Ben's Cheap Chiller

I came across a water dispenser / heater / cooler the other day (being thrown out). It was pretty dirty and missing the stand but I figured it had some good cooling parts in it. From the plastic shell and lack of stand I assumed a peltier but when I picked it up I was pleased to find a condencer behind it.
This is NOT my pic but my cooler looked exactly like this plus some scratches and looking beat up: http://www.obenaufauctions.com/Dec1,2007-SunbeamHotColdWaterDispenser.JPG

I took the unit home, fired it up and IT WORKS So I proceeded to taking it apart. I think I figured out why it was in the trash, one of the hoses slipped off something and made a nasty wet mess in the bottom of the unit causing it to get a bit moldy. Eventually I was left with a piston compressor, evaporator coil and a mini fridge like condencer. I mounted the cooler to a board and bought a container to fit the evaporator inside, I think the one I found was a perfect fit for it.

Now filled with water and antifreeze with a towel around it its getting pretty chilly in there and even some ice on the outside of the bucket. Some ice on the coil from before when I added the antifreeze. For those wondering why I did not just keep the existing water chilling container it is because the coil only went around it. By putting the coil in the water I make full contact between the coolant and the cooler so I should have some better results

Pics after the mod:





Also the thing is silent. Not louder than a mini fridge and not warmer than the top of a computer. (the condenser and compressor) For those wondering, I have no specs on this. The rear label was very dirty and the compressor label only told me it was charged with R134a. Also please make note that I'm not going to be cooling a quad core with this or anything like that so please hold back the flames.

Nice work there. Love DIY stuff.

That is Ghet-to-Riffic!!

Get some pics and benches pre/posdt OCing results up quick!
Wish I lived near a dump that let me trash pick

Thanks! In another hour or two I'm going to take another pic before I shut it off for the night. Tonight I'm testing how cold I can get it before I decide what to use it for. Its not a whole lot of information but it is fun. I hope it will work on a low wattage CPU or a video card.

Yeah I've been known to pick trash, just check the classifieds lol

Dumpster Divers everywhere would be PROUD of you Ben.

awsum. temps pls

You can get an approximation of the chillers capacity by how quickly it cools x amount of water. I would go to the store a buy a cheap Styrofoam cooler, or use one you have already, for more accurate results.

You can greatly help out that little compressor by placing even a 25mm thick 120mm case fan over that condenser. Normally it looks like it was passively cooled but even blowing a little air flow through the coils will help out considerably. That's more than sufficient for a cheap benching unit, it doesn't have to hold a load for a long time, just enough for short benches and then recover.

Well because of how quiet it is I want to get it cooling a low load 24/7 if I can. The compressor doesn't get warm at all but when I improve the case of this cooler there will be a quiet fan on them. Right now I put a regular house fan next to it just in case.

Pretty awesome imho good work Ben and a nice find

A shot of the insulation: (lol)


Some nice frost here...


Even on the lid some ice


Lets look inside...


Damn!


Oh crap... guess I need more antifreeze? hehe...

Some good results in my opinion, more to come soon!

I think you can cool a quad with that..lol

very well done.. nice green doughnut you got there

Hahaha nice! Reminds me of The Hulk

that looks more like really frosty kool aid!... thanks ben for making me thirsty lol... How quickly does it bring it down to temps?

Ben333 said:

A shot of the insulation: (lol)

Click to expand...

LMAO!

Put a load on it and you won't need anymore AF

keep your cats, dog, and kids away from him people!

Nice find. Looks like some fun.

wow, good job dude. cant wait to see temps with a load.

just wondering how fast it made that ice hulk? then you can work out how much load it can handle.

To tie you over heres a shot from tonight, this time the chiller is inside and running out of the water for less than an hour (possibly less than half an hour but I forgot to time it)

Mmmmmm... frosty...