Air Conditioner as chiller

Has anyone tried hacking an Air Conditior and using it as a chiller? Home Depot has one for $100 down near me. Curious how well it works.

hehe you could duct tape a rad in fromt of it, and cool your room AND PC! or toss the evaporator into the res and do it that way

yeah Ive seen those around, they use a rotory compressor wich isnt the quietest compressor but it should work fine as a chiller. Isnt a bad unit, Im not sure how hard it would be to modify into a chiller though.

oh yeah... ACs are noisy... just somethin to think about

I saw a post somewhere in extreme cooling for a surplus company that has small chillers for around $50 . if you cant find it let me know i have it at home.

Here it is.http://www.surpluscenter.com look under electric then heat/AC.

That little chiller wouldn't do as good of a job as a window a/c unit.

aenigma said:

That little chiller wouldn't do as good of a job as a window a/c unit.

Click to expand...

I disagree with that it has a 1/12hp compressor
the same size that comes in a lot of small appartment frig/freezers

Size doesn't mean power.I have a 1/6hp that is almost as big as my 3/4hp compressor.Then I have a 3/4hp compressor that is only a little bigger than a 1/4hp compressor.Compressor size is not a measurement.Look at the amp rating, that thing is the equivelant of a mini fridge, which use small compressor like that.It is indeed 1/12hp.

I never said anything about size, i was talking horse power. all i said is i didnt agree with you. the water chiller in the link has a 1/12hp compressor the same size that come s in a lot of small appartment refrig/freezer "freezer" being the focus . it will freeze water. an airconditioner will not freeze water. you can insulate the capillary tube on an AC unit to fool it into thinking that its warm then it is but it will only get cold enough to freeze the evaporator core stopping the flow of refrigrent untill the evap core thaws and then starts the process over again. freezers are designed to operate @ much lower temps. this is not to say that you cant get an AC unit cold i've been able to get AC's down to about 40f any lower & the evap core iced over. later.

window A/C's are some of the best canidates, as they usually cram a big ol condensor in a small package. most are 2500 btu and up!

a 1/12hp compressor is very small to be used as a chiller. It may be able to pull a bigger vacuum for its size but it just wont be able to take the heat load that a chiller will need to deal with. You are right that a AC isnt calibrated to run the evap at very cold temps so you will prolly need to switch out the capillary for a longer one if you want to take the full advantage of the AC compressor. I would go with the AC unit any day, but it will be louder than that small 1/12hp compressor.