Inexpensive Chillers

totalbiz · May 19, 2020

Hello,

Does anyone have any experience with the small 70 and 100W chillers that are on ebay? They are probably made in China, but it says they ship from Texas. They are only $100. They call them "cooling machines", which seems kind of strange if they sell to aquarium people. Thanks.

andrewkw · May 19, 2020

While I have no experience with these low wattage chillers, I would speculate you can achieve similar, perhaps even better results with fans and evaporative cooling. You could do an inkbird and a couple of fans for less then $100 most likely. Of course this will increase top off needs and probably humidity.

jda · May 19, 2020

Check and make sure that they are really chillers... compressor, evaporator, condenser and all of that. Some of these just use heat sink and fans.

Before you do any of this, just see if a fan will work. Turn it on when the lights come on, or when the day starts to get hot... do not use a temp controller and wait until the tank gets warm or else you will already be behind and likely never catch up. Get a good fan like a Vornado, Honeywell or