Sciencemadness Discussion Board - How make a liquid cooler/chiller

How make a liquid cooler/chiller

Mateo_swe - 13-10-2020 at 11:58

Im making this ozone generator using high voltage, stainless steel pipes and some quartz tubes.
But i will need to cool it down and pumping a cool liquid through the stainless steel pipe would be ideal.
I have never built or used a a device that cool a liquid, say a few liters and my searches on the net didnt give me much good ideas.
All i found was coolers for CPUs and chillers for lasers.
What kind of principles can be used for something like this?
I guess a pump can be used to lower the temperature by the change in pressure.
Peltier elements are a way to lower the temperature but they would probably be to small for cooling down say 2-3 liters of fluid.
Or maybe if i use several of them.
Peltier elements are used in small refrigerators so maybe if a use a bunch of them it will work.
Have any of you made a liquid cooling system for something and can share some ideas?

As making ozone by high voltage discharge/plasma method will make lots of heat i need to cool things down.
Ozone has very short half life in high temperatures and i have read somewhere that 4°C is optimal temperature for making it.
I dont have any hopes of maintaining 4°C but if i can make it not rise over say 20°C it would be great.

monolithic - 13-10-2020 at 12:19

If you want a project, see this video for a good starting point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNZMvXKzBGk

Belowzero - 13-10-2020 at 13:16

Why not take apart an old fridge and use repurpose it as a cooler.
Or get a regular (small) fridge and fit it with a vessel holding the cooling liquid.
Use a pump to circulate the cold liquid.

If direct contact is undesirable you could heat exchange it by running the tubing next to each other or use an ordinary lab spiral cooler or alike.

If you don't mind spending money, a cryobath is an option, when lucky these can be picked up for a reasonable amount of money and easily go down to -20.
I am happy with mine, takes about an hour to get around -20/-25 with a buffer of roughly 2L.
Some models come with a circuation pump and hose adapters.

[Edited on 13-10-2020 by Belowzero]

Mush - 13-10-2020 at 15:24

This is what u need, I guess:
I made a CPU chiller from an A/C unit, AND IT WORKS!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KSK5IgURHU

I would like to build a budget recirculating chiller one day, which turned out to be not so easy . This setup (above) is the closest to my idea. Lab chillers even used ones are expensive. If one can source a used a/c for nothing , that is a winner for the project.

Building the Ultimate CPU Cooler!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwCtvpgwm5o

In this video they were able reach about -20 C in a case of a small heat source (cpu) see at 11:50
My 10 Year Old Chiller WORKS! -20C on THREADRIPPER!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7pqc26TWAg

My Remote Tap Glycol Home Bar System
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_5dTZLnlzk

DIY Glycol Chiller - 5000 BTU Air Conditioner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtFlowHVnnY

Glycol Chiller Thermostat - Hack AC to Below Freezing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFCcHW-LKyI

Happy cooling

!

[Edited on 14-10-2020 by Mush]

Dr.Bob - 13-10-2020 at 16:39

I was telling someone the other day that you can simply use an old dorm fridge and put a large container in it full of water or an antifreeze mix and then run a couple of hoses in and out of it. Pre cool the whole thing, and that thermal mass can cool a reaction, rotovap condenser, or whatever for a few hours. Someone who bought a Rotovap from me is trying this, and found a fridge for $50, a hard to beat price. The chillers we use at work cost about $4000 or more, and often break after a few years. They do go down cooler, to about -10 C (they claim to go down to -20C, but that is without any load or tubing, in real life -10 is pretty good when in real use.)

Mateo_swe - 13-10-2020 at 22:56

Thanks for all suggestions and videos.
I will check them all out.
One potential problem is that the cooling water or other liquid will contact the stainless steel tubes that are at high-voltage, high frequency potential.
Distilled water should not conduct but i cant count on that 100%.
I must rush off to work, i check all suggestions tonight.

Belowzero - 14-10-2020 at 03:04

Quote: Originally posted by Mateo_swe

Thanks for all suggestions and videos.
I will check them all out.
One potential problem is that the cooling water or other liquid will contact the stainless steel tubes that are at high-voltage, high frequency potential.
Distilled water should not conduct but i cant count on that 100%.
I must rush off to work, i check all suggestions tonight.

I heard that glass is a good isolator

WGTR - 14-10-2020 at 03:59

I once bought some antifreeze from these people: https://www.arc-zone.com/Coolant. TIG welders often use high frequency/high voltage start and the coolant has to be pure enough to work with that.

Mateo_swe - 15-10-2020 at 06:11

Quote: Originally posted by Belowzero

I heard that glass is a good isolator

Yes, but it will isolate the heat also.
I had an idea to use 2 quartz tubes that when smaller one is put inside of bigger one had a airgap of a mm or 2.
Then i could circulate cold conductive fluid through the smaller tube and also around the bigger tube.
The 2 conductive fluids would have to be at different high voltage potentials making it little difficult to arrange.
But to have the plasma generated between 2 quartz glass surfaces without contact with metal would be an ideal situation for ozone generation and use the conductive liquids circulated with some type of chiller for cooling.
Would be hard to put something like that together though.
So stainless steel tubes will have to do for now at least.

Mateo_swe - 18-10-2020 at 05:52

The DIY glykol/water chillers look very interesting.
I have this other CNC-mill project and the spindle is liquid cooled so maybe a DIY glykol/water chiller can be used for both the CNC-mill spindle (with temp setting at maybe 15°C) and i can use the chiller for the ozone generator and other DIY equipment also.
If the temp setting have a wide area, say from 0°C to 20°C it could be used for all kinds of cooling needs.
I will look around locally for a used smaller AC-unit that i can rebuild in the same way they do it in the videos supplied above in this thread.
Thanks for all the ideas.