exactly its not the best long term solution but it might give you some peace of mind while away. I hear ya it gets crazy hot here if my AC is off for more than 30 mins itll be 100 degrees in here. thankfully its about to get real cold here in the next month …id rather deal with heating things up than needing to cool them down…i live by the “making things work for right now” system lol. hey have a safe trip bro, im sure ya girls well be just fine and now they have a water chiller!
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hey just gonna leave this here but i kind of like the idea of the chiller going into the reservoir lol
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Haha, what’s funny is I very nearly bought one of these but didn’t because one: it was stupid expensive ($200) and two: as large as my reservoir is, I couldn’t imagine an articulate way to get regular temps- it would only cool a patch of the water as it circulated and as a result I worried I’d have weird pockets of hot/cold water. I don’t know if my roots care but I wondered that root rot wouldn’t be able to stay alive in the weird warm pockets.
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yah i think it would probably help more to maintain temps …not sure how great it would do with drastic change in temps…but the design is interesting, i love how most of this technology is originated from cpu cooling because that 4 pin adapter for the power supply is definitely familiar to anyone thats needed to hookup a 12v PSU cable to a vid card or onboard…still the prices for this repurposed hardware is insanely unjust for what it is. I dont see a $200 water chiller i see parts from a dell in your grandmas garage.
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I haven’t seen a chiller for that price either. From my perspective, if it does it’s job, it would be cheaper than a chiller.
Variables would be, the size of the reservoir, water flow, and environmental temperatures.
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@Covertgrower that is exactly right, which is why the feedback about water chillers is so sporadic between positive and negative, you simply cannot create one way of doing something and make it applicable to a multitude of scenarios. it needs to be sufficient for individual scenarios and more to the point the reason why its important to learn about thermodynamic cooling if you plan on growing hydroponically or if you live in a warm area and are limited on resources or funds all in all i could not be prouder of @Graysin the dude made his own water chiller …thats worthy of my praise.
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It came with all the guidance from you, man. I wouldn’t have ever thought to look at PC components to get my res cooled off.
This is exactly why I went for the higher powered peltier block - I saw a whole lot of people saying their chillers could only handle 2-4° differences using a 12706 for a 27 gal tote. I knew that’s about what I was going to need to keep the water levels even in 6 plants (although I only have 3 connected and 2 plants at the moment) and 2-4° would have left me high and dry in the mid 70°s based on my usual environment. The whole thing really did cost shy of $100 even with the upgraded heat sink and pelt block, so I’m pleased as can be.
I DID discover that I didn’t set my max/min temps properly in the app so it shut my chiller off when it hit 70°, because I plugged the chiller into the “Heater” outlet. Thankfully my water stayed at 70 all night and I swapped the outlet this morning so with any luck I’ll be coasting along between 64 and 68 all day long.
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This goes to show you over engineering has its advantages, mostly to work beyond what you expect of it, or still perform in spite of things you didn’t account for.
This is why we suggest a larger fan than you need, or more light than you need. 
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And yet with all my light I’m still scoping out another HLG 260. I think I’m going to end up moving my KingBrite into the 4x3, and tossing both VS1000s into the divided portion of the tent. Right now the 100 watts is plenty for my two girls who are vegging (okay Super Skunk is flowering but she has made zero progress since getting the new digs so I consider it vegging and everyone when she Herms, remind me that I’m not supposed to be surprised) but I will want a nice 240w or even a 320w overhead when they all get bigger.
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Update on the 4x3 while I’m here!
Family portrait: Lemon Tree Jr., Super Skunk the super smallest flower producer, and Lemon Tree Clone #1
Super Skunk closeup:
LT Jr.
And LT Clone
On the other side of the tent, the seedlings and rest of the clones. I amped up the light but Stretch is already Stretched. (I think it’s a Purple Urkle)
In terms of surviving seeds, I’ve got:
Critical 2.0 Auto (2)
GDP x Gumberry auto (1)
The White OG fem (2)
Alpujarreña auto (2)
White Lavender fem (1) <— this is the one I’m seriously excited for.
