DWC Idea

Cold$moke

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
Im moving away from water culture
Just cause im tired of pumps heat build up ect.

I love rdwc but i have played with it enougj to want to move on :)
loppydog said:
Thanks! I just went from LEDs to a couple Ceramic Metal Halide lights. I am really liking the difference so far! So when you say you were going to go venturi, do you mean you went another direction? It seems to me that if all methods add about the same DO, do the easiest with the least amount of heat and noise.
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After I saw the above post about it all being about the same

I decided venturis where just another potential leak point with no gain :)
 
SmokeyMcChokey

SmokeyMcChokey

Well-Known Member
Budley Doright said:
Well like I said flooded root zone grows can be successful without a chiller and yup a basement floor works, but if you want to keep your canopy at the optimum temp and the root zone at the optimum temp then barring a cold floor you need a chiller IMO. I grew for years without one, things got a lot easier with ;). And really are they that much of an investment when taking in the whole picture? I am lucky that it’s my trade so I can cheap out but a used titanium aquarium chiller is a few hundred bucks I would think.
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I've been told most chillers are major energy hogs. That's my reservation about buying one. That and I do t need one as even in the summer in a tropical climate my cement floor stays 65° so the water is never much above 72
 
Budley Doright

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
LOL the whole indoor grow thing is an energy hog. My chiller draws 4-6 amps depending on water temps but typically 4 and can do 3 res’s with a very limited cycle rate but like I said they are not for or needed by everyone.
 
SmokeyMcChokey

SmokeyMcChokey

Well-Known Member
Budley Doright said:
LOL the whole indoor grow thing is an energy hog. My chiller draws 4-6 amps depending on water temps but typically 4 and can do 3 res’s with a very limited cycle rate but like I said they are not for or needed by everyone.
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I could handle 5 amps. I was thinking decldicated 15 amp circuit kinda power
 
Budley Doright

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
SmokeyMcChokey said:
I could handle 5 amps. I was thinking decldicated 15 amp circuit kinda power
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You’d have to check the specs and honestly I’m not sure what mine asks for, I just checked the amp draw with my meter lol, I built it using a window shaker and removed the evap coil and fan and put a water coil inside. From the outside if I had it in a wall it would look just like a shaker lol. I have it outdoors and covered with stuff, just pipe it into shed with poly hose
 
loppydog

loppydog

New Member
So I am trying some test right now, and I thought I would share my findings. I filled two 5gal buckets last night about 3/4 full with water. one I left just standing and the other I used my 700GPH Danner MAG pump as an external. I just have a short intake into the bucket with a short return back into the bucket. This morning the temps were about 62 in the standing bucket and 75 in the pumped one. So unless the Iwaki pump transfers WAY less heat to the water and/or a larger amount of water makes a BIG difference, this idea looks dead in the water. I am trying to run a fan on the pump now to see if that makes much difference in water temp, but I bet it will be negligible.
 
Cold$moke

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
Yes but the heat is still there :)

Chillers can be negated

If you block the light from hitting the system
And keep your air temps at 72 -75

The res will equalize to the ambient.


I run a 900 gph syncra silent pump
In a 30 gal system. I put my pump in my res as i didnt want pipes all over the place to get bumped and start a leak

Water temps hover @72-74 degrees but plants look happy
And im running hydroguard no signs of funk yet and my setup has been going for a couple months now :).
 
Cold$moke

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
loppydog said:
So I am trying some test right now, and I thought I would share my findings. I filled two 5gal buckets last night about 3/4 full with water. one I left just standing and the other I used my 700GPH Danner MAG pump as an external. I just have a short intake into the bucket with a short return back into the bucket. This morning the temps were about 62 in the standing bucket and 75 in the pumped one. So unless the Iwaki pump transfers WAY less heat to the water and/or a larger amount of water makes a BIG difference, this idea looks dead in the water. I am trying to run a fan on the pump now to see if that makes much difference in water temp, but I bet it will be negligible.
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Can you take a pic of your setup ?

Im a visual learner :)

Yes bud your pump will heat the water


This is why rdwc is on the chopping block for me

At least one of my rdwc systems is going away after this run
 
Cold$moke

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
loppydog said:
So I am trying some test right now, and I thought I would share my findings. I filled two 5gal buckets last night about 3/4 full with water. one I left just standing and the other I used my 700GPH Danner MAG pump as an external. I just have a short intake into the bucket with a short return back into the bucket. This morning the temps were about 62 in the standing bucket and 75 in the pumped one. So unless the Iwaki pump transfers WAY less heat to the water and/or a larger amount of water makes a BIG difference, this idea looks dead in the water. I am trying to run a fan on the pump now to see if that makes much difference in water temp, but I bet it will be negligible.
Click to expand...

Never tested my pump in an inline set up .

But i know for a FACT. That actively cooling
An air pump can majorly help with lowering temps. By at least a few degrees if not like a whole 5 degrees

You would think it could only be benifical both for temps and longevity of your pump.


This is another reason i went inside the res with my pump

As it will keep your pump cool and alive for longer.
And at the time i used to use the heat.
But not that my room is super insulated
I started to run warm so i added hydrogaurd

Not because there was an issue but because i didnt want there to be one later. :)
 
loppydog

loppydog

New Member
So indeed the fan did lower the temps. Only a few degrees, but still something. This led me to one more idea. Since I am using an internal/external pump, I decided to put the pump in its own bucket of water to try to keep it cool while still using it externally for the other bucket. That should do a better job of cooling it theoretically. I will know in a few hours.
 
loppydog

loppydog

New Member
That didn't work as well as I had hoped. Still running about 73 degrees. I wonder if these DC water pumps I see are as cool running as they claim? If so maybe they would be just the thing to make this idea work...
 
Lordhooha

Lordhooha

Well-Known Member
loppydog said:
That didn't work as well as I had hoped. Still running about 73 degrees. I wonder if these DC water pumps I see are as cool running as they claim? If so maybe they would be just the thing to make this idea work...
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I’d ask before you drop the money on another pump. If you can doing a waterfall might keep it cooler if you have the ability.
 
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