Glycol chiller vs. Water chiller

[Deadalus]

I noticed a chiller being sold FB Marketplace by a homebrewer earlier today that was different from a glycol chiller, it was called a laser chiller and specifically it was a water chiller for laser engraving. It was an S&A CW-5200, S&A is the brand. I immediately noticed that it used water but since a homebrewer had it, I thought it would potentially be suitable for homebrewing. However, the seller noted they got it from another HBer in a lot and hadn't put it to use. The price was extremely cheap for the unit but since he was also selling other items priced low, I didn't think he was trying to dump it. He did say he already had another unit as well. So I went and found some of the specs for the unit and started comparing them to some Brewbuilt models. The S&A unit had a cooling capacity of 1.7KW vs a Brewbuilt Icemaster Max 4 of 780 Watts, S&A compressors was 0.9HP vs Brewbuilt 3/8 HP. The S&A had a smaller reservoir 7l vs 30l and the S&A only had a pair of ports.

I don't own a glycol chiller and don't know much about them in general so I am wondering what's the difference between the two types? Could glycol be added to a water chiller? It seems like this particular model may outperform the glycol chiller. The S&A is a lot cheaper but the features aren't all comparable. I did see an S&A same model but with 2 pairs of ports but I didn't spend too much more time on comparisons. The ad was only up for 4 hours and actually disappeared while I was checking things out. I wrote the guy even and he said it sold, he only wanted $125 for it, and a 2.5 gallon keg he had for $45 also sold. Other items were still up.

Other things I was wondering about is if maybe the commercial HB chilling coils for conicals are sized for glycol solution heat exchange specifically and if the usage time and frequency are different between applications. I'm not familiar with what exactly is being cooled during laser engraving and whether there is cycling involved.

 

[Sauls]

Good morning, did you find out anything more on using a water chiller? I also found one here on market place (active aqua name brand). @Deadalus

Thanks,
Paul

 

[Deadalus]

I did not. But there's a Brewbuilt box Santa seems to have droppped off early out in my greenhouse.

 

[BBBF]

I have a water chiller that was meant for cooling hospital equipment and not the same model as what you linked. It's plenty powerful enough, but because it is meant for water, the controller limits you to a low temperature of 38F. Not as low as you'd like to go for cold crashing, but you can get to 33F if you mess with the temperature calibration.