I know that this thread is old but for the record I did exactly what was outlined in this post and it worked really, really well. So well that the condenser coil began to freeze up. Since I did not want to fill my old chest freezer with the glycol, I dropped a 5 gallon bucket in it and filled that. Inside of the bucket a placed a 50 ’ wort chiller coil (I bought stainless since the alcohol would strip the copper of its patina and likely sully up the glass coils with filth). I removed the lid and created a new one with plywood and foam core insulation. I cut holes in top for the coil intake and outflow. I also cut a hole the circumference of an old counter top compost liner (black plastic) to slide down into the freezer. I filled that vessel with the denatured alcohol added a pump (right now I am using a aquarium pump as a test but have a magnetic centrifuge pump on stand by). I drilled out the lid to the compost to fit the diameter of the tubes and sealed the others. I turned the freezer on over night to fulled chill the glycol and am beyond impressed with the results. I dont have a temp on how cold its running. I might drill another hole in the lid to add a gauge in the future but wanted to test this concept first. Saved a TON of money. Thanks for the tip!
im gonna try this soon any suggestions?
when adding more copper tube dont I have to add place to refill it w freon.
this is a cheap build I have almost everything laying around
what kinda pumps do u use to pump and return this…that’s how they work right…circulate the fluid( that’s cooled by the radiator in the large cooler like tub )through the rig via in and out port
@StoneD There’s usually enough extra tubing that you can CAREFULLY bend it how you need to. I built something almost exactly like that to chill a flat plate. I used two plastic totes and sprayfoamed in between them as a reservoir. I used a mag drive reservoir pump from the hydro shop to circulate the fluid. It worked at the temps I needed.
I built a sprayer into my fluid return out of some pvc pipe and fittings with holes drilled in it. Similar to an aerocloner manifold, it sprayed the return glycol over the evaporator. I felt this helped but idk. I ran one of these to chill my wiper’s external condenser, too. Worked awesome.
how cold could u reach
I don’t remember exactly but it would regularly slush the pink rv antifreeze I used, so probably around +20f
the cool thing is its cheap chilling power and you could get a large window unit and not just some small uint and get some real chill on
A big ass used commercial ice machine is what we went to after this window shaker tek.
We converted it to direct refrigeration similar to the iced.tech chillers. Worked awesome.
I’ve managed to get one down to -26c I think?
-27.1C if you believe the pictures of Safety Third over here Suggestions for diy glycol chiller fluid? - #34 by cyclopath
My suggestion is to use a minisplit instead of an ac unit. It will be easier to put the coils where you want them and they will get a lot colder.
I’d like to see a mini split build.
It’s been on my list to contribute to the forum a -40C split system kludge system but I haven’t had a chance to put one together yet. I think it should be possible to do 2kw at -40 for under $2k but that’s just a guess
This guy did a pretty good job, I wish I had one built for myself to show off. 
I have two 1 ton minis for sale. 800 each. NIB with line sets and power whips
1 ton units brand new $515. If its a mistake u better buy em while they’re listed 
You can get new 1 ton mini-split units with line set for $400 shipped…
Link?
What refrigerant did you end up using? The evap rest pressure is obviously a considerable concern. What type of geat exchanger did you utilize? Tube in shell?
Tyia
It was pretty simple. Just an immersion coil 60# tank, the txv from the ice machine, a set of ac lines to get it out of the room, and I believe 404a, which was in the ice machine before we hacked it. We just recharged it back to the previous pressures to compensate for a larger evaporator and longer refrigerant lines. We didn’t worry too much about all the technical mumbo jumbo lol.