diy water chiller from dehumidifier

[tryguy2011]

I was looking into making a water chiller from a used dehumidifier.
I have 2 rez that I need to keep cool, ph is fluctuating more with higher water temps. Idea is to put the water chiller(cooling coil from dehumidifier) into a cooler with water and use this as the chilling rez so that I can cool 2 rez at same time. I will take pics and post when I have dh.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

I know nothing about working with things like that. But I love it when you can make something from something else. Let us know how you do it and how it works.

 

[Locked]

Sounds cool, be great if you could take some pics and maybe throw together a DIY.

 

[tryguy2011]

I accept the challenge. I priced chillers at about $350 for a 1/10 horsepower, I just priced used dehumidifier for $50, I payed $60 for the one I have now.

 

[Hushpuppy]

That sounds good but you may not be able to get cold enough as those DH units don't get real cold. But it might be cold enough to drop your rez temp by 5degrees or a little more. If your only at around mid 70s then that might work well to get you in upper 60s. Hope so anyway. Are you going to try to direct cool the rez by pumping it to the coil, or do an independant system like I have where you run the chilled water through the 2 resevoirs by way of copper tube?

 

[trillions of atoms]

Mini fridge...

 

[tryguy2011]

good point about dehumidifier not being cold enough, i'll work around that somehow.
My plan is to submerse the cold coil in water inside a cooler, and run a 1/2 or 3/4 in. line from each rez into a coil inside the cooler and then back to each individual rez.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Mini fridge...

I thought of a mini fridge way back when and someone told me they thought it would be expensive to do that way. However, that water you get out of your refrigerator door....well that is just a large coil of small tubing that is hidden somewhere in the fridge and supplies the cold water. I really think a mini fridge where you just have as large a coil of plastic water line as you can get in the fridge and have it slowly circulate would work.

Tryguy, you are not going to want to put any kind of metal tubing into nute solution.

 

[tryguy2011]

Air isn't enough of a radiant conductor to cool the amount of water I need cooled, but a minifridge will be here tomorrow hopefully.
Price $35 used on craigslist
I will have to take it apart and try to get the cold coil in a cooler without kinking the line. If I can get the coil in the cooler it will cool quite a bit of water.

 

[tryguy2011]

the nute solution will pass through a plastic coil that is submersed in the cooler that has the coil, so that the nute solution does not come in contact with anything else

 

[lindseyj]

Yes, a dehumidifier can make a decent chiller. Dehumidifier has different component to make it as a multitasking system.
I tested out the evaporator to see how high the temp. can go before the thermostat kick in. So far it reach -17C and it began to warm up.

 

[tryguy2011]

Well I bought a mini fridge tore it apart and submersed the cold part in water
I paid $35 for the fridge, I feel that it would have worked great but the motor shut itself off from overheating, it was bad when I bought it, did cool the rez down a few degrees, but after moving it so many times it started leaking Freon from where I cut into accidentally with the grinder. Oops!
After doing that I am very confident that a dehumidifier will work very well
so I am buying one today for like $50

 

[xoddah]

ok then... i spent $60 on a 5.5 cf chest freezer
$40 on 1/2 inch tubing drilled 2 holes in top of the freezer
pushed both ends of tubing through holes
added a pump inside my 50 gal rez
pushed water through the coil of tubing and dumped back into the rez
added a timer 1 1/2 hour off 15 minutes on 24 hour cycle
water cooled from 85 to 62 in 2 days turned temp up on the freezer a little
68 degrees for 10 days then I change the water in my rez this feeds 24 sites
3 gallon buckets
SO i have 2 additional rooms to cool i am going to try 2 coils, 2 pumps in another freezer i bought for $80.00 it will work ! simple cheap only issue for you may be heat generated by the freezer, I put mine outside the rooms so it is not an issue for me I often wondered why i always saw freezers setting on peoples front porches in Alabama, that... is some smart folks

 

[Dr. Green Fang]

All very fascinating! Will keep reading on here, cheers! :aok:

 

[N.E.wguy]

here check this thread you will find it all there

hxxps://www.thcfarmer.com/community/threads/water-chilling-q-a.56721/