HYDRO RDWC DIYChiller Possibly

[Hustlynn]

I live in a hot, humid area, and it’s dead middle of summer. I have had problems with root rot unless I chill my water somehow. I have a big mini fridge that gets so cold it freezes water completely. I was thinking about making a stainless steel wort chiller, dropping the coils in a metal stockpot of water, and running it through the mini fridge from and back to my reservoir to cool my RDWC nutrient solution. I was thinking about 25 feet of 3/8 tubing, but I’m not sure what size water pump. Would this be effective for 15-20 gallons of nutrients? My reservoir and containers my plants go in are insulated with great stuff foam, and covered with Mylar (no Mylar on reservoir it’s outside grow area). Anyone tried this or have any suggestions?
I was thinking the nutes would cool quickly because of the metal transferring temperature, and the water around the tubing would be frozen in a day or two. So, I hope it would be effective in keeping my root temps down.

*I have had success using frozen milk jugs, but got tired of switching and cleaning them. I had used about 30 foot of polyethylene tubing coiled in a plastic container and then put inside a mini fridge before, and it worked pretty well. But last time I had hell with the water pump pushing it through the coils and back into my reservoir. I think it was kinked somewhere I couldn’t see.

 

[Eliot Pryor]

Sounds like a good plan and I think it will work. I have been growing in 5 gallon hydro set-ups for 7 years. I've been considering some kind of chiller. I would like to hear about what others have done for chillers. Good growing to you !!

 

[Poppa]

I haven't built one nor am I currently using a chiller. But I have thought of picking up a mini fridge from the M.S.U. surplus store and making one. And have thought thru different aspects of building one. But when I think of doing a nutrient solution change the clearing of lines to and from chiller to be sure the old or in the case of a problem pathogen contaminated solution is removed. That's where I tent to stop thinking on it since I currently have enough projects to keep me busy every day. Maybe one day I'll build one if so I make a post on it, but for now only idea I've had for that is to fill a air tank and use blow a gun to remove the solution from lines when doing reservoir changes.

 

[gbauto]

I would suspect that it should work quite well.
It may take a while for it to get down to your desired temp, but once there it should be able to maintain temps.
My 1/4hp chiller runs about 15 minutes total over an hour in my 40-gallon system, so I think you'll be good.

 

[Smoklahoma]

Sounds like it should work great. I would think that you need to move the nutes slowly thru the fridge? Maybe an adjustable pump to dial in the temp? I thought about doing chillers when I built the grow room but since I had 2 55 gal res. I figured it would be easier to add a room with a A/C . The barrels stay 66 to 67 all the time, plus I store all my nutes in there.