Project: Frosty (a simple water chiller)

G

gclg2000

Gawd
Joined
Jun 27, 2004
Messages
634
Ok guys, this is the begining of another Computer Project for me. The whole continuing theory i love about computers is overclocking your sh*t to the max. Everyone knows that a bigger OC needs more voltage but generates more heat, so you must disperse the heat and viola!!! Instant nice over clock. But what happens when water itself (at room temperature) isn't enough?

Project: Frosty

Picked u p one a A/C unit. Link to itis below.

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=APPL&pid=04274054000

$69.99 at sears. A nice little window A/C unti (rated at 5150 btu's).

Then i proceeded to take the shell off, undo a few brackets, screws and etc. The unit itself has a motor that controls a dual fan. One fan that blows onto the condensor and the other onto the evaporator. The evaportater of course is the part that gets cold. But with a fan blowing on it, that puts "hot" room temperature air on it and "warms" it up. So i had to remove that fan, which was pretty easy and just leave the condensor fan to blow. Now, (the cool part) once you do this fire up the A/C unti and turn the knob to as cold as it will let you and wait about 25 minutes. After that a thick layer of snow has formed all over the evaporrator and part of the compressor. This temperature is about -25 celsius. Pics below of the unit. Next step is to cut off the evaporator and make a special coilded one of my own out of 1/4 copper pipe using about 20ft then braze my custom evaporator back to the compressor and recharge the system with some R22 freon.

Till then, enjoy the pics below (notice the solid white on the front of the unit, thats snow from the wator vapor forming on the copper and blue colored evaporator that came with the A/C unit.

Image116.jpg


and

Image117.jpg
 
I've been thinking about doing something similar for a while now.

Are you planning on:
1.) building a fluid heat exchanger and chilling your water circuit

or

2.) bringing the evaporator into your case, and directly chilling the CPU block?
 
As of right now, i'm just going to chill some Isopropanol and use that to flow through the "water loop." It would'nt be hard for me to create a custom waterblock on a drill press and just torch the copper lines right into the block like your saying. But i'd rather progress from water cooling directly to this first.

Wouldn't cost much though to one day redo it into an evaporator cooled unit.
 
If there an inlet and outlet for this? I would not mind trying it out and just chilling my W/Cing loop.
 
gclg2000 said:
As of right now, i'm just going to chill some Isopropanol and use that to flow through the "water loop." It would'nt be hard for me to create a custom waterblock on a drill press and just torch the copper lines right into the block like your saying.
Click to expand...

You have to be careful doing this... evaporators are not the same internally as regular waterblocks. You should talk to someone who has actually made a few of them first, and I am not the man for that job...
 
To the best of my understanding, its like this.
Believe me, i woud check first, but i don't see why you could'nt just do what i described, as long as you kept the evaporator diameter of the tubing and "channels" in the block the same size......why not?

Sounds like a good thread to start researching this in.

chiller_loop.jpg
 
Do not put the radiator in your loop. This will only heat up the sub ambient liquids and do exactly what you don't want.

Here's how you do it:

Put your evaporator inside of a cooler or something that can hold liquid. This will serve as your heat dissipator. Keep your original A/C complete. If you do anything, bypass the thermometer.

Next, you have two lines running from your resivoir (with your evaporator in it) and then you take those lines and run them like a conventional watercooling loop. Only difference is you have to insulate everything that comes in contact with the liquid. This includes the motherboard, waterblocks, and lines.

Hopefully this is making sense to you, because the way you have yours set up is not right.
 
what??

Everything is being cooled of fine. The evap is what takes care of the heat??? Unless your talking about adding a radiator into the loop to "coo" the liquid before it enters back into the evaporator.....which would be really warming it up with room air.???
 
Nevermind, I didn't look at the whole picture and when I saw the compressor I thought it was a radiator.

Your idea is right.
 
Ok guys got a major update for ya'll.

I sawed off the eveaporator (the frozen part in the first pics above) and then made a new evaporator. It's made from 25ft 1/4" copper tubing; all coilied up and then submerged into a 2gallon Igloo Gatorade cooler.
Once i made the new evaporator i bent it to shape and then lead brazed it back to the compressor and compression feed.

I then made a little "T-line" valve which allowed hookup from a vaccum pump that can suck out all the air and moisture inside and also recharge it with plain old R22 freon. Put about 3-4oz of freon back into it, and fired it up. No leaks and it works like a champ. According to the pressure valve of the guy that was helping me the temp was just at -30 Celsius. The whole coil freezes up from humidity and it is hella cold.

Below are pictures of it all, and a pic of the coil submerged in water that is frozen the water solid.

Enjoy and what do ya'll think so far??
Still have to insulate everything and add the pump and i'm in buisness. I could have some early 1st run benchmarks up by tommorow.

coil2.jpg


coil.jpg


compresser.jpg


Igloo_outlet.jpg


valve_cover.jpg


Whole_schebang.jpg


Frozen_coil.jpg
 
gclg2000 said:
valve_cover.jpg


Whole_schebang.jpg
Click to expand...

is that frost?

