothers me so I guess I'm being a bit tree huggerish but thats me..

But just the air to water/fluid is nowhere near as efficient as fluid to fluid or whatever u wanna call it... Im inclined to think a fan blowing on a tranny cooler with 2 pumps circulating water is gonna create more heat than it pulls out, so if your gonna spend $, spend it on something that's gonna actually make a difference and minimize risk as much as possible, that's all I'm saying...




If your taking clones now and aren't somewhere that it's still 100 degrees all day and have a semi climate controlled area you should be ok but I'd use some h202 or something that does the same thing if your actual growing res starts heading over 70-72ish is kinda pushing it... Clones I wouldn't be concerned 1 bit... Put a 15 minute interval timer like I said if your worried... I honestly couldn't tell u what my cloner temps were at any time except when it requires an aquarium heater (temps below 65) and the only reason I'd know is because that's what I set the heater to...and when I open up the cloner for the final time which is usually after I've given the losers of the bunch a few days to catch up to the majority if they're gonna..bonus clones if u will... But usually at that point as of recently the little stick on fish tank thermometer reads 82-84... So it's up there... But don't get carried away with clonex and all those crazy cloning products... A few are good but I can't justify buying them... Also a larger than you need res will help keep temps down too... Say u need a 30 gal res, go with a 40 or 50 and just run your nutes a bit longer in between topping off to justify using more nutes initially...


But as I take my cuts I have a small bucket that I put 2-3 capfuls of Olivia's rooting hormone to a 1/2 gal of water... your supposed to use like 20 times that amount but it's not necessary... I usually scrape the bottom
1.5-2" 's of the cut, a little less that what'll be in the cloner... Once I take a certain # of cuts (I take 10 at a time because that's a row on my cloner) and then I dip it in rooting powder and lay them on a paper towel next to the cloner, then I go grab 10 more and come back n dip those in another bucket to rinse off most of the rooting powder (it'll clog your shit up if your sloppy with it) and stick in those 10...dip the next 10 in the powder and throw them on the paper towel....and so on... Just my method, everyone has their own...

Just learn to stay calm when shit goes wrong or isn't going right fast enough... That's about the best advice I can give...as I said I'm I ust getting into the "dro" myself but I've grown plenty of soil, but mixing bags of soil where I am these days is a bit impossible so I figured why not try hydro for once... I've always wanted to, I have the temperment for it now after fucking up enough in soil....
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My temperament is probably not there yet I don't know if it ever will be lol. Man that's awesome info, it helps more than a little. I'm busting some golden goat beans, floated for about 30 hours, then dropped em in some root riot cubes. 48 hours later three of em are up, got em resting in one of those jiffy pellet dome thingys.
So do you think I would be better off selecting a mother and cloning, since I don't have a proper cloner or mother room I've stayed away from it. But my room is 8 x 8 x 7 so maybe I could do a partition . Also that room is under the house, ambient temps averaged 85 or more all summer. I have a portable ac but didn't want to use it. Power bill is to damn high already.
Peace out Bare
 
Your gonna have to partition it or something eventually if your gonna run a mother/clones room and flower room at some point... I'd suggest grow tents would be the easiest and fastest way but not exactly the cheapest, but a nice 4x4/5x5 tent for flowering can be setup basically for $1000 with with most everything you would need I'd say.... But if your handy with 2x4's/wood etc... You can frame it somewhat modestly and use black/white poly to separate the areas and just get creative for light leaks... But you gotta...gotta...gotta have the rooms light proof have it so the lights do not interfere with one or the others dark time, zero light from anywhere in the dark periods, most importantly the flowering area but you still don't want any light leaks period.... Even the little red/orange light from the little switch on a surge protector in the dark can fuck shit up/cause herms, switch flowering plants to veg... Dark time needs to be 100% dark...

But u need a minimum 1 room for veg/mothers/clones....all 3 can be done in the same area but it is nice to have seperate cloning area as u want very low intensity lights to clone with... A few cfl's will work fine....or farther away from your main veg light will work too... and a flowering room... Otherwise your kinda defeating the purpose of getting a cloner n all that... If you only have 1 space to work with then I'd suggest getting some fem seeds or worst case some autos (last option in my book.. Zero experience with them but for some people a necessity) and do seed grows... Takes quite a bit longer but if u use fems/autos you know your getting females...

But if you want to run any kind of perpetual grow/reap the benefits of using clones.... FYI most strains u run from clone will most likely be better, better yield, pretty much better all around unless something gets fucked up... From seed grows are usually your preview of a strain, unless it's really bad; and even then you have to grow a strain from clones a few times before deciding if it's a keeper or not unless it's a complete dud but most times your seed grows are a preview, that's all... Sometimes a strain will change completely with the added maturity time... Also getting to know a strain will help u grow it better too so that's part of the equation...

But on the real, if you aren't ready to invest the time and money and do it semi right and be ready to still most likely fail a few times... don't do it.. If you don't already have some kind of grow know how, gardening experience etc...don't go off the chain and spend $1000's of $'s setting up and then give up on it because you failed a few times because u didn't know what to expect... There's a LOT of work and time gonna be required of u even on a small scale... My honest opinion is if you have no grow experience and aren't setup at all, go with soil... It's much more forgiving and a lot less labor intensive...waaaay more forgiving...and way cheaper to get started... My first biggish investment was my Ez cloner and is the only way to clone for me and can be used for plants to be grown in any medium... But soil is easy compared to hydro, once you know your basics you can get yourself setup for hydro if u still wanna go that route... But I initially started with hydro, fucked up and fucked up until I decided to try the bag of soil I had laying around, once I did that the $500+ I spent on diy hydro bullshit got dumpstered and I learned via dert... Now I feel confident enough to run hydro, know how to read plants etc... In soil you have plenty of time and buffers to save a failure, hydro you can blow a grow in a res change... Anything you give the plant is pretty much instant in hydro, soil things take a few days and you can see problems coming, hydro...you can walk out of your grow room and come back in 4 hours to a ruined crop... Not trying to scare you off, but honestly think about it...

On the real it took me years to get to the point to "think" I knew everything and a few more to realize I didn't know shit... I hate to sound old but truly it's a commitment that can get real fuckin expensive...and still fail no matter how much $ you throw at it... But again, I'm all for people growing their own, I just hate seeing people get crazy, spend a bunch of $, fuck up a few times and give up... Read a few grow books if u haven't, take all with a grain of sand....take what you need from everything u read and leave what's not useful to you... The one book that comes to mind was Ed rosenthals "grow guide" or some shit but it was my first book that's been revised I believe... But read a few and you'll see the variances in opinion most times stated as fact... "Stoner science" is a big problem on the forums and in even in published books as well so don't make major decisions or any for that matter without researching them heavily... All the right info needed is usually posted in the "stickies" and should be browsed through in each forum... But don't rush into anything blind....try not to anyhow...
 
Dude your like the big brother or best friend I don't have. Stealth is a concern so I haven't told anyone. And that makes it tuff to get help. Thank you so much bro.
So if I can do a separate area for clone/mothering can I mother in soil with cfl or t5. And not be considered with, as a controlled environment ( more temp swing, less ventilation, no odor controls ) to prevent problems in flower area. Keep in mind it's under the house.
Maybe I could do a side by side till I gain experience. I already have most of the equipment so the most of my expenses are adding new equipment like a chiller of some sort.
I'm running a vented hood with a dimmable ballast. Is there a schedule for lightning, when to increase it what to add for side lightning how to finish .
Thanks I appreciate your time.

Peace out Bare
 
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