Water fountain as a water chiller?

T

TruthInRuin

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 14, 2004
Messages
286
Well, my dad has this water fountain, just like the ones near public bathrooms... its totally self contained and i was thinking since itll make the water cooler than any radiator/fan setup and its free I would use that. The only problem is that the tube's that i would use to attach it to the loop are 1/4 ID. I dont have enough money to spend on any innovatek blocks, so would using a 1/4 to 3/8 or 1/2 adapter be ok?

And, if you see any faults with using a water fountain as a chiller feel free to point them out, id really like to know before i buy any parts for this. Thanks :)
 
adapters should be fine.

do you have a pic of the fountain you're refering to?
 
only fault would be water loss through evaporation..so you will have to maintenance fill it more often. After all this setup is similar on concept to a bong cooler.
 
mustang_steve said:
only fault would be water loss through evaporation..so you will have to maintenance fill it more often. After all this setup is similar on concept to a bong cooler.
Click to expand...

I think he's referring to a wall-mounted drinking-water fountain, which cools the water using a small phase-change unit, not evaporation. In this case, I'd still worry that the unit was not powerful enough to remove a constant heatload of ~100W or whatever the CPU/pump dissipates. These water chillers are generally only chilling a small volume of standing water.

TruthInRuin, do you have any pics of the fountain's internals? We have a few knowledgable phase-change people here that may be able to help you out if you post some pics.
 
 
those are for chilling a few ounces of water at a time, and not for long-haul usage.

I wouldnt go with it for anyhting more than seeing how high of an oc for a few hours you can get with it. i would jsut get some of those swiftech peltier chillers, and run a multi-loop setup. Yes it's costly, but your usiunag parts designed for that app. that drinking fountain chiller might work, but it might just burn up too.
 
Yeah, I dunno if you've ever seen how fast one of those burns out at 100F outdoors intexas, but it's pretty damn fast.

Remember 100C is like 2x higher the 100F.
 
I’m trying to come up with an idea to make the same type of setup work. I have a complete drinking fountain unit with 1/4-ton compressor and a fully insulated 1 gal water tank. My current system is a dual pump, rad, res waters setup in a custom case.
http://www.gracewalking.com/h2o.html
What I’m thinking of doing is dropping a radiator in the 1 gal water tank and running a closed loop. The compressor keeps the water in the storage tank cold while the water to my cpu, gpu and chip set circulate through the submerged radiator. I know this wont be as efficient as running the chilled water directly through my cooling loop but it just might keep the compressor from beating its self to death, (starting and stopping) trying to keep the water in the tank cold.. I’m not looking to super cool the system; my goal is to create a unit that would give me around a 20-degree difference lower than air-cooled. I’m also considering running 1 radiator on the return side with a fan to get rid of some of the heat before dropping back down into the radiator in the chilled water tank, this might also take some of the load off the compressor. Any constructive input would be appreciated.
 
i think most of those fountains are not meant to be running 24/7. normally they run for a few minutes, then stop. ever notice how at a busy fountain, there is never any cold water? i wonder if the fountain is capable of keeping up with the heat generated from a CPU consider the mass amount of heat the fountain will generate into your room too.
 
I would also wonder about the pressure. Most water fountains that I have had the opportunity to use do not blow a hole in the back of your skull with water pressure.

Depending upon how fast the water is moving through the tubes, it may boil before getting out of the waterblock.
 
Nomad said:
I would also wonder about the pressure. Most water fountains that I have had the opportunity to use do not blow a hole in the back of your skull with water pressure.

Depending upon how fast the water is moving through the tubes, it may boil before getting out of the waterblock.
Click to expand...

Your CPU would have to reach 100C for this to happen :eek:
 
zer0signal667 said:
Your CPU would have to reach 100C for this to happen :eek:
Click to expand...
More of a joke than anything else. But - without pressure to move the water through the system it may cause the CPU to overheat. Can always try it out and see. Hook up a flow meter and check it out.
 
I had a friend who setup a water fountain cooler on his CPU. It just didn't have the power to keep the water cool.

BigIron, 1/4 ton = 3,000 btu's right? That should be perfect. Why wouldn't you just drop the evaporator into the water tank? Seems like that would be more efficient.
 
damn i forgot where i saw it but a guy did the exact same thing you did and it lowered his temps like 20 degress Faren
 
Jonsey said:
I had a friend who setup a water fountain cooler on his CPU. It just didn't have the power to keep the water cool.

BigIron, 1/4 ton = 3,000 btu's right? That should be perfect. Why wouldn't you just drop the evaporator into the water tank? Seems like that would be more efficient.
Click to expand...
1/4 ton = 25,000 BTU's
 
Oh well. My father in law owns a HVAC company and I gave him a call last night. He told me that 1 ton is 100,000 BTUs. Also said that is was a linear scale, hence 1/4 ton was 25,000.

No worries - not my knowledge and, if I am wrong, no skin off my back. Sorry for writing misleading info.
 
Your father in law? Sounds like a good opportunity to call him back and talk about it. Maybe you can get him to say he's wrong. (not likely)
 
haha, a case where the search button works for me! Kind of like P-honics :). I was going to ask this same question. At work they are getting rid of our water cooler from the break room. I was like, "I'll take it!" It is the water cooler kind not the water fountain (or if you live in the mid-west...bubbler) kind. Its got a compressor and condenser and everything that cools, like the guy earlier said, about a gallon res in top. I guess its a matter of BTU's and whether the compressor is designed to run 24/7 or not.

Is everyone saying no to this? Maybe? How do you find out the BTU's. I'll take it apart and find out here at work :)
 
Just a point of interest...in moving my machine a few years back (1.3ghz AMD) the power for the HSF came undone. after running for about 8 hours it was running kind of slow so restarted and checked the bios for anything out of the norm...122C...about 250F :eek: ...To my suprise, that computer is still alive and kicking and is curently residing uner my girlfreind's desk with fewer problems than most of the new systems i deal with, that thing dies [H]ard i guess :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top