I'm making a chiller for mine this week.
ordered a stainless model from feebay. In the interest of not consuming even more power, I'm going to put a small bucket in my keg fridge and run the water through there. We will see how that works.
I'm researching building a diy chiller myself. Any reason you decided to go with the repurposed refrig vs. the repurposed water cooler?
diy chiller from water cooler:
http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-room-design-setup/248366-klutters-diy-chiller-35-00-usd.html
I think you got it. The little fridge only cycles a few times when it needs to. Circulating warm water through it will cause it to cycle a lot or it will just keep cooling. The compressor was not built for constant running, only short cycles....I don't really understand the comment about burning out the fridge. I am going to put a 5 gallon pail of water in the fridge and circulate that water through the SS coil sitting in the rez. So are you saying the fridge will kick on a bunch more to keep the water cool? The other route would be to put a set of coils in the freezer, a separate set in the rez and just pump water and anti-freeze through the system.
No sump pump. But I did think
About running a ground loop
Of 200' of polyethylene tubing. I cringed however at burying all the tubing and then having it not work.
i would bet that the soil would just heat to what ever temp the water is being pump thru it. clay and rock are to of the best holders of heat thats why they use them to line fireplaces,ovens ect.