DIY DWC chiller

[highly intoxicated]

Hello everyone,

First post here...

Currently have 400W HPS cool tube in a 32" x 32" x 63" with soil in smart pots. Ventilation setup is as follows: carbon filter outside of tent with 6" inline blower attached sucking air from room thru filter. Then a 6" "Y" pipe. One leg has a wood stove damper. Most of the air flow goes right through the cool tube and directly outdoors with all that HID heat. Some of the air flow is diverted through the damper and into a humidification box I built with an ultrasonic pond fogger and then finally into the tent all thru 6" hose. This pressurizes the tent and inflates it slightly but no big deal. I have (2) 4" hoses to let the pressure/air flow out of the tent. It's working well for now but I envision some changes once I get this tent upgraded to the Mars Hydro 600W LED and no longer have to worry about so much heat in the tent. This is all contained in a spare bedroom with a Window AC set to 70°F. High temp in the tent is 84°F


Have ordered a 24" x 24" x 48" tent and Mars Hydro 300w LED for vegging, cloning, and mother storage.

Original intent was just to grow from seed but realizing I am having a hard time keeping up with my medicinal needs is making me want to add the second tent and get into cloning.

I have been all over the internet trying to learn what's the best setup for me. I LOVE everything this guy says on youtube (watch?v=vXKarPRyPCM) [sorry, i am not allowed to post links yet] but I do not like the idea of an ebb and flow table so I am heading in the direction of a do-it-yourself DWC rig for both tents.

So anyway (after all this rambling) to my complete NOOB brain, I believe I have everything more or less figured out except how to keep the DWC bucket chilled. Trying to come up with a very inexpensive chilling solution. My current idea is to make a short duct attached to the cold air output on my window AC. This duct would have several loops of copper or pex (maybe even a small heater core from a car?) which has a constant supply of cold air blown over it... This copper or pex would form a closed loop system with it's own pump through the DWC water and back to the AC duct - thereby cooling the DWC bucket via the AC unit I am already paying to run...

Just harvested my second grow ever and it's OK but there is a lot of room for improvement at the moment.

Any and all input is welcome. I am very new to all of this. The one thing I do know is that growing indoors is just like owning a boat - there is always a bigger, better setup just begging for me to spend more money!

[Ye Old Pioneer]

Just keep 3 pop bottles in the freezer n pop one in the res itl bring the temps right down its what I been doing, just swap it daily when u check ur ec n ph levels

Other way would be to 1) buy a peltier unit n run a water cooling block off a pc.
2) get a 240mm radiator again off a pc n put it inside a cooler box drill 2 holes for ur inlet n outlet of water from the box n radiator I figure (am looking for a cheap cooler to try it on) as the water Is pumped from the res to the radiator inside the box and passes over the cold fins obviously it cools pretty quick then goes straight back to the bucket.

When I find one il do a quick experiment to see if it works

[highly intoxicated]

Good ideas - thank you!

I actually came across video of those Peltier devices. It was supposedly keeping the gentleman's res at about 54°F which would be great but it does seem a little too good to be true...

[BritishBotanics]

Look on eBay as often as possible you can find them cheap

[devinrayolsen]

I actually lucked out and found a 1/4 HP ($500+) water chiller on offerup for 200$ here in Portland OR. Always ALWAYS check these kind of apps first before going new.
If you are happy with running back and forth with dropping in frozen bottles, then I would stick with that. However for a fully automated system I invested in a chiller, heating rod and InkBird thermostat controller; ran a heating rod and chiller to the inkbird and dropped the thermometer in the water and vola perfect water temps. This allows me to grow all year long on cold garage floors and do so automatically.