Window AC Liquid Chiller

Decided I needed a project so I went out and picked up a window ac the other day,
Following this I added a 24 plate heat exchanger after recovering the refrigerant charge, and repiped the high and low side. Not really something you all can do, but I did it, and it was fun I threaded in some nice barbs with half inch tubing, and grabbed an MD10 Iwaki off the shelf that I painted a nice blue long ago, pretty sure its an MD10, it has decent flow. Added a T-line, hose clamps, and insulated it up a good bit. And so far, after vacuuming and charging a little, the liquid is getting cold. So far throwing out -12C before freezing up, a pain in the butt since I thought what I had was anti freeze, turned out was de-icer. Best thing for this would be alcohol or vodka tonic
So will have some more numbers soon, but right now I've dropped about ~$350 into this thing, so worth the amusement, probably will resell it at cost.
Total dimensions so far are fairly small., and thought it doesn't have a front, it is otherwise enclosed. Fun little system, I'm picking up another window ac monday for a much colder project. Oh and at the end I'm thinking this should hold -10C with CPU and GPU setup easily, and though its currently rigged to run all the time, the power consumption is rather low, few hundred watts, and the fan gives a nice breeze.
Oh and it really is fun to have the tools I do :laugher:
God I'm bored.
Whatcha all think?
From the front


And hows that for a fan!


Side shot, features a 5/8 hp rotary compressor, quite quiet actually.


Oh and how about a cascade (mwahahaha!), -100C and adjustable, with a hot gas bypass and a 5ft flex. Damn I need a life. :laugher::doh:


(Oh and I'm finishing up an ADJUSTABLE liquid chiller soon too, bit bigger in size, however much more powerful!)

Nol, your skills scare me, If you wanted to freeze the world, I dont doubt that you could.
Just curious, how loud is that whole setup?

Not very loud, light grumple. And if you up the pump, you could put it on other side of house LoL.
Haha and honestly, it's a matter of moving inventory at the moment, i'm probably going to sell it at or below cost.

thats awesome

Haha like it?
The other upcoming projc will be even nicer.
So thats how you really do a window AC chiller, no aluminum in the loop, high efficiency plate heat exchanger.

Damn why do you have to make everything so tidy and show all us amatures up. .

looking forward to more pics and numbers.

on a side note, how much does it usually cost for a recharge? I think my chillers low.

Prob $150-200 depending on the system. I dunt do mods or recharges anymore, not worth the time or risk in having someones expensive property in your home.

NoL said:

Prob $150-200 depending on the system. I dunt do mods or recharges anymore, not worth the time or risk in having someones expensive property in your home.

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thanks a lot, wasnt thinking of you to do it cos im in the UK just wanted to know if it was worth my while but seeing as the whole thing cost me like £100 it doesnt look like it is.

Ah, but though it might be like, wow thats twice what I paid, it is however giving you an all together cheap system

NoL said:

Ah, but though it might be like, wow thats twice what I paid, it is however giving you an all together cheap system

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u think its worth it if the chiller already gets the liquid down to -9C?

Depends on whats in it, not alot of info mate.
If its a tiny tiny unit thats great results why change, if its a 300 ton lab recirculator I'd get that looked at

my dad has all the stuff to do our own recharges

NoL said:

Depends on whats in it, not alot of info mate.
If its a tiny tiny unit thats great results why change, if its a 300 ton lab recirculator I'd get that looked at

Click to expand...

I think its a 10K unit, not totally sure though.
Heres the info on the compressor.

Then yep I would say so unless your pushing 900W.

Down in the shop today. I dug into my cold storage last week and found a bunch of single stages and other equipment. Some lab chillers and stuff that I harvested from.

Posting from my phone so mostly pics. Ask questions if you have any.

6 years later it still looks good... but does it run?







Ps. I'm back folks!

She is still charged up and runs! The iwaki md15 pump seems thrashed though. So in the trash it goes
Danner mag drive 3 from storage should do the trick fine.

Needs a cleaning, a rewiring, and it might be ready to go to a new home.

Maybe I can even dig up a decent load tester.....

Some more work today. The Danner mag was doing fine until about -10c and then it just gave out. Viscosity of my mix was okay, but I could hear the impeller whining and poof no go.
Either the bearing doesn't like it or the windings dont, but I remember years back these pumps could be shoved into way worse conditions.

Onto the pictures!









Next step is a further rip down to install a receiver, bulkier filter drier, sight glass, and an automatic valve called a TXV that will adjust the temp to pulldown and keep the compressor happy .

I have been contemplating building one of these after having built my own SS. The original pictures don't show for me but I suspect you just run the cap to the inlet of the heat exchanger and the return to the other side? Do you prefer the txv? What would the advantages of the txv be?

Do you have to have a really good flow and load to keep it from freezing up?

Skip ahead to the latest pics. Looks the same as years ago. You have to put a new resized captube on but it will still be inferior to a TXV. Since a TXV adjusts itself to maintain a super heat and only feeds liquid it can cool a wide load at start to keep the compressor happy and then narrow down later to bring the temp down low.

I'm trying to use a fluid mix that won't freeze in the range of the TXV.

Welcome back NoL!