home made reservoir cooler

Discussion in 'Advanced Growing Techniques' started by markatraat, Aug 5, 2011.

  1. #1 markatraat, Aug 5, 2011
    I am in the process of make a res. cooler for a grow that the res. temp is staying around 84-88 deg. going to use an old mini fridge I have laying around but I'm concerned about what type of tubing or piping to use that wont be affected by the nutes.

    anyone got experience with this or just some sound advice on what to use.?

    or how much tubing to use to get a good working system??
     
  2. #2 markatraat, Aug 6, 2011
    WOW I never imagined that I would get no response about this guess I will wait another day and then delete this thread so its not taking up space for no reason
     
  3. #3 jollyrancher1, Aug 6, 2011
    You can coil up a "deck hose" which is very thin walled inside the fridge and use that for the heat exchanger.

    The longer the better.

    Remove the fittings if they are not stainless and replace with a good plastic.

    I knew someone who did the same thing but used a cooler and he just dumped ice in it once a day (had access to free ice).
     
  4. #4 StonerJoee, Aug 6, 2011
    Mini fridge is what I first thought of also but you have to think the point of a mini fridge is to get small things cold and keep them cold if you run warm nutes trough it it will always be running resulting in failure what I have had alot of success with is 100 feet of 1/4 drip line coiled up in my res with a small pump pushing water through from a small ice chest just a loop
     
  5. #5 markatraat, Aug 6, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 6, 2011
    I thought about using a cooler and ice but I'm looking for a more permanent solution..something without added expense and have to deal with on a day to day basis

    I also have a small deep freezer!!!! maybe I should consider that as a means of cooling it is made to stay colder and can sustain lower temps
    any help or opinions are appreciated I would like to do this 1 time and have it work well hate trial and error method of doing things {although it works}
    it just seems to make more sense to gather as many opinions and advice as possible and try to convey it all into a usable solution to the problem..

    your point of using a loop in the res. as a recirculating system and have the heat exchanger in the res. is another good way to go about it and not worry about nutrient solution moving thru it to cool it this has definitely moved the direction I'm going with this
     
  6. #6 jollyrancher1, Aug 6, 2011
    If you run a loop in the res and a freezer, use anti freeze in the loop.

    I run a chiller.
     

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