For my chiller, I’d go with a water block that’s 80mm long (at least) instead of 40x40mm. Do two large heat sinks for the hot side of the peltier modules instead of one and cheap fans. I’d still do the 12715 peltiers.
The one thing I haven’t figured out yet is the water pump - at first I thought slow was best so the water stayed in the water block long enough to cool off. Then I wondered if I needed to speed it up so more water flowed through more often (But that also didn’t seem to work). I think the pump I’m using for water chilling is actually just generating more heat in general than the chiller can chill, but I have a cheap mini pump I’m going to try out today and I can report back if that works for me or not.
I would suggest a 950 or 1160 gph air pump with a 6 outlet diverter and 2x2 cylindrical air stones…
What your using right now is only good for making a couple of clones…
And trying to grow plant’s of any real size and with temps that high will always be problematic and lead to plant death with your setup…
There not too expensive on Amazon…
Water temps need to be around 66 to 72 degrees if possible and you definitely need more air pumping into your buckets…
I’m not mechanical or electrical either. Turns out it’s actually stupidly easy if you just trust that it’ll work. I’m still struggling through heat dissipation but who knows.
My water chiller just got “enhanced” about 10 minutes ago. It’s cooling at the rate of about 1 degree per 3ish minutes, but that’s in like … 16 ounces of water. (I started at 76° tap water and am down to 72° now)
Here’s my mini-res, it’s gross and I rather desperately need to wash everything once the chiller is confirmed capable of combatting my lights’ heat generation.
The wiring looks pretty complicated. How many reservoirs can this one chiller chill? What is the box with vent slots and a fan? and what size are those hoses? I just checked the temp in “DROOPY” after putting in a frozen 1L bottle o/nite and turning on the oscillating fan for lights on and it was 82.6. I also raised the light back to 24" from 20"
The first one you linked won’t work at all. The second one you linked is pretty much the system I started out with. Not a bad price - I’d be surprised if you don’t have to make modifications to it, but it’s worth asking the seller what kind of actual water temp cooling it can do. My original set up could drop temps about 2° and worked alright until I put my plants into flower. Now everything just runs too hot.
It’s truthfully not at all. There are 3 “hot” slots and 3 “neutral” slots. So reds go in the hots, black go in the neutrals, and bam, done.
One, and honestly probably half the size of the one I’m trying to chill. I’m using it for 30+ gal (27 gal tote and 3 5 gal buckets all interconnected)
That’s the big heat sink. Fans help to disperse the heat, the slots are aluminum tiers to help with heat distribution.
Go get a few 1gal jugs and throw them in your freezer. With temps that high you’re going to have to use bigger blocks of ice until you figure out a chilling system.
You should just skip all of the headaches and get a bigger air pump and 2x2 air stones and a chiller…
Drop the money once and never look back and no more future problems…
This hobby is a go big or go home kind of thing…
Don’t skimp on the important things and you will be successful…
Sound advice right here. Homemades won’t get you to the big leagues, no doubt about that. A nice aquarium water chiller will cost $350 but you won’t have to have people swapping frozen jugs of water for you when you aren’t home.
Go back and read all the descriptions of these guys. I think they all air-cooled chillers, so they’ll only get as cold as the room temp is. I couldn’t find an actual refrigerated water chiller on EBay or Amazon below $600
An ActiveAqua or EcoPlus water chiller is probably your best bet. The 1/10hp chillers are around $300 before shipping (for me anyhow).
For the price you could truly pick up one with a brand name and a warranty. Just food for thought. I can’t find reviews of any of the eBay ones to save my life.
Good info thanks! I’ve researched hydrofarm 1/10hp and the 40gph submersible pump. I also noticed a 6 outlet manifold to connect up to 6 pumps. Is anyone using this manifold w/a 1/10 hp chiller?
who knows.