How are you doing the heat exchange inside the thermos? are you just dumping the heated liquid in the top?


Kudos m8!
 
very interesting i've been thinking about doing something like this since i'f got a few spare parts laying abou (including an extra AC unit) but honestly don't really have the know how to do it.
 
Yes all that is frost. I just run a pump into the igloo cooler and pump the liquid into a normal water block (all copper i might add, NOT a lucite or plexi top).

Below are some pics of it finished. I'm getting -20c idle speeds. Little low i think, i need a more freon in the loop to make it better and i still haven'nt insulated evertyhing yet on the evap, so air is still "warming" up the frosty parts and i'm prob loosing a couple degree's from that.

I've alrady started tearing it down to make another unit that will use freon directly this time. That design is listed first below and then the finished pics of the chiller below that.

enjoy....(the design is not perfect...i'm to lazy right now to fix it)

Phase_blueprint_very_final_001.jpg


P1010131.sized.jpg


P1010130.sized.jpg


P1010132.sized.jpg


P1010133.sized.jpg


P1010135.sized.jpg


P1010136.sized.jpg


P1010137.sized.jpg
 
I've just had a but of an idea while looking at your thermos. You'd have to use something like a 5 gallon gatoraid container. The liquid would enter through the top and go down a very shallow spiral incline towards the bottom. your cool air would just circulate in the container and cool it on the way down. It could be after the radiator so that the radiator could dissipate the most heat, and the other contraption would take it cooler. I don't even have a water cooling setup myself, but this idea just hit me like a brick.

Edit: I'm an idiot, is that pretty much the same thing you just did? I shouldn't post replys at 3 in the morning.
 
i also had an idea invloveing the evaporator... make the coil tighter say about 5" and shove it into a piece of 6" pvc pipe, (say 5 or 6 ft tall) andf turn the pvc into a bong cooler (fan at both the bottom and top) .. hang the condensor outside your window... poof.. a/c unit and super pc cooling solution all in one shot it will take some messing with.. but im shure you can keep to much ice from forming and keep the water flowing with the right fans in the bong.. it would be interesting to see any way.. (if you get it to work i will be makeing one my self.. i've always wanted a bong cooler, but i need a/c too.. so if i can kill 2 birds with 1 stone.. so be it.. )

thore
 
exactly, there has to be a way to go beyond the traditional radiatior. If I had money I'd give it a try.
 
guys....the biggest thing i think ya'll are missing. The evap is what "removes" the heat gained from the CPU since its submerged in alcohol. I think that blowing what your saying "cool" air (that air is really about 55 C hotter than the chilled alcohol) will warm up with liquid. Correct me if i'm wrong, but remember.......room air is no longer adequate.......room air can only cool water cooled rigs to ambient at theoretical best.....and what your saying is almost like blowing a hair dryer accorss the radiator of a water cooled loop.

You guys get what i'm saying....

This chiller isn't around anymore, but the freon gas inside the evap was submerged into the alcohol, and "sucked" out all the heat from the liquid......thats why it was in a thermos, to help keep it colder....adding air IMO would only "heat" up the process and put a bigger strain on the condensor and compressor.

The above A/C unti has been torn apart and is now in part of what i'm building for a cascade system.....if you care a pic of that project for me is currently below.

Mvc_016f.jpg
 
Yeah, I think I get what you're saying. I know pretty much nothing about that sort of thing, so I'm all full of crazy/stupid ideas, but the more I read what you did the more it makes sense. How noisy is that compressor? And what was your final costs for the whole setup? Also, is there any particular way you put the copper tubeing into a coil?
 
The final cost was about $120 for the chiller. The most noisey part was the big condensor fan. This thing really wasn't designed for a "quite" solution but rather extreme use and benchmarking. If done properly, you can reduce the noise level pretty good.

For example, a simple variable control knob to adjust the voltage on the Condensor fan would be a great solution to crank that fan on down. Set the unit outside in cold weather, turn the fan up to high, and you've just improved your phase changer/cascade even more.
 
oh and about the tubing, it can be bent very easily with your hands. I just used a role of duct tape as a "mold" if you would, and kept wrapping it around and around it into a coil, thenjust bent how i wanted the evap and suction lines like i wanted them.
 
gclg2000 said:
Correct me if i'm wrong, but remember.......room air is no longer adequate.......room air can only cool water cooled rigs to ambient at theoretical best.....and what your saying is almost like blowing a hair dryer accorss the radiator of a water cooled loop.

