water chiller and room temp question.

M

mrrangz

Active Member
hey guys,

Has anyone ever ran a water chiller in high temp? (80f+) Some posts suggest running a chiller above 86f+ is a no no. Trying to see if there are any members with experience with this question.

My current room tops at 82 but with summer along the way those numbers might change and just want to be prepared and want to know if its even worth running a chiller successfully in hot temp.

Is it possible?

Thanks
 
CaliWorthington

CaliWorthington

Well-Known Member
It is officially summer now. I just got my first chiller, a 1/10 HP Active Aqua, set up last night. So far I've ran the room up to 84 degrees, the chiller seems to be working great. It's chilling 25 gal of solution in a 32 gal rubbermaid brute trashcan. I set the temperature on the chiller at 68. I'm running 3/4" tubing with 250 gph pump as recommended by hydro store dude.

I hooked up the chiller and mixed my reservoir before turning the lights on last night, to avoid the heat. So when I started, the room was around 78-79 and the water was 75. It took about two hours to cool it down to 68. Between me working in there and the chiller compressor, the room warmed up 2-3 degrees. After I turned the lights on, the chiller didn't come for a long time. It will drift up to 70, but doesn't kick in until it hits 71.

If you get an Active Aqua, before you install their hose fittings on top, crank down the black collars that are already on there (by hand) as tight as you possibly can. I had a leak from the outlet side at first, this was the culprit.

I'm hand watering (5) 10 gallon Coco Trees right now, next step is to build a drip system, probably with smaller pots. Got the chiller so I don't have to mix a batch every time I water. I drilled 4 holes and installed a pair of PVC conduit clamps in the reservoir, to keep the hoses in place. Check it out.

I'm gonna switch to a food grade white brute reservoir next week, you have to order those online. This was good practice though.



 
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M

mrrangz

Active Member
How do you like the 1/10 cooling capacity on your res? does it cycle on/off alot?

How much heat is the chiller adding to the overall room temp?

Im trying to run this via RDWC so my guess its going to be running continuously. opting for the 1/4 HP

are you running your nutes thru the chiller?
 
CaliWorthington

CaliWorthington

Well-Known Member
1/10 HP seems good for 25 gallons, it hardly ever comes on.

It will warm the room up 2-3 degrees while running continuously for several hours. Once the water is cooled down, it's not an issue, mostly stays off.

I've been considering a Current Culture setup myself recently. I don't see why RDWC would cause the chiller to run continuously. Those systems have more water capacity than I'm running though, so 1/4 HP might be a good idea. How much is the capacity of your system?

I am running nutes through the chiller. I'll probably get an inline filter, and/or put the pump in a bag. Active Aqua has instructions for flushing out the chiller to remove salts with Clearex, etc... so I'm not too worried about it.
 
M

mrrangz

Active Member
capacity about 50-70 gals. Keep in mind u also got a pump recirculating in the rdwc system which will add heat to your water.

Im just scared of spending this amount of money on it. I dont want to get a used one cause god knows what abuse its been thru.

U can also run drip clean continuously so the salts dont stick to anything.
 
Sativied

Sativied

Well-Known Member
I use a 6/10hp (450watt) to chill 16 gallons. Works pretty well :bigjoint:

It's outside my grow closet (in which it's 82f max)

chiller.jpg
 
CaliWorthington

CaliWorthington

Well-Known Member
mrrangz said:
capacity about 50-70 gals. Keep in mind u also got a pump recirculating in the rdwc system which will add heat to your water.

Im just scared of spending this amount of money on it. I dont want to get a used one cause god knows what abuse its been thru.

U can also run drip clean continuously so the salts dont stick to anything.
Click to expand...
You should go for the 1/4 HP then, I bet you'll be happy with it.

Now that you mention it, I did add Drip Clean, for that very reason, to preserve the chiller.

Anyway, I figure if the chiller were to only last a year, it would cost less than a dollar a day. Got mine for $275. I bet if I flush it every month or two it will last for many years though.
 
D

DarthBlazeAnthony

Well-Known Member
CaliWorthington said:
It is officially summer now. I just got my first chiller, a 1/10 HP Active Aqua, set up last night. So far I've ran the room up to 84 degrees, the chiller seems to be working great. It's chilling 25 gal of solution in a 32 gal rubbermaid brute trashcan. I set the temperature on the chiller at 68. I'm running 3/4" tubing with 250 gph pump as recommended by hydro store dude.

I hooked up the chiller and mixed my reservoir before turning the lights on last night, to avoid the heat. So when I started, the room was around 78-79 and the water was 75. It took about two hours to cool it down to 68. Between me working in there and the chiller compressor, the room warmed up 2-3 degrees. After I turned the lights on, the chiller didn't come for a long time. It will drift up to 70, but doesn't kick in until it hits 71.

If you get an Active Aqua, before you install their hose fittings on top, crank down the black collars that are already on there (by hand) as tight as you possibly can. I had a leak from the outlet side at first, this was the culprit.

I'm hand watering (5) 10 gallon Coco Trees right now, next step is to build a drip system, probably with smaller pots. Got the chiller so I don't have to mix a batch every time I water. I drilled 4 holes and installed a pair of PVC conduit clamps in the reservoir, to keep the hoses in place. Check it out.

I'm gonna switch to a food grade white brute reservoir next week, you have to order those online. This was good practice though.



