My first phase change project

For the upcoming forum wars, I'll be competing in the A class. In that class, we're limited to air, water, and phase change, so no DI or LN2 for me

So I figured what the hell, I've always wanted an excuse to build one. If anyone has any suggestions or tips for me, let them fly. I'm about as new to this as one can get. And I'm wanting this thing to get as cold as possible. I've been reading lots of guides lately, and think I have at least a slight idea of what I'm doing.


I took apart this AC unit. I have a window one if anyone thinks I should use that instead, but I like this one. I used to use this baby to freeze my room while benching, it cools a good size room pretty nicely. I paid like $400 for it about 2 years ago.




Taking the unit apart...






Hehe well at least I know what all the parts are.


The compressor. If anyone is familiar with this and thinks I should use a different one please let me know.



The condenser looks nice and big, that's good right?

Anyway I'm going to modify this unit to be the housing for a few reasons:
1. I don't care about size.
2. I like the fan, and could care less about noise.
3. It's on wheels.

I'll remove the evaporator from the top, and the hole it uses to connect to the rest of the system will be where the new suction line and captube will go to the new evap.







Gomeler at XS (and here, but rarely) told me to grab stuff like a suction line and evap from Under the Ice so i went ahead and ordered a Chillly1 custom lineset, since I really really want this to work, and am not confident enough in my brazing yet. Plus in includes mounting hardware. When it arrives I'm having an AC tech buddy of mine braze and charge the system, assuming the compressor and condenser I'm using are okay. By the way, anything else I need for future phase change projects I may have, I'll be ordering from the same place. But I'll make a thread in the vendor discussion about that later on.

The evap and lines came today. I've impressed by everything that came with it, including the nice mounting and lots of insulation.








Still need to lap the evap, but I didn't bring enough coarse grit sandpaper to school with me so I'll do it when I go home this weekend


I'm going to be terrified drilling a hole for a temp probe in it though, since I can't see inside like an LN2 pot

And reserved for results.

First thing you will hear from this section in not to vent the current gasses in to the air .

I would practice with your Blow torch and sodder .

Also look for some one who can charge your setep.

Don't worry, I'm taking it somewhere to remove the gas too. I was going to just cut it on my back porch, but remembered that it's toxic

This is something I would love to have time to try ( the the $ for the tools ) . Good luck Once you start making these and get good @ it you can sell them to cover the costs of your New HW =)

Good luck with it all, u better take lots of pics.

Good luck sno, can't wait to see the finished product and results.

Looks like a good start. Just have the HVAC tech pull the old charge out, cut off the old filter/dryer and suction from the evaporator and then braze in the chilly1 line set from Ron. That's a nice compressor too, I had one of those in a cascade, was surprisingly quiet for a rotary

||Console|| said:

This is something I would love to have time to try ( the the $ for the tools ) . Good luck Once you start making these and get good @ it you can sell them to cover the costs of your New HW =)

Click to expand...

It's hard to sell these and make an overall profit. It's better to look at it as a way to feed your research.

What do I fill it with? Should I leave R22 or switch to something else?

Well if it's R22 then it'll be charged with mineral oil. R290 or R22 would be good options.

Sweet...now that we got Chris here I'm sure you're in good hands too.

I just got an email from Ron saying the lineset was shipped out today. So there's a chance I'll have full assembly by the end of the week

well i still dont get how to make a extream cooling set, someone needs to make a video!!!!

Looking forward to seeing this one! What HP is the compressor and is it loud? Looks like the condenser has some big fat tubing unlike the tight lines in small window ACs. Good luck!

I'm watching this one to see how it turns out.. I've got a similar a/c in the basement, and a hvac buddy..... I might just have a project for him

do it ! do it ! eye got an indoor ac just like that 1

and want to do the same thing to it !

hurry up hahahahaahahahahahahaaa

Evap kit just arrived. Going to give it a good lapping, will post pics later tonight

Going to try to get it all hooked up and charged tomorrow. If not I may have to wait until Monday.

wow this is really cool (no pun) were did you get that Evap kit?

Got it from under-the-ice.com