Seedlings already in cups
Purple Urkle reg (2) and
Blueberry auto (1)
Plus 4 Lemon Tree clones I think.
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And the 4x4 I snuck some photos before bouncing off to work.
Gelato:
OGesus (the bigger she gets the more seriously bummed I am I lost the other 4 seeds)
Lemon Tree, the Original
And the full tent shot, ugly hanging wires and all.
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Lights must be adding a bunch of heat inside the tent. Chiller isn’t keeping up with it.
My paranoid self had my mother in law go check out the grow room to make sure the silicon straws are still in tact and there’s not water spraying all over the place. Chances are high that it’s just not enough to combat the heat from the lights. The good news is reflective spray paint is on my agenda today - so hopefully the black reservoir buckets stop super heating the water.
She sent me this:
I can see where the heat sink and pelt chip are sliding off the water block. No wonder it’s not keeping up. Zip ties, here I come.
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double up heat sink fans, get a heat sink fan on the pelt block to help keep it cooler maybe…check out this design(not mine lol) , here jn the desert you get water coolers for free from water delivery service…
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I have a second little fan and 3 more 40x40mm heat sinks - the real question is how to attach them. I guess the real Q is - I have a 40x40 that has adhesive thermal tape on it already - I could slap that on the hot side of the block and then put the large heatsink + fan on top of that - would that work or does that little aluminum heatsink block defeat the function of the large heatsink?
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well i think i would consider encasing it like with a small atx tower case then you have tighter control over the prime mover fan and then individually create airflow through the case aside from the airflow on the pelt
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That’s a fair plan. I haven’t got the time before I have to go out of state but I do plan to Velcro this sucker to itself so it can’t migrate. I may also build a second small chiller with those spare bits just to give the water two passes through cold-ish.
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Well it sure isn’t pretty but we’re going to see if this will do it. I turned it on and almost instantly went from 71° to 69.8°. I’m cautiously optimistic.
I also have my res lid spray painted. I did matte black and then gloss white over top so it’s a bit more reflective.
PS down to 68.9° since typing this.
I’m in the midst of transplanting 1 of each of my 2fers into soil (FFOF amended with mushroom compost and worm castings. There may be bloodmeal in there too, I don’t recall). But I know it’s HOT soil so I’m not sure. The other seedlings are going to go into their net pots on Sunday when I get home. I’ll have to finish building up my RDWC system - but the ease of slapping together this mini chiller gives me confidence I can make a 3rd one for the small tent and keep maybe 2-4 hydros in veg in there without an issue.
More updates later.
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Petunia AKA Daisy AKA Lemon Tree
Runoff: 6.0 PH, 2350 PPMs. Ph is a smidge low but I’m not upset about it
I fed her full strength Jack’s with a dose of fish shit and what must have been the tiniest touch of bloom booster (I forgot I had premixed this gal of nutes with some MOAB in it, but thankfully it was about 1/4 dose and only 1/4 of the gallon was left, so after major dilution I’m sure it’s not enough for her to care)
Here she is taking her weekly bath. She may get a haircut tonight too.
Super Skunk is getting a mini flush and fresh round of nutes. I hadn’t watered her to runoff since putting her in soil. So aka never. She’s getting a full dose of bloom booster because at her meager 8” height, she’s still got a solid 4-5 bud sites. 
1500ppms out at ph of 6.3. Not bad.
Here’s a funny sight, though. Super and Lemon Tree, together again.
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Not sure why other than the general heat distribution in the room leaves a bit to be desired, but I woke up to a charming 71.6° for res temps. Went back and doctored by chiller so both pelt chips are attached to one water block. The whole thing assembled quite poorly but it’s laying on its side, two colds sandwiching the water block. The heat still exhausts from both fans quite well, so I think it’ll be viable. Scariest bit was having to Velcro it to an extra heat sink so the thermal grease stopped slipping around. Seriously will need to adjust this model when I get back. Namely get a desk fan blowing on the unit so it can dissipate heat and get an actual housing for this chilly beast so it’s not… Velcro’d together. Yikes.