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Thread: DIY Cooler Idea

  1. #1
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    DIY Cooler Idea

    I was cruising the Marine Depot site last night and was looking at the chillers (and choking on the prices) when I saw this Deltek unit for a mere $1,277. I had to look, just to see what the heck a $1200 chiller would do for me.

    In the description was the following:
    The principle of the ECO cooler borrows its technology from water cooling towers used in industrial applications. Water from the aquarium is forced to evaporate which draws latent heat from the water thus cooling it down.
    That got me wondering about how water cooling towers work, so I busted out the Wikipedia and found this entry that explains them. In there, I saw a couple of interesting graphics depicting of how Cooling Towers work:



    This seems like an idea that could be built with some off the shelf parts from our favorite big box home improvement store.

    For the spray bar, we could use something like the misting kits they sell for you to put outside in your yard for cooling things down or simply just use a sprinkler head, which are generally 1/2" NPT fittings. The sprinkler might produce less mist, but I think would get the job done pretty well.

    Seems like we could mount this inside a 5 gallon bucket, with the spray directed downwards and a hole piped to the sump for drainage. A fan mounted at the top of the bucket with the airflow pointing down should provide enough circulation.

    I think this is a pretty similar idea to Santa Monica's turf filter project, but the intent of this isn't to grow algae, but to simply cool the water. His project does add a fan for cooling, and people have reported good temperature drops as a result.

    Bottom line is that I think this could be a pretty easy project with minimal expense, especially if you've still got a bunch of leftover parts from putting a sprinkler system into your yard a couple of years ago (like I do)

    Thoughts anyone?

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    I have a friend with an ECO cooler. After looking at it, it would be pretty simple to build one, and the DEFINITELY work very well. The only caveat is, they cool by evaporation, so you need to make sure your ATO is up to the task AND, they generate A LOT of humidity. Unless you have a fish room, this is a project you may want to skip.
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