Waterchiller

[Naeleros]

My company is getting rid of a bunch of stuff that we don't use anymore. One thing that caught my eye that was in the general vicinity of the 'dog pound' was a water fountain.

Its the type that is typically mounted in schools and other public places. It has an internal refrigeration unit of some sort to make the water cold for consumption.

Does anyone know anything about these? I might be able to pick it up pretty cheap (or possibly even free). Any idea on the amount of BTU's that it might be able to dissipate? Noise levels? Any other concerns?

Would love to hear thoughts...

James

(basic system)
1.4 AYHJA @1645 @1.89
IWill KK266 w/ 256 SDram (CAS2 up to 160mhz)
GF2 Ultra

[dimmreaper]

It should be able to handle a couple BTUs*, as it can chill water very quickly. I think it would work to chill the water in your watercooling loop.

*Note: If memory serves, 1BTU=1000W of heat for 1hr. Or the thermal equivilent of a kW-hr.

[touser]

this is very interesting.. can anyone tell me where to get a unit like this to chill water? because i am looking for something small to chill water as i dont want to go out and buy a mini freezer just for the purpose of chilling the water :)

[kevin_bouchard]

It works good as a chiller. I am using one now and i am chilling the water to about -5c(could reach max of ~ -15 if modded the temp controls). As for noise if its beside you and the compressor is on then it gets fairly noisy(i am guessing about 45db). One problem is that if you cool the liquid under room temp then you will have to worry about condensation, but either than that its worth it.

[touser]

kevin_bouchard could you please tell me where you got yours and how much it was? i am looking for the exact same thing but dont know where to buy one..thanks in advance :)

[Naeleros]

Originally posted by kevin_bouchard
It works good as a chiller. I am using one now and i am chilling the water to about -5c(could reach max of ~ -15 if modded the temp controls). As for noise if its beside you and the compressor is on then it gets fairly noisy(i am guessing about 45db). One problem is that if you cool the liquid under room temp then you will have to worry about condensation, but either than that its worth it.

Can you tell me more about your exact setup? Are you using it with a peltier or alone? I had kinda figured that it wouldn't be worth using alone.. as it will likely have condensation problems, anyway. So... might as well seal from condensation and add a peltier (if I'm going to do it).

Also.. just to be clear... you're using a chiller from a water fountain? Or.. is yours slightly different? Just curious so that I know we're talking the same thing here.

James

[kevin_bouchard]

I picked it up at a local junkyard (cost=0$), I dont really know were else you could get one, but some people have just gutted normal refrigerators (took compressor,condensor,evaporator...) and mounted onto another platform and used that to cool the water by put the condensor in the liquid(the cold radiator or tubing).

As for my setup its your basic compressor,condensor, and evaporator.
the evaporator is diffrent than in a aircondition unit(if you have ever opened one up) it is 2tubes(welded together) that coil around in a styrofoam cylinder. One of the tubes is bigger than the other(used of the liquid) and the smaller one is the one with the coolent(r-34a,r-12,freon...,dont know what's in my system).
This tube gets really cold and you can guess what it does to the bigger one with the liquid in it.
Currently i am not using a pelt because i just constructed this system(hoping to add a pelt soon though).
I am running a 800mhz duron oced to 1gig.
my cpu heat exchanger(waterblock) is a homemade cross drilled alumminum block (4 channels).
if you want more details than that tell me what you want to know.

[touser]

would you still need a radiator in a setup like this?

[kevin_bouchard]

Yes because after the coolant is compressed (condensed) it gets very hot the touch it has to be cooled down so that the coolant can pass throught the evaporator at ~room temp to in the end become colder than the room.
Its kindof like a pelt but more complexe and it has moving parts.
you may even need two rads, it all depends how you are going to cool the water(my setup has the coil of 2 tubes in styrofoam).
hope this is what you wanted to know

[Baboo]

Sounds cool (no pun intended).

Although folks like Kryotech will sell complete units like this, I'd much rather build my own.

I'm watercooling at present (Ehiem pump, Senfu rad, Swiftech block), but if I could get my hands on something like this, I'd be modding my setup again!

[Baboo]

"if you want it done right, do it yourself" - quite right.

[kevin_bouchard]

the difference with Kryotech and vaporchill is that they have the coolant cooling the cpu directly. In my setup,you could say its a two stage, the water cooling the cpu and the refregorator sys cooling the water. This also leaves more possiblilities to cool to lower temps, because kryotech and vaporchill can only cool to about -20c, and a system like mine (with a pelt) could do around -40c if well constructed(from what i say from vaporchill and kryotech it would be very hard to add a pelt).
and like baboo said why would you spend 1000$ cooling system when you can build one cheap(mine anyway) and you can say you did it!

striving for the best bang for our buck!(isnt that what it's all about, and of course owning cool systems):D