Dorm Fridge Chiller

[VPWoodwork1]

I was wondering if anyone has done the dorm size fridge turned into a chiller deal. More importantly if you have....does it work? I have seen the plans and figured that as long as the flow through it was slow enough it should work but would like some input.

Glenn
www.aquarium-stands.com

[jeff967]

far what size tank? 30 are smaller it might be OK,large tanks will run it to early death

[VPWoodwork1]

I was asked about it for a 54 Corner and also considered it for a 120.

[icemark]

generally they are only efficent for a couple of degrees on larger tanks.

There just is not sufficent cooling BTUs.

I made a refrig chiller out of a fullsize 16 sq foot interior with freezer, but found that even 500ft of coils inside only dropped a 50 gal set up only about 5 degrees, while skyrocketing the electric bill because of the refrig always running.

There is also a fine line between cooling and water flow... Too fast water flow and the water wouldn't cool at all. Too slow and there wasn't enough flow to cooling the tank more than in just a corner. Same problems when using bigger than 5/8 id tubing. The outer edge would cool, but the inner flow wouldn't.

I couldn't imagine a small dorm refrig doing even half as good, because you would be limited on the amount of polyprop coils you could fit in.