TEC water chiller

[cdawall]

this is more of a concept that i plan on building for fun

specs to be
4x~70w tecs
4x copper coolers
4x tower coolers (AMD heatpipe HSF for initial testing)
1x styrofoam cooler
4x barbs






the copper coolers need to get turned or the barbs need to be swapped but this is my initial CAD drawing its unrendered just exported as a JPEG any suggestions ideas?

here is with 120mm tower coolers they wont fit thats why i voted 92mm ones





changed spacing now they fit but barely 130w TECs?





fan spacing is good for 25mm fans (i'm lazy no blades and netbook doesnt have piping so heatpipes aren't connected)

[Ultrasonic2]

Hi here

i have no doubt the basic idea will work HOWEVER

air coolers are NOT an efficient means to transfer heat into water

It will work far better if you put proper water blocks on each side of the TEC

If you use older water blocks it will probably be cheaper / the same as the above but perform FAR better and be simpler and smaller

[QuadDamage]

what he said. I'd slap MCW60's or something similar on all TEC's and run them on a separate loop. Sounds ghetto with additional loop but i'm fairly sure the end result will be much better.

If i were you i'd use more powerful TEC's. 4x226W

[cdawall]

now with water blocks on both sides and larger 226w tec wont I be looking at condensation probems? And running it straight into a waterblock from the loop do I have a possibility of the loop freezing on me?

[flak-spammer]

Water has a high heat capacity it would require thousands of watts to instantly cool water to below freezing, so you don't have much to worry about freezing water, plus it's moving. However there is a possibility you could get it low enough that condensation could be a problem.

[Ultrasonic2]

The acrylic case you were going to put it in WILL conduct heat (like glass does) and therefor you will get condensation on the out side of the enclosure sooo you would need to insulate it anyways .. so you might as well insulate the water blocks

[cdawall]

not acrylic walmart foam cooler set it to clear in CAD so you could see the guts of it

[Ultrasonic2]

not acrylic walmart foam cooler set it to clear in CAD so you could see the guts of it

Oh right ..

Well it's still easy enough to rap the waterblocks up in some foam or put them in a small box

[cdawall]

Oh right ..

Well it's still easy enough to rap the waterblocks up in some foam or put them in a small box

but but but i wanna do something that hasn't been done dozens of times

[cdawall]

will some old school maze4 GPU blocks suffice for this while heat transfer shebang?

[Ultrasonic2]

should be

[npk]

Looking at your drawings it seems like the tecs are located onto the reservoir´s top, am I right? that´s very bad for heat transfer.

[cdawall]

They are sittin on top of a piece of copper

[zipdogso]

At first all I can say is the coolers with fans that are on the TEC hotsides should not be enclosed in the foam box.

on second thoughts they are not are they...it's just your drawing, right?

[cdawall]

I plan on putting holes for the 120mm fans in the foam

[NaeKuh]

Wait why wont it work?

If he uses 4 Medium size tecs... im sure he could get some good cooling.

And those heat sinks... they could easily do about 200 for decient sinks.. and 250 for a TRUE, so he has enough cooling on his hot side.

So im lost... why wont it work?

[Ultrasonic2]

Wait why wont it work?

If he uses 4 Medium size tecs... im sure he could get some good cooling.

And those heat sinks... they could easily do about 200 for decient sinks.. and 250 for a TRUE, so he has enough cooling on his hot side.

So im lost... why wont it work?

no one is saying it wont work .. everyone is saying it's not an efficient ways of doing it and a water to water chiller would be WAY better

[Elloquin]

@ OP
I of all people am all for experimentation lol. Besides it's fun. Depending on how much you plan on potentially investing/wasting into this it is up to you what to try. I will say I like the design so far. Question is really how much "chill" are you looking for and what are you trying to cool? I would do it just to disprove the naysayers I'll tell you this since you are using a cooler for this and just an idea to throw out there for you. You could add another copper plate on top of the coolers with holes drilled for the tops of the heat pipes and seal the edges of the plate. Then in times when you are trying to do anything extreme you could throw some dry ice on top and close the cooler. I believe heat pipes freeze at some point and would need to look it up but I have a feeling everything would freeze up

[NaeKuh]

no one is saying it wont work .. everyone is saying it's not an efficient ways of doing it and a water to water chiller would be WAY better

of course.. cuz the heat capacity in water.

Funny thing is if he did 4 true;s it would probably end up costing the same.

CDA have u considered just submerging the hotside with sinks completely and using a fish tank pump like a rio internally to feed to a rad?

[cdawall]

Haven't considered that but will look into it.

Also for my coolers going to try this out just using amd heatpipe coolers they should suffice for 70w tecs

[BeepBeep2]

Haven't considered that but will look into it.

Also for my coolers going to try this out just using amd heatpipe coolers they should suffice for 70w tecs

Remember if any of your coolers are Heatpipe Direct-Touch you are going to need a copper cold/hot plate between the TEC's and the base of the cooler.

[TJ TRICHEESE]

Remember if any of your coolers are Heatpipe Direct-Touch you are going to need a copper cold/hot plate between the TEC's and the base of the cooler.

depending on how flat the heatpipes are to the base but ill go with your statement as i don't know what the amd heatpipe hsf's look like

[zipdogso]

Unless your heatpipes are specially designed as low temp models ( I have some that go down to -40ºC.) they can freeze and stop working.
Generally most run of the mill heatpipes only go down to +5ºC.

[cdawall]

The heatpipes would be on the hot side so temps shouldn't bother them