I had to build an emergency chiller last week. Lowe’s has a 110v 14k btu AC unit for 400 bucks. Picked up that, a cheap chest freezer and pump. Took it to the facility, voided warranty on both. Dropped the condenser right in the freezer, filled with water and 5gal PG, plumbed it in and holy shit worked great. We we able to get a 50l roto recover 6gph of eth and pushed the roto to 80c before the diy chiller couldn’t keep up.
5 Likes
The pump size
I posted a pic of the one I have been using, it doesn’t pump v fast but it does the job and hasn’t died yet, I have one pump inside to circulate the water past the radiator and another to pump up through the condenser coils- if I need more lift I’ll get an in-line pump
1 Like
Both the same pump?
1 Like
are you not dumping that heat/wattage back into your glycol loop using a submersible?
That’s a very good point
1 Like
I am checking with these guys in Maine.
Oh man. This is weird.
Both boiling and freezing points are lowered when glycerine (also called glycerin or glycerol) is diluted with water:
Don’t buy crude glycerin it is a massive pain in the ass to refine it to the point where it can be used as antifreeze - was a super cool and fun project but not worth the investment
4 Likes
Well, they didn’t even respond.
I have a few gallons of food grade vegetable glycerin that I haven’t touched in years. I am doing a few small tests with mixes of that and water…mainly because I want to see the weird freezing point change with different ratios.
I am also doing some vg / rv antifreeze mix testing. I grabbed this antifreeze because it is the cheapest I could find. There were some bad one star reviews… It seems to be fine down to -20F so far.
2 Likes
Windshield washer fluid lol
1 Like
To all chiller builders my latest hack
Buy a tap beer chiller with a broken compressor but good for the rest
By the outside compressor of a split unit airco conect this to the cooling coil of the beer chiller
Let the hvac dude calculate your refrigerant gas amount
Total cost was 250€ chilling with 410a
9 Likes
O one more thing
These units come with up to 4 double coils in ss with 1/2" jic 37 fitings
Wich I use on my cls lines so go figure the discount 
6 Likes
Really nice, looking like a lot of folks want these things- the price really can’t be beat for home users and small labs.
3 Likes
Come to think of it I think that if you where to cut the coil at the botom tube where they are both connected one could place a submersible pump and when adding more pumps and coils create several coolant loops for several devices 
1 Like
My whole goal way to create a reservoir to run multiple processes off of so this is good thinking
1 Like
With that plywood wont there be moisture on the inside of it and then the risk of mildew/mold forming?
1 Like
Got one of those. After cutting r-gas inlet just before the coil and soldering 2mm wider one and then adding slightly more 410a it goes down to -10 (with an abysmall efficiency though) without a need to replace the compressor. Cost including the unit… 100€.
I have a nice freezer compressor but currently using it for “vac” assisted filtration 
2 Likes
Yes that’s the reason I have attached the split unit section to it
It is now a 3.6kw compressor instead of the 600w it was originally made with
I get to -26C with no heat load on the reservoir in 60 min
The main beauty is the compressor is out of the lab and zone where any spark is not welcome
4 Likes
I will make one of these … I have 4 Split AC systems i dont use…
2 Likes