The cheapest water chiller on the market is $200 plus and not worth it for a 4 bucket dwc. I have been thinking of a way to build my own that would be effective. So i bought a small thermoelectric micro fridge that will hold a six pack.https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DQT2ZGE/ref=o... this is the one i used. I had about 10-12 ft. of 3/8 cooper tubing and coiled it up as small as it would be the size of a six pack and ran the bottom end to the top. Added compression fitting in order to screw on barbs. I drilled 2x 3/8 holes to fit 3/8 clear vinyl hose thru to connect to cooper. i actually drilled a touch smaller hole so the hose would fit tight and seal off the inside to keep as much cool in as possible. Then i decided to use a small submersible pump at 80 GPH. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EWENKXO/ref=o... i wanted it to pump as slow as possible in order to cool down the water good before exiting to buckets. I rigged a manifold off of the pumppulling water out of 1 bucket and pumps water into 3 buckets. I took 1 1/4" water hose out of 1 buckets and inserted the hose inside the 3/8" hose. Perfect snug fit. put another 1/4" hose in the other side and back into the bucket. This micro fridge is suppose to cool 30 degrees below ambient temperature. My water temp was at 71.2 when i installed this homemade first trial run water chiller. I just built it tonight and installed just before lights out. So stay tuned and i will check the temp tomorrow and report back to see if the gadget is a success!! If it dont work i will have a micro fridge to keep my food warm at work. LOL Yea it heats or cools. May even be a decent water heater for something. Post pic later!
I'm not 100% on how you have set this up but if you have nutrient solution running through copper tubing, you will kill your plants. The only 2 metals worth using are titanium and stainless steel. I'm interested to see if it made any difference to the temperature though. Maybe using thin plastic or rubber hose for the coil but submerge the coil in a container of water in the fridge. That way you will have better heat conduction
Peltier cooling schemes pop up about once a year. They are not efficient (power hogs). Copper contact with the nutrient solution is a recipe for disaster. Here are the real deals: http://www.thermoelectric.com/2010/pr/lc/benchtop.... Here is a comparison: http://skyjuiceiswater.blogspot.com/2012/11/freon-...
yeahh I'm in the process of building one myself but I was going to using a stainless coil copper cools a lot faster but I figure it wouldn't go too good with nutrients let me no how it works
Well I used it for a day. It lowered 16 gals from 71 to 69. I haven't used it until I get a better coil system. I wasn't aware of copper being so toxic. I'm sure if my coils were longer in length I could get more cooling. I've been brewing microbe tea and adding it to my DWC and my girls nipples are sticking out hard. Not to concerned about 71 anymore but I the lil fridge works great for 12 gallons or less.
Its the copper and lead solider. I tried something similar, almost killed my plants in a week. I just spent the 280 on the 1\\10 hp chiller and forgot about it. No problem since.
Saw this a while back...it will chill up to 3 litres of water a minute to your desired temps: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2014-New-product-se... And here's one that incorporates the Peltier cooling technology... http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2014-New-product-th... Both are for use in aquariums, so I assume that if they're safe for underwater plants and animals, that they would be safe for rez chilling.