Aquarium/Hydroponics Chiller for Temp Control & Cold Crashing?

[ChzyMnky]

Hey all,

I’m looking into building a glycol chiller out of an aquarium or hydroponics chiller, with a 10gal cooler as a glycol reservoir. I’m chilling a 7gal Spike conical located in my basement, which can get into the mid 70s in summer. Two main questions:

1) What size chiller do I need? Is 1/10hp enough? Or do I need a 1/4hp unit?

2) The big question: Does anyone here have experience bypassing or tricking the chiller’s built-in thermostat? I want to be able to cold-crash the conical to the high 30s, which means getting the glycol down into the low 30s. Most aquarium chillers won’t go below ~40 to keep from freezing the evaporator coil with regular water.

Thanks in advance!
Eric

 

[dunnry]

I have a setup like that and yes, the 1/10 HP will work just fine. I was using it for a 14gal SS Brewtech. It will be capable of keeping the conical in the low 50's, upper 40's if your conical is in ambient room temps. I use a smaller 24qt cooler and that was enough. I did not try to bypass the thermostat however.

 

[SanPancho]

Get your hands on the wiring diagram and someone here can tell you how to use a different thermostat.

 

[ChzyMnky]

Hey Guys, thanks for the responses... Ended up being a moot point, the household budget controller has nixed my plans.