# DIY Chiller Pump



## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

OK...so I bought a mini-fridge today (Won off e-bay for $75). My plan is to have a couple gallon container full of water (or maybe antifreeze) in the fridge. I'll then pump tank water through tubing that is coiled in the container. This should be a relatively low gph pump.

Does anybody have any recommendations for a pump that would send water through airline size tubing (or a little bigger) at a slow but steady rate?

Thanks,
Mike

p.s. This is my version of the DIY Chiller plans easily found on the net...


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## ranmasatome (Aug 5, 2005)

Well...$75 for that fridge is a steal..lol..

Anyway.. i've helped a friend do one of these.. the problem is that its rather hard to control the temperature.. takes a bit of trial and error..

would reccomend you use a large vat of water inside the fridge.. have to remove some shelving.. also you dont need to pump water slowly thru it..
you just need a long coil of tubing to be running inside that large vat of water. This fridge looks large enough to be put next to your tank as a DIY chiller and still allow you to put some drinks in there..


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

It's definitely a nice size. And I was already planning on the container of cooling medium. Water has the advantage of not being an issue in case of a leak, but anti-freeze would allow for cooler internal fridge temps if needed.

As for controlling temperature, I don't have any major heartache about running a heater to keep the tank warm enough if I can't regulate things with fridge temps.

I definitely want to try to do this without a full blown temp controller. But if I do, I'm getting this and selling my SMS-122.

Anyway...I'm still hoping for a recommendation on a pump (If not low GPH, something made for airline size tubing).


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## Osteomata (Jan 11, 2005)

I don't know about the pump, but my first reaction when I saw one of these mini-frig chillers with a big coil of tubing in a vat of water was that it would be more efficient to connect the tubing to a heavily flanged steel multi-pass heat exhanger to maximize heat transfer. Not sure what you would use for a DIY model though. Doing this would allow you to use a smaller frig.


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

OK...but I don't necessarily have a flow of my cooling medium. Although that would be a good idea (a recirc powerhead inside the resevoir). I'm also considering looking for a set of metal (not copper) cooling coils to run on the inside of the resevoir and have standard tubing to and from the tank.

Titanium would be nice for anti-corrosion, but is probably impractical for creating a cooling coil. 

Time for more research...


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