Looking to make a chiller with a water dispenser

Hi guys,

I scooped up a water dispenser on craigslist for $30.

I have DWC tub going with some minor temp issues. Its not too bad now, but the summer coming is when it really gets hot.

What I envision is a submersible pump in my DWC. Pumping out into a coil that is submerged in the water chamber on the dispenser. Ive seen a couple DIYs with a water despenser, and they always seem to take them apart and submerge the coil into the res. I dont want to do that.

So in order to make the coil i'll need some sort of tubing. I read that copper is a no-no. How well would a plastic tube work for heat transfer? I hear stainless is best, but I dunno how pliable stainless tubing is.

whatcha guys think?

I grabbed one of those hot/cold water dispensers with built in chiller/heater/filters/uv filter from my old work to put out in my garage years ago. I never hooked it up and I was about to throw it out when my buddy suggested pretty much what your talking about, strip it out for the chiller/filters and uv filter and adapt it to the system I'm building. I might even hook up the heating element so i can get hot water in the room easily. Call around to auto parts stores, you might be able to get SS tubing through them plastic won't have the heat transfer you would want. I know many stock alum tubing, but I think it might react with nutrients. Look for a brewing supply store..I believe the SS coils are called wort chillers, that's ideally what you would want. For a quick fix to minor res temp issues, i saw a guy put his dwc buckets ( he was running 2, 5 gal buckets) inside a bigger tote filled with water for a temp buffer. Good luck and keep us informed..I'd be interested in how it works out.