Aquarium Chiller Test....

Hi All,

Got the $150 Aquarium Chiller off Craigslist (impressed with the condition and quality of the chiller) and just did the first test....

Filled a 70 quart cooler with 106 degree water, turned on the chiller and in about 5 hours it had taken the water down to 39 degrees. This is the lowest setting on the chiller.

Plan is to use the 70 quart cooler as a reservoir and, as commanded by the Ferm temp controller, pump the chilled water from the 70 quart cooler thru a chill jacket on the fermenter.

Don't think there is a reasonable way to draw any conclusions about how well the whole system will work. Although I was pretty happy with the way the chiller chiller the reservoir...

Full system test when I get the other parts....

 

Please let me know how this works I was thinking about doing the same thing with the ss jacket

 

Conical fermentor is on its way.....once here I will report back on the test...only negative I can see now is I do not expect to get to good cold crash temps.....I estimate best case, I can get the fermentor down to 42 to 45degrees...in an 80 degree garage...maybe I am being optimistic...

 

Maybe throw some frozen water bottles into the cooler when you want to crash?

 

You might be able to modify the chiller to go lower?

 

I have considered that....I have the wiring diagram for the control circuit....

 

5 hours seems like a long time - did you measure inlet and outlet temp?
Throttling the pump might serve you well

 

any updates

 

Do you know how much power the chiller consumes at full tilt? I've got a huge ferm chamber and it seems like a shame to be using as much electricity as I am for chilling 5-6 gallons at a time...

 

Yah, Any updates or pics?? Looking to do something similar

 

(70/4)*8.34*(106 - 39)/5 = 1955.73 BTU/h ~0.16 ton. Interesting. It should only draw about 4 amps.