Mini fridge + heatercore= ????

well brought me a minifridge..... for sodas of course... only to discover a ice tray area ..... anyway... i want to mod the fride and insert a heatercore there.. now here are my questions.


1. Will cooiling the heatercore like this give me a good result?
2. Since i dont have ANY components yet, can anybody recommend me a pump that will be strong enough.
3. Will i have to worry about condinsation?
4. Is there anything im missing... like the tubing not liking the temps


thanx in advance for helping this watercooling Noob

1. Will cooiling the heatercore like this give me a good result?
-Yes it should. Be sure that a fans' a blowing to prevent frost build-up.

2. Since i dont have ANY components yet, can anybody recommend me a pump that will be strong enough.
-It depends on how far from the computer you plan to put your fridge. The Eheim 1250 should be enough if you plan to place your fridge far away from your computer (as in 2-5 meters).

3. Will i have to worry about condinsation?
-Depends. If your using anti-freeze just to keep the fluid going then yes. If it can still flow with run of the mill water then no. I would recommend it though.

4. Is there anything im missing... like the tubing not liking the temps
-Vinyl tubing hates cold temps. It makes it hard and brittle. Get rubber or tygon. I perfer using rubber as it's thick walled and very resistant to this type of thing.


This stuff is the hose that was a GodSend for me.

I just got done doing the exact same thing. What I found to work the best was to immerse the freezer coils in a mixture of anti-freeze and water using a plastic pan about 6" deep. Then I ran 10" of copper coil inside the pan of chilled water instead of a radiator. You can get the water/antifreeze a lot colder than the air inside the fridge, and the fridge will still cool your soda just fine. I used windshield washer fluid for my coolant so it wouldn't freeze up on me. Right now it's winter and my house is really dry, but I already know that I'll need to insulate to prevent condensation in the summer.

Oh, and go with the rubber tubing. I totaly agree with Evil_eye.

1. I have my testrig set up just next to the window. For the time beeing i have about -5 to -10 C outside. Opening the window and letting the cold air flow through the heatercore dropped my temps at least 15 C. But i am a bit worried about condensation so i closed the window and the temt went back to ~30 C.

However, my gigabyte mobo reads the temp 7-10 C high, thats why i chickened out when the temp sensor read 15 =)

This article on the homepage might help you out on your setup.

http://www.overclockers.com/tips798/

Cooling like this will give you very good results, since you will have your heatercore in subfreezing environment. Just make sure to add some kind of additive like antifreeze so your water doesn't freeze up in your heatercore. While it probably won't be in there long enough to freeze you might still want to do that. Why take the chance?

The Ehiem 1250 pump should be enough for the job, but if you want to absolutely sure take a look at the 1260 pumps. As others have said it all depends on how far your fridge will be from your comp and if your fridge and pump are at different levels, i.e. your fridge is on the floor and comp on your desk.

Since the water will be "super" cooled in your fridge it will obviously be cooler than the ambient temperature. So I would take some measures of condensation prevention.

Tygon tubing should be safe for those temperatures.

intersting. ive been thinking of doing somthing along these lines but since ive not got the last few bits of my wc kit if put it off. the only problem i have is that a mini fridge is big. is there any way to just strip the fridge down to the cooling element and whatever else it needs and attempt to cram it into (or outside) my case?.

iam not too sure how fridges work but would't it be possible to voltage mod the fridge so it peformed worse thus didn't freeze my system up?.. a higher mixture of anti freeze will cool worse then water (probably) beacuse the heats not being removed as anti freeze has a low thermal capasity (compaired to water)

carpe jugulum.. go for the throat

depending on your fridge, there should be a thermostat to control how cold the fridge gets before shutting of the compressor. i wouldnt recommend trying to change any voltage to the fridge. if you run your computer all the time, you "might" (stress might) not need to use antifreeze. i would do it anyway, but from most of the results ive seen, your not going to be at -20c or anything. if you were to run your computer at full load all the time, you would be really lukcy if you could get anywhere close to 0c. ive always thought the best method to cool using a fridge, is to have the evaporator coil (the part inside the fridge that gets cold) sitting directly inside a reservoir. thats what my plan is when i have more time/money. hopefully summer. i dont think just putting a heatercore would give you the best results, although it would be better than having it sitting in the room. as far as condensation, some people run water chillers, and dont have any problems with it, but again, it just depends on how cold your water is going to be, where you live, dew point, etc... i would do something to insulate, just to be on the safe side. one thing you also want to think about, is how are you going to get the tubes into and out of the fridge. most newer fridges dont have the condenser coils (heat exchanger/radiator) on the back of the fridge. lots of fridges have them built into the side of the fridge. if they arent on the back, let the compressor run for a while (put a warm pack of...soda....in there) and check the sides to see where its hot. i know my GE mini fridge, has them on the left side (if you are looking at the front). so when you have to cut a whole in the fridge, dont accidently cut through that side. hope that gives you some stuff to work with. i would also recommend doing a search. this sort of topic has been discussed in great length in many threads, so take a look around. good luck. please ask any questions you may have.