You guys get what i'm saying....
Click to expand...


understood.. but i think you missed what i was saying all together... what im talking about is a way to get controlled cooling, aka the magic number somewhere between subambient yet above dew point. bong coolers are evap coolers (like a swamp cooler) .. while useing air by blowing throught the water to remove the heat faster, they allow for subambient cooling, but nowhwere near dewpoint (except maybe on a reallllly cold day that also happens to be reallllly humid) in this set up your introducing a supercooler into the mix as well, the air coming out of the shower head will be cooled to just about subambient befor it hits the coils and is cooled further, but with the added air rushing by, not to the point it freezes, (maybe a littel on the coils them selves but the moveing water should also keep this to a minimum (erotion effect) ) now.. becuase you have air both blowing throught the water and acrossed the coil, if you put the condensor on the outside of the room, you have a P.C.-A/C setup as the ac unit will handel alot more heat than the pc can produce, so you will have chilled air being blown into the room...

you should be able to control the ammount of water freeze up with a varible rate shower head, and by messing with the pipe length you should be able to control exactly how cold the water gets, (by placeing the coils further up /down the pipe, and how spread out they are)

hope that makes sence

thore
 
I bought that AC unit becuase of the recent bit of hurricane trouble we have been having here in FL, and now look at what you show me! God only knows it will be a few days now untill I am chopping it up to chill my CPU, and then another 'cane will come along and rape me!

This thread is, however, extremely [H]ard.
 
Well i guess i see what your saying. I'm used to Florida here (the most humid state in the country is my bet) we easily hit 100% all the time in summer. I don't really get why you would want "controlled" cooling. The idea is to get as cold as you can to get the most "extreme" overclock right??? Sounds like alot of work to limit your cooling.

If you "chill" or sub cool the water to a lower temp. You better think about condensation. That's all i'm saying.

For example. I've dropped ice cubes in teh res of a older watercooling rig i had. After about 20 min or so (of continually adding ice and removing melted ice). The CPU block started to sweat and condensate. Now those temps were prob around 5 Celsious or so, but that was enough to condensate inside my house.

Another thing you can do....is put a small cermaic heater or something blowing on the blocks or motherboard to help prevent condensation from forming.
 
why dont you just buy a thermostat for it and set it for around 15deg. you can get the damn things in wallmart. get a digital unit with the lcd and everything run it inbetween your power switch problem solved....

P.S. if you hook it up and it doesnt work try hitting the fan switch on the thermostat. they have more than one switch in them for your heater/ac controll and for the fan....guess who has been there done that and got the t-shirt?
 
Whats teh point of 15 Degree's then. You just built a dang water chiller and you only stand to gain about 10 degree's at most.......You shouldn't be building a water chiller unless you wanna keep it at -20 or so. My definition of a water chiller is using the evap coil of a A/C system to cool water well below 0. Using a reservoir in a fridge or something is a ghetto chiller, and nothing wrong with that. You still need insulation if you intend to run as cold as you can for 24/7...which i don't see why you wouldnt if your even gonna make the time to get this going....just alot of work for just 10 degree's. That would barely make any difference at all in a OC. Your better off going with a Pelt or something in that case.
 
Agree^^

Why would you just not buy a TEC? Much less work and better temps.
 
Stack a 200 watt pelt on to a 80 watt pelt. Then water cool it. Use something powerful to cool the water like an Aqua-Tame and presto! overclockers heaven. Sounds almost too easy.
 
TECs are very inefficient and you cant cool every single component in the comp with them.
the advantages are...
1, you can put the condenser side out your window and then you wont be dumping the heat from your comp into your room.
2, computers are not getting any cooler last time i checked.
3, i dont know where you guys live.. but its about 80deg outside right now in Pcola :eek: on air im getting about 35c cpu, 30c nb, and 26c ambient. my 6800gt is no lower than 53c at any time!!!!! load temps sky rocket


cpu load 50c valcano 9 85 cfm
nb load 65c!!! has a 10krpm 40mm right on it!!
ambient load 31-33c
6800gt load 77c

my room gets gradually hotter and it puts more strain on the central home unit to get it done...its getting rediculus so i bought a window ac for 79 bucks at wallmart and got a thermostat like 2 isles over.. i dont have the insulation materials right now so the thermostat will save my ass until i get them. then this chiller will be modded to cool much lower. then i can just dial in a number :D
4. you can cool more than just 1 computer with it. do that with a pelt.. pelts are worthless now that you can buy phasechange for 79.95 on sale ;)
 
nah that puppy i think is like 10+ years old. It's been my daily keyboard for a very long time. It's PS2, when did PS2 come about???
 
McGuiver called .... and he wants his cooling setup back =)

But on a serious note ... very nice rig.
 
Hi, old [H] reader, new to forum.

I love this. A reverse 'jockey box', like the ones used for beer.
All it needs is a secondary coil (from a keg) for a 'beer injection system',
to regulate cpu AND user temperatures. Great for summer. ;)
 
heh, i actually have an old junk compressor and condensor that works. Soon i'll be posting a "how to make a distiller for experimental purposes."

toast.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top