Click to expand...
Will I need to chill my 10 gallon container this summer? I expect SoCal temps to be 85 indoors soon.
 

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CaliWorthington

CaliWorthington

Well-Known Member
Cool setup you got there. Yeah you might need to chill it. You can insulate the cooler and put a plastic jug with ice in there. If that's not enough, a 1/10 HP chiller will do the trick.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
I've never seen someone buy a chiller to cool a reservoir tub full of nutrient water he HAND WATERS WITH? Damn dude, buy some irrigation tubing, a pump and a short cycle timer and save yourself some real work!

The guy who wants to chill his UC needs the 1/4hp unit because the water and the tubs well absorb heat from the lights and the warm air in the room. This is why you insulate the tubs as best you can.

I built my own RDWC system for a small fraction of the cost of a UC and mine is better in every way; grows plants better n faster, clogs less and needs no air pump, lines or stones. SERIOUSLY. It's far more reconfigurable as well. A buddy and I completely rebuilt one of mine in two hours, start to finish. We cut not one single thing, we just used the lengths I already had.

I'm at the opposite end of the scale of chiller users; I have not one, but two 2 Ton ChillKing window mount chillers. Four Tons is closer to six, even seven hp (this is an educated GUESS- citation and conversion factors needed, please!), which is why 'Chinese tons' always seemed smaller.

They have completely replaced the need for any other compressor on the property, save an air pump for my bike tires. They manage temperature and relative humidity in multiple spaces day and night, plus control RDWC temps in every system I run. I can run either unit, or in the case of today where temps are running into the nineties, both.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
Oh I forgot about the best part; not only does just two Tons of cooling handle up to 12 kW of bloom lighting (six on each side of a flip), but I can put it in my office and the heat it sheds will keep my house warm all winter. In Colorado.
 
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CaliWorthington

CaliWorthington

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
I've never seen someone buy a chiller to cool a reservoir tub full of nutrient water he HAND WATERS WITH? Damn dude, buy some irrigation tubing, a pump and a short cycle timer and save yourself some real work!
Click to expand...
I said "next step is to build a drip system" in the same sentence I mentioned hand watering. lol

I'm waiting for a reply about some drip rings, not the hydrofarm ones, these drip much slower.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
CaliWorthington said:
I said "next step is to build a drip system" in the same sentence I mentioned hand watering. lol

I'm waiting for a reply about some drip rings, not the hydrofarm ones, these drip much slower.
Click to expand...
Okay, that would make me the stoned one... guilty. lol

We used little drip emitter spikes that you stick into the coco and feed with 1/4" line. If you DTW you won't have clogging problems, but if you recycle your nutrient water you'll need to filter it to keep coco from clogging your system. This is the quickest and cheapest way to skin the cat and all the parts except the short cycle timer are available at the hardware store.

If you already have a chiller, you should really try RDWC. The reason it's faster is because the plants always have access to as much water and nutrients as they can handle, without fear of drowning. No soil media can match that.
 
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CaliWorthington

CaliWorthington

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
Okay, that would make me the stoned one... guilty. lol

We used little drip emitter spikes that you stick into the coco and feed with 1/4" line. If you DTW you won't have clogging problems, but if you recycle your nutrient water you'll need to filter it to keep coco from clogging your system. This is the quickest and cheapest way to skin the cat and all the parts except the short cycle timer are available at the hardware store.

If you already have a chiller, you should really try RDWC. The reason it's faster is because the plants always have access to as much water and nutrients as they can handle, without fear of drowning. No soil media can match that.
Click to expand...
No I'm stoned too, it's all good! :bigjoint:

It is still a bit unusual I suppose. The deal is, I don't have space to put a reservoir in another room or in the hallway. Even if I did, the ambient temps get up to 78-82 in the summer, and that's while running the house central AC periodically throughout the day.

This way I don't have to make cool, fresh RO water and mix a batch of nutes every time I water. So the chiller is a time saver already for me.

I'm listening to what you say about RDWC though. I've been looking at the UC systems, which a lot of people DIY too. But I think I'll check out what you're doing, thanks for the tip. I'll probably end up picking your brain about RDWC details now, lol. I like to read a lot of threads and learn for myself too.

I am running DTW now, and these homemade drip rings I'm looking at are supposed to last for 8 crops. I was gonna buy 2 of their distribution manifold spines and 16 of the slow drip rings. They have kits, but I need smaller rings for the 2gal pots, so I'm awaiting an email response.

http://www.garden-galaxy.com/Pages/Halo.htm

I realize there are other ways to build a drip system and I've almost done that too, then I saw these the other day, so we'll see.
 
Red1966

Red1966

Well-Known Member
mrrangz said:
capacity about 50-70 gals. Keep in mind u also got a pump recirculating in the rdwc system which will add heat to your water.

Im just scared of spending this amount of money on it. I dont want to get a used one cause god knows what abuse its been thru.

U can also run drip clean continuously so the salts dont stick to anything.
Click to expand...
You can flush a chiller with white vinegar to clean out salts. I wouldn't run it though my hydro system tho.
 
Red1966

Red1966

Well-Known Member
I meant while you had plants or media in it. It's a mild acid and would wreck havoc with your pH. Maybe a flush immediately after would fix it, but I don't know it would and I don't want to give advice that destroys someone's crop. Just a few drops will kill weeds in my yard. Beats spraying poison.
 
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