Water tower cooling.....

http://www.overclockers.com/articles389/

I saw this link posted in another thread and it has REALLY interested me. But I wont be satisfied with a simple single 33" tower....I want to make a few that are at least 6 feet tall......7' ideally. However, as mentioned in the article, a project of this size has some obvious problems that need to be solved. The most important is getting a pump that would flow enough water to satisfy this shower head:

http://www.neatitems.com/8_inch_shower_head.htm

I plan to make dual 7'x9" towers, and that head would fit perfectly. So does anyone know of a practical pump that could supply enough water to TWO of those massive heads? I dont know how many gph is needed, but I would assume A LOT.

However, since the pump will be pushing such a large amount of water will that kind of pressure become a problem when I reduce the tube to 1/2" and have it flow through my waterblocks? Especially with my waterblock...given the very delicate poly water jets.

Possible solution:

Make a large hot water holding tank (the hot pre- shower head water). From this tank I would use a massive water pump (but nothing insane because this will be in my house) to suck the water from the holding tank and shoot it through a Y and then through the dual 8" heads. Then a smaller pump (such as my eheim 1250) will pump out the water from the bottom of the towers and push it through my system, then back out to the holding tank. The obvious problem with this solution (??) is that my eheim 1250 will never be able to replenish the holding tank at the rate the other larger pump is draining it. So once again if I use a huge pump for the system circulation, pressure issues will no doubt arise.

Any suggestions would greatly help. I am no hydro dynamics expert but I'm sure someone is!

If I am going to go to the trouble of making one of these in the first place I simply wont be satisfied with a single 33" tower. I know dual 7' towers are far more cooling than will ever be needed by a computer....but it would be a fun challenge to make them anyway

look and see if what the gph is on the shower head and compare it to your pump it should be listed on the shower head on how much it is and you can always take out the flow controler out that is in the middle to get a higher flow rate make sure you have air flow threw it i see lot of people use it to make the water evap faster and cool quicker as the pump i thing that ehemi 1250 is plenty of power to do what you want just have to make a adaptor to fit the shower head hope this helped out some

this is goin to be interesting

^^ Indeed. Thanks for the advice sonic.

Well my pump can do about 317 gph, which is roughly 5.3 gpm. Add into that flow restriction (tubing/adapters) and flow will be a good amount less. Then divide 5.3 by 2 (two 8" shower heads) and thats roughly 2.6 gpm per shower head. By the looks of those heads I doubt two and a half gallons per minute will be enough. I guess I could use 4 pumps.....1 pumping water from the holding tank to the Y, then 2 more pumps each feeding their own shower head. Then a 4th pump for the system circulation and holding tank fill. That could work.

I was not able to find the gph needing for the shower head so I am working blind....
Does anyone know where I can buy 8" rain shower heads that will have more info?

Thanks!

You have to figure head pressure into this whole thing too. The Eheim 1250 does 317 GPH without any head pressure. If you are pumping water up 7' the Eheim will just dribble out water. Probably lucky if you hit 10GPH at 7'. Then add in the pressure from the showerheads (which doesn't look like a lot) and the 1250 is doing nothing.

You could make the holding tank work tho. Have 1 large water holding tank with your 1/2" lines in and out, hook up your pump to the out obviously. Pump through the computer and return. Just plumb both lines towards the bottom of the tank as far apart as you could get them.

Then have 1 larger out line from the tank to a larger (larger than a 1250 at least) pump. y the output to the 2 showerheads, then have returns from each tower to the tank. position the returns close, but above the outlet for the computer, then if you get bubbles they wont go through the waterblock.

You would have to elevate the towers a bit to let gravity match the other pumps back flo, but it would be much easier than adding 2 more return pumps.

Heres a pump for ya
http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium...w_lifegard_quiet_one_information.asp#qone3000

Quiet one 3000. Looks like about 400 GPH at 7' head. Which seems about right for the 2 shower heads (average showerhead does 2.5 GPM) at 7'. Split between the 2 shower heads your flow should be around 3 GPM.

Why don't you just make your own shower heads? Couldn't be that hard.

Looks like fun

Oh yes it will be very fun.

Are you suggesting I do this?



The only problem I see it your saying the AVERAGE shower head does 2.5 gpm.....but my heads are far from average. They will be flowing HUGE amounts of water....not to mention there will be a pair of them.

http://www.neatitems.com/8_inch_shower_head.htm

Given that I would probably need much more than 780gph.....my question is would the Quiet 6000 @ 1506 gph be enough? By my calculations (since the water will only need to be pumped about 4 feet up) the Quiet 6000 will supply about 9.2 gpm to each head. To me that does not seems like enough with 8" heads.

Maybe 8" heads just arent possible indoors with reasonable pumps. If this was outside I could go heavy duty but it's not. What I need to know the most is how many gallons per minute those heads need.

Thanks for your help too Schmeide

I've been kinda working on one of these. I was gonna get a Y piece of pvc then attach some pvc to both ends. I would have a 120 fan on the Y then where I connected the other pvc to the Y I would place a piece of screen over the pvc to help slow the fall of the water down and also to allow the fan to cool it more.

Sweet drar-wing. Looks like something I would do.

Basically that is it. I made a few corrections + additions tho.

moved the eheim pump. Where it was would be in series with the gravity feed from the towers. This would be a pain to figure out if the water would keep up. Plumbing in series just increases head, not necessairly flow. (if I could just find hot blondes in series)

With the addition of a T you wouldn't have to worry about flow matching either pump or the flow from the towers. takes care of that.

And the water flowing into the towers is going in 1 pressurizied (at 4 feet a little bit) 5/8" tube and leaving through a 1/2"? Nah, go 5/8 each way. NO, wait. Go 1" from the tank to the T, then go 5/8" or whatever you need for the shower heads, mirror that comming out of the towers.



I saw the heads. They are big. The 3000 should be fine

With 4' of lift it should push 600 GPH of water, 10 GPM , 2 heads, 5 GPM each.

5 GPM looks fine for a shower head like this. That is a lot of water.

http://www.homeclick.com/showpage.asp?itemid=580

8" rain showerhead , proper flow at 5GPM.

You are all set.

I see. But why is the cold water going into the tank? Shouldnt it just go straight to the computer? Im sorta confused about the whole flow thing you were talking about. I put the Eheim where it was so it would be sucking to cool water through the case. If you have it pushing the water through the case it will be heating it up. The Eheim 1250 gets pretty hot.

Good find on the shower heads though. That info is key.

I updated the drawing. Maybe this one would make more sense.

One thing that I don't think has been mentioned yet is the fact that since you aren't going to be running a closed system, you're going to be using alot of the pump's head just to lift the water 7 feet, meaning a pump with 7 feet of head will not move any water if it has to push it 7 feet up, so you need a pump with a high head rating.

i wouldn't have the cool water going back to the tank

I see now Schmeide. That T will eliminate the problem of whether the tank will be filled as fast as it is drained and since ther will mainly be hot water in the tank it shouldnt enter the T and go into my system. Right?

Also, the pump only needs to get the water up about 4 feet to the shower heads. My computer is about 3 feet high on a desk, and I plan to put the water tank on a shelf at the same 3 foot height.

This crazyness may just work

NO LIFE said:

I see now Schmeide. That T will eliminate the problem of whether the tank will be filled as fast as it is drained and since ther will mainly be hot water in the tank it shouldnt enter the T and go into my system. Right?

Also, the pump only needs to get the water up about 4 feet to the shower heads. My computer is about 3 feet high on a desk, and I plan to put the water tank on a shelf at the same 3 foot height.

This crazyness may just work

Click to expand...

I still don't understand why you have that T there. It doesn't matter where your system or tank is. You will have to pump the water from the bottom of the tower to the top. Having your system and tank three feet from the top won't make a difference.

The larger pump (Quiet 3000 or whatever I choose) will only need to pump the water 4 feet up. The holding tank will already be 3 feet high and since the 7' tall towers are on the floor...that is only 4 feet vertical. The smaller pump will need to be able to take the water about 3 feet up (from the bottom of the towers) and through the system then into the tank.

NO LIFE said:

The larger pump (Quiet 3000 or whatever I choose) will only need to pump the water 4 feet up. The holding tank will already be 3 feet high and since the 7' tall towers are on the floor...that is only 4 feet vertical. The smaller pump will need to be able to take the water about 3 feet up (from the bottom of the towers) and through the system then into the tank.

Click to expand...

So you will be using two pumps. I'm not sure if that will work well.

i am gonna suguest this pump. I have one and I could sell it to you. Its solidly built and is for submirdge operation only 12.2FT of head Beckett G325 pond pump. 300 GPH at 1FT and max 12.2FT of head.

So you will be using two pumps. I'm not sure if that will work well.

Click to expand...

uhh....have you seen the picture I drew? I dont see how it wont work....

@Vengance. I wont be submerging the pump and I would probably need more than 300gph. Thanks for the offer though

I used to have a 4' tall one inside a huge *** fridge that was next to my computer, but then my parents made me move my computer so I don't have it anymore. man I miss that thing...

Anyways, the only way to use two pumps would be to put the Res above "The Two Towers" and have one pump pump water from the bottom of the towers through the water block and then to the next pump that would pump the water up to the Res. then let gravity take over and you got all the Water you need shooting outa the shower heads.

And if you do end up making this thing, just remember to fill it up everyday (if your computer is on 24/7) or every other day (if you only uses it during the day or whatever)

NO LIFE said:

uhh....have you seen the picture I drew? I dont see how it wont work....

@vengance. I wont be submerging the pump and I would probably need more than 300gph. Thanks for the offer though

Click to expand...

If the two pumps don't produce exactly the same volumetric flow, the faster one could run dry. Also, I think you would want a pump right at the base of the towers, or at least before the computer. You don't want to be sucking the water through the waterblocks, you want to be pushing it. You don't have a closed loop, and the same rules do not apply. It would help me and possibly others to understand what you are doing if you make a drawing in which the height levels are to approximate scale.