Portable freezer = Inexpensive Glycol Chiller?

[aaronmq]

So I have seen some threads regarding the use of thermoelectric cooling mini coolers as glycol chillers (seems improbable), but what about one of these?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G132X2F?ref=emc_p_m_5_i&th=1

For $170, you get a 20qt capacity vessel that's capable of sub-freezing temps. Easy as dropping in glycol mixture and a submersible pump operated with a temp controller?

My suspicion is it would be capable of holding temps, but might need assistance with a frozen 2L bottle when trying to drop temps significantly. Even if that's the case, its a significant improvement over constant frozen bottle cycling given the price.

Thoughts?

 

[Velnerj]

I've gone down this rabbit whole before. I'm not exactly sure what you have in mind but those coolers will not hold liquid directly in them and function.

My initial thought was to just dump the wort in it and set a temp controller bypass all the glycol equipment.... But I'm guessing you don't want to dump the glycol mixture directly in there? I'm not sure how efficient it is but I'm not investing to try it because I have no use for the cooler if it doesn't work.

 

[SerHer]

That looks like it could work. The product webpage doesn´t have any technical data, it doesn´t says what refrigerant uses or cooling power, all we know is it draws 60W so let's do some math.

I own a 12000btu/h air conditioner that draws 1300W, so this mini fridge should be around 500 btu/h. It is a great simplification but it gives you the idea.

Now, what are those 500 btu/h good for? Brewtech's 1/5hp glycol chiller sits at 1450bth/h and can cool up to 1BBL, so this mini cooler would be good for 1/3BBL.

HOWEVER that´s just in paper in a very big simplification, it wasn´t designed to be an industrial chiller, the products' webpage suspiciously omits important technical data, the insulation may be subpar, you may need to waterproof the inside to hold the water/glycol mixture, etc.

So what do I think about the idea? I love it, I'd give it a try, it's cheap enough, simple enough and should the project fail, I will still have a compressor driven mini cooler, I had never seen one before and now I actually want one.

 

[Bobby_M]

It won't work. 60 watts is the total draw, but it wouldn't be 100% efficient so while 60w is technically about 200btuH, the effective cooling is probably closer to 100. I've seen chest freezers fail at the same endeavor.