What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Another cooling system

  • #101
Robthered, Heli, TheFury,

I'd like to ask all of you guys a question: How fast do your coolers cool the water. Lets say from the moment you pured in warm liqued, how fast (minutes hours) does it get cold? And how hot does your compressor get?

Thank you in advance!
 
  • #102
It takes like ten minutes for the water to cool and the compressor gets pretty warm
 
  • #103
interesting. I have a simple older cooler. With cold start (was off for days) it took something like an hour for the system to start niticably cooling water. But then it went quick. Almost as if it was purging itself or something for all that time.

I am not very familiar with refrigiration systems, is it supposed to be this way ( long cold start)?
 
Last edited:
  • #104
So if it takes that long to cool, do you have the cooler on all the time and just have the pump hooked to a thermostat controller? Wouldn't seem efficient if it had to recool the liquid everytime it dipped below the threshold
 
  • #105
I am just testing the cooler now with a closed 25 feet long loop and 3L of water in the system. I don't know how long it will be on and off. Unfortunately I did not have that much time during the day today to play with it. But I did notice that it takes a long time to cool after cold start. Thus I'm wondering if this is how all units behave or mine is just too old and needs more coolant (which at this point means it is going to go)
 
  • #107
Hey guys,

Well I finally finished putting my two four foot tanks together and installed the cooling system. So far so good. Temperatures today are around 30c, and the tank is staying strong at 23c. Here's some pics. The tank is almost 4 foot high.

Lights: Added another light for a total of 5 x 54 watt T5HOs. Lights are about twice as far from the plants now compared to when they were in the smaller tank. I might have to raise them some more or add another light or two. I'll see how it goes.

7242168688_a064ee1a81.jpg


The Frankentank
7242181206_0cdb76e994.jpg


7242178308_6203c847a3.jpg


7242176258_775c56d75e.jpg


7242174556_9e556d46a3.jpg


Lowland tank is now in the closet. There are now 3 T5HOs above it instead of 4 cause I moved one over to the highland tank. Thinking of moving another since lowlands dont require as much light.
7242172542_7e34656cbb.jpg

7242170264_1b1013d7c7.jpg
 
Last edited:
  • #108
frankentank is awesome :) I like the homemade reflector for the t5s.

do you keep the lowland tank on the same light cycle as the highlands?
 
  • #109
frankentank is awesome :) I like the homemade reflector for the t5s.

do you keep the lowland tank on the same light cycle as the highlands?

Hey MylesG,

Ya, both tanks run off the same light timer. They get 14 hours of light per day, and some that comes through the window in the morning.

Glad you like the super ghetto reflector. :). I still gotta add another strip of aluminum foil to the other side.
 
  • #110
robthered,

This is an awesome setup! Thank you for inspiration!
I am still working on mine (very slowly). Got a new watercooler yesterday. GE made, looks very similar to what Heli got, cools 0.53g/h according to specs and has a little fridge on the bottom (which I have turned off for now, but it can be potentially used to house the inline copper coil for additional cooling ). This little beast of a cooler consumes 4.7A of current when on and I see lights dim when it turns on momentarily.

The unit has two thermostats, one for water container and one for fridge. Fridge can be completely turned off via thermostat and I hear a click when it is rotated all the way counterclockwise (circuit permanently broken :) ).

The thermostat for the water container looks different. And although I am not sure if I need it yet as it cools water to 45-41F rather quick, I'd still like to know how to "fix it" so that it renders the compressor always "on" in case I'll get the external thermostat.

Below are the pictures.
20120523_012b.jpg


20120523_006b.jpg


As you can see there is no way I can screw something in there to jam the bimetallic strip and keep it on (or that little screw on the top?). So perhaps I can just unplug the two wires on the bottom of the thermostat and connect them together closing the circuit permanently?
 
Last edited:
  • #111
man this is making me all jittery for my cooler to arrive!!!

lower 40s is pretty dam good :) bet its gunna blow ur old one oudda the water performance wise!!!
 
  • #112
Wow, you got the exact same one as mine. Nice! Sadly while trying to get the thermo controller thing out I stripped one of the screws. Luckily by opening the top panel I am still able to access it. Btw how did you turn off the fridge, I dont know how. On another note, I have been doing some tests, I dumped large chunks of ice into the compressor and it got the tank down to 55 with an almost 80 degree room. After the ice melted the temps slowly went up to 60 though. So I think my only issue is bypassing the temp controller so that it is always on.
 
  • #113
Heli,

If you unscrew the back panel on both sides of the unit you'll see a thermostat. Below I have detached the cooler thermostat:
20120523_002b.jpg


In my case the one on the right is for the fridge (trace the white wire that leave the thermostat, it should go below the water container). Once you have figured out which is which, rotate the screw on the thermostat all the way to the left untill you hear a click. The bimetallic temperature sensing strip is at this point moved all the way to the side breaking the circuit and no matter what the temperature is it's going to remain open.

The other thermostat is the water cooler, turn it all the way clockwise, but dont force it if it's stop rotating. Cooler thermostat did not click. This way you are setting the temperature to the lowest possible setting. If you want to bypass it completely so that it is always on, I suspect connecting the two wires that lead to the thermostat together will essentially close the circuit permanently rendering it as "always on". Turn Off the unit before you do it!
 
Last edited:
  • #114
I tried closing the circuit with a wire but upon turning it on it made a loud popping noise (and a flash) so i turned it off immediatly.. im not sure whether it would work. Also, it appears that the fridge thermostat is also the water cooler thermstat :scratch: here are some pics of it
IMG_0232.jpg

IMG_0234.jpg

IMG_0235.jpg

IMG_0236.jpg
 
  • #115
Heli,

As I have mentioned I am not sure whether it is the best way of bypassing the thermostat. Let robthered comment.

But if you are willing to experiment:
Disconnect the wires from the thermostat first (completely). Do not try to bypass the thermostat by attaching the wire between the contacts wile everything is plugged in. After you have disconnected the wires do not try to bridge them with anything thinner than the wires themselves. It is better if you could somehow connect wires one to another.
 
  • #116
wire nut might do the trick?
 
  • #117
I tried yanking them out but they wouldnt budge. Hopefully like you said, robthered will enlighten us on the subject.
 
  • #118
Hey guys,

Sorry I've been really busy lately. I actually ditched the water cooler and made another contraption using a regular travel cooler, an AC and the pump, rad etc. The small reservoir of the water cooler wasn't enough to cool my 4 foot by 4 foot tank. I think the water cooler application is restricted to smaller setups. I'll get some pics soon. To sum it up quickly, I took the rad I had last summer (http://pages.videotron.com/beast/nav_files/AC%20for%20Highland%20Nepenthes%20Terrarium.htm), stuck the AC Rad into the cooler, placed the pump in the cooler, hooked up the computer rad and that was pretty much it. It's working amazingly and I can get really low temps in my tank now and the AC hardly runs :). It's 24c in the room, but the tank is 14c.

As for bypassing the thermostat, yours looks the same as mine except that mine had a visible switch that I just blocked to the on position with a screw.

In your case I think you can just cut the white wire. I'm pretty sure it's the probe that leads into the reservoir, so if you cut it, then it'll I think that will do the trick. Or if you can trace the wire, you might be able to disconnect it from wherever it's connecting to.

*disclaimer* I hold no liability to whatever happens to your cooler - just had to put that out there heh.
 
  • #119
haha you've moved onto bigger n better setup already! cant wait to see it
 
  • #120
I will have to trace the wire tomorrow.
 
Back
Top