office water cooler fermentation. build???

so, i have an office water cooler, with both hot and cold spigots. and if you follow the flow, the water can go straight through from the cold to the hot chamber. I was thinking a pump could move water from a an insulated tub with a carboy in it, through both chambers, and a 2 stage ranco ETC could control the hot and cold sides separately.

think of this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/water-fermentation-chiller-81501/
except instead of using a cooler of ice, i have a compressor/chiller, as well as a heater so i can control temps even in the winter.

i plan to rip the thing apart tonight to get a better feel of what it will take, but my first impression is that it wouldn't be very difficult at all.

thoughts? any one tried this?

unless i get discouraged, i'll probaly be working this up in the next few weeks, and I'll post everything i do as i go along.

Sounds interesting. I'll be watching for updates.

subscribed. Not sure how heat + cool will work since those fountains server hot from one tank and cool from another, perhaps one larger tank and a dual outlet controller, but that blows the budget quick, doesnt it?

Well, the way it all hooks up inside, the water can flow between both chambers. Because of that, the piping is pretty easy if I can seal off the cold chamber ( the big one the bottle usually sits in). After that, the ranco etc 21110000 should do the job, and you can find deals in that on eBay. So, after the free watercooler, and an eBay ranco, I'm in $60. Now just miscellaneous parts, hopefully no more than $100 on top of that.

so here's the guts. i actually have the coils separated from the water chambers. i pointed out the hot and cold water chambers, and they are indeed connected by a pipe which allowed the water in bottle to fill the hot chamber as it filled the cold chamber. the thick white 'pipe' is the insulated piping attaching thencold chamber to the compressor. is soft copper tubing, so it can be bent, CAREFULLY, if needed. My idea is a wood box, with a high back for the condenser (the coils that need exposed to the air), and then the water chambers in the bottom of the box. some bucket above for the water, and a cheap pond pump.

I had the same idea a few weeks ago. Ended up being a lot simpler to buy a 4.6 fridge off CL and making a temp controller from a dual stage aquarium controller. I think the fridge route had more cooling power anyway.

You're going to have to build something like a son of fermentation chiller with $30-$60 of foam core, plus a computer fan, plus a temp control unit, yadda yadda....

I'm not that handy and gave up pretty easily.

It would be awesome if you can do it. I'm sure there a lot of these things lying around. Good luck!

rasherb said:

I had the same idea a few weeks ago. Ended up being a lot simpler to buy a 4.6 fridge off CL and making a temp controller from a dual stage aquarium controller. I think the fridge route had more cooling power anyway.

You're going to have to build something like a son of fermentation chiller with $30-$60 of foam core, plus a computer fan, plus a temp control unit, yadda yadda....

I'm not that handy and gave up pretty easily.

It would be awesome if you can do it. I'm sure there a lot of these things lying around. Good luck!

Click to expand...

yeah, i know, theres simpler ways. but, i really want to use water as my 'thermal medium' instead of air. it would be a lot easier to get a minifridge and a cheap hairdryer hooked up to a temp controller, and call it done, but air hold so little heat. i know it would work, but if this works too, it would be 'better' in my mind. anyway, we'll see how it goes. no guarantee it works.

With a water cooler, some copper tube for a coil around fermenter, and a 2 stage controller you should be good to go. You might have fun with water heater side heating the water too fast and overshooting set points given the heater wattage. For 20 gallon conical fermenters I have used 50' 1/2" SS coils connected to a similar water cooler to control ferment temps.

kladue said:

You might have fun with water heater side heating the water too fast and overshooting set points given the heater wattage.

Click to expand...

The element in the thing is ~500W, which may be a little overkill. and the more I play with it, the more it seems liek I may be better off just using the cold chamber, and putting a cartridge heater in it, like this:
300W heater
that might make the heat more manageable, and one chamber it easier to deal with than 2, plumbing wise.

kladue said:

I have used 50' 1/2" SS coils connected to a similar water cooler to control ferment temps.

Click to expand...

i was thinking just letting it sit in a water bath, and that water is whats circulated through the chamber. don't know if it would be cheaper or not, but it certainly would make for better surface contact on the fermenter.

mattmauriello said:

The element in the thing is ~500W, which may be a little overkill. and the more I play with it, the more it seems liek I may be better off just using the cold chamber, and putting a cartridge heater in it, like this:
300W heater
that might make the heat more manageable, and one chamber it easier to deal with than 2, plumbing wise.


i was thinking just letting it sit in a water bath, and that water is whats circulated through the chamber. don't know if it would be cheaper or not, but it certainly would make for better surface contact on the fermenter.

Click to expand...

And the thermal mass of the water bath would help mitigate the potential problem of 500 watt heating unit causing an overshoot.

Here is an alternative method for the glass carboys, 1/4" copper tube on 24 Ga galvanized steel. http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.ladue/CarboyCoolingSystem#5256434297933178562

kladue said:

Here is an alternative method for the glass carboys, 1/4" copper tube on 24 Ga galvanized steel. http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.ladue/CarboyCoolingSystem#5256434297933178562

Click to expand...

That's interesting. Could probably be used on a bucket too. Not so well on a better bottle with its raised parts or even 5 gallon glass carboys that have the raised ridges of glass.

Is the copper soldered to the galvanized? Do you use any kind of thermal grease between the carboy and the sheet metal?

The copper is soldered to the steel sheet which is fixed in place with the insulation wrap. You slide the carboy across shelf into cooler and fasten strap which holds cooler to carboy, then wrap the foam rubber insulation over the exposed carboy and close the velcro flap. This can be built with the lighter gauge steel they use for roofing purposes and bent to conform to the buckets, a strap/straps can be used to tighten it against bucket, then wrap with 1" foam rubber for insulation.

don't know if anyone was following this, but after some thought, I realize that this approach is just a little too much work, and probalby going to be more complicated than necessary. so, since i have the ability to do so, I'm actually going to use the compressor, but replace the water chamber with an small AC coil. build a box like Thomcats but with a heater as well, using on of the aquarium temp controllers off ebay. I'll startup a thread for it when i get underway (but the controller is ordered already, so soon hopefully)