External Cooling Chassis

[urbsnspices]

Wanted a big external cooling case and I found this baby on ebay for cheap. Brand new nice dual copper rads. Plenty of room for a good size AC pump. The fan is AC and if it runs quiet with a dimmer I may not have to replace it. I havent powered it up yet.

It is also the right size to bolt to the side of a case. Also gotta love the fact the "KRaCK" decal.

Yes it is bigger then I prolly need, but I shouldnt have to explain myself. This is the [H]. Ill post updates as it goes together.

 

[urbsnspices]

Powered up the fan and it blows, or sucks, I actually couldnt tell. Surprisingly it isnt annoying at high speed, I just dont think the blades were designed very well. So pulled it out of the box. A 140mm fan will fit nicely where it used to live.

I am considering 5 yate loon fans and a controller. I was going to make a controller, but that Sunbeam controller gets good reviews and is a bargain. I already have a 12V power supply.

Other plans include a float switch water level alarm. If I am putting a buzzer in then I may include a power loss alarm for fun redundancy on the pump power.

 

[Marci]

Ensure you get pumps with good head pressure... those 180 degree bends at each end of the condensers (which is what those two rads are) are notorious for killing flow...

They are used most frequently in conditions that require high pressures, such as refrigeration condensors. While the coiled tube is great for operating well under low-flow conditions, it is bulky and consumes up a lot of the body of the finned area in comparison to a heater-core style radiator. Additionally, the spacing between the tubes and the fins in the coiled tube radiators makes for a less than optimal setup with respect to the conduction distance.

I suppose a good analogy is that while the looping tube style radiators are good for liquid-metal heat transfer, they are generally far less efficient at metal-air heat transfer when given the same space and size constraints. Heater-core style radiators come close to as good as it gets for metal-air efficiency, and provided you give them sufficient flow rate for their internal design (single pass, multi-pass, whatever) the liquid-metal efficiency can be as good as the looping tube style radiators. Heater-cores fall down though more quickly at lower flow rates than the looping tube style radiators. Given the historically low flow rates that occur in Teutonic systems, the looping tube style radiators make a fair degree of sense.

It's a case of horses for courses. Looping tube can work better at very-low-flow rates, while heater-cores (and heatercore style rads - Marci) tend to work better at low-moderate flow rates and higher.

 

[annaconda]

How much you paid ? What are the size of the Rads?

 

[urbsnspices]

Ensure you get pumps with good head pressure... those 180 degree bends at each end of the condensers (which is what those two rads are) are notorious for killing flow...

Yeah, right now I am running a QuietOne 1200 with close to 300GPH at zero head. It is working well with the automotive condensor I am currently using. For this beast I will probably upgrade to the to the 2200 or 3000.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/add_info.cfm?pCatId=9849
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=9849&Ntt=water%20pump&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&N=2004&Nty=1

This evaporator was 50 bucks shipped. It will be a little more work then I thought. For instance I am going to reinforce all the corners. Still cheaper/easier then tracking down two identical slim copper rads and a perfect case for them.

 

[BillParrish]

bah, the heater core you are using has flat tubes, that thing has full round tubes bent nicely, wont loose as much flow as you think.

Easy to test, just hook up your pump and a 5 gallon bucket of water for a source and fill a gallon milk jug and time it.

I love it, my (gasp) Tt Bigwater uses simular type rads, full round copper tubing and medium density fins and cools my system pretty decent (other system is old school heater core WC). You probally have at least 4 times the radiator area, that thing is gonna work great.