Might have killed my DIY glycol chiller. Someone advise please

[Jtvann]

So I had (have maybe?) A Frankenstein chiller for sure. One that i just slapped together in about 2 hrs and left it because looking at it the wrong way might make it fall apart. The thing is. It worked perfectly ... until.

Until I accidentally dropped my thermowell probe and it fell directly into the spinning fan blades and broke 2 of them off. The unit of course was out of balance and was beating itself to death. So it was on to the trash can with it. But instead of trashing it, I decided since it was trash anyway to just take a hacksaw to the fan rotor arm. I cut the fan completely off. It runs almost silently now, as theres nothing to spin. The compressor still works as normal.

So, my question is have I still got trash that wont cool anymore, or have I effectively upgraded my Frankenstein unit to be more quiet?

 

[Vale71]

So, my question is have I still got trash that wont cool anymore, or have I effectively upgraded my Frankenstein unit to be more quiet?

Performance-wise you have rather downgraded it to be more quiet. It will probably be okay as long as demand stays very low, if demand is increased (more fermenters, lower lagering temperatures, warmer weather) it will probably eventually overheat and have a more serious malfunction.

 

[Dland]

Can't you just get a new fan or blade?

 

[Jtvann]

Can't you just get a new fan or blade?

Would probably cost as much as I paid for it in the first place. I've plugged in a box fan in front of it for now to put a bandaid on it. Just ran my test cooling without the fan, and it overheated fairly quick.

I've got a backup unit that I can get for 25 bucks. Looks like that's my better option.

 

[Tom R]

I realize this is not very helpful at this point, but next time you could try cutting off additional blades to turn a eight-blade fan into perhaps a four-blade or even two-blade. It all depends on which blades were broken, of course. Gotta have an even number of equally-spaced blades...

Might work well enough to get by.

 

[Dland]

I've got a backup unit that I can get for 25 bucks. Looks like that's my better option.

If not too much trouble, could you post a picture of your cooler? I'd like some ideas on making one for low $.

 

[Jtvann]

Will do. I just snagged a free 8k BTU unit. Upgrade!

 

[Jtvann]

I'll try to take pictures of the entire process of putting it together to give you an idea of what I do.

 

[Jtvann]

So bare with me while I try to explain my setup. It might help the pictures make more sense.

I took a regular window AC unit. Mine was rated 6.5k btus. I've read that you want a minimum of 5k. Basically just unscrew the outer cover completely. Once inside, theres a few major components to keep in mind. I could be wrong and missing things, just explaining how I did mine.

Theres going to be 2 radiators grills inside. One in front and one in back. The front is the side that the cool air blows out of. The back is the side that sits outside the window. This is important, dont get them confused. Theres going to also be a cylindrical shaped part with copper lines running to each radiator. Theres also a fan (which I found out today is really important) and some sort of temperature probe.

The gist of what your going to do is to unscrew and manipulate the front cold radiator and submerge it in a glycol bath. Be careful with the copper lines. They will bend without breaking, but you have to be forceful. Plan ahead for how you think the copper will bend and kink. Go slow. It can be done easily on the first attempt, but you just have to visualize what you want it to look like before you start bending.

My unit has a temp probe and wont turn the compressor on unless its above 60 degrees. I'm sure theres a way to rewire it to make it work, but I took the dummy way around. My son used to have a lizard and needed a heat lamp. I took that heat lamp (no more lizard) and put it in front of the temperature probe.

So coming from the wall, I've got a temp controller. I put a 3 outlet expander into the temp controller. In one outlet is the AC unit. The other is my lizard light. The 3rd is my box fan (which is normally not needed, but read above how I screwed mine up). Temp probe is in a thermowell inside my igloo cooler ice bath. When the temp rises above my set point, it kicks on the AC unit, fan and lizard light.

Inside the igloo cooler, I've got 2 Ss brewtech ftss pumps going to independant controllers. I think that's about it. I'll post a thread of pics next.

 

[Jtvann]

Pic 1 is an over all shot of the system.
Pic 2 is the temp probe and light
Pic 3 is the submerged cooling coil inside igloo
Pic 4 is showing the bent copper line and how it goes inside the igloo cooler. I cut a notch out of the cooler so it would fit. Notice the white copper line. That's frost build up where it's so cold.
Pic 5 is another overall shot, showing both fermenters.

Let me know if you need anything else. It ain't pretty, but it works great. I set my glycol bath to 29 with a 5 degree variance. It kicks on at 34 degrees. I cold crash to 35 degrees.

 

[Jtvann]

And here's ambient vs glycol bath temp, just to show that it does work. Obviously the cooling works better when the pumps are recirculating the chilled water. That's why theres a few degrees temp swing in the negative for my setup now though.

 

[Jtvann]

Good news is that I saved my current setup with a simple box fan that I already had. Even gained a 8k window unit for free whenever the day comes that this setup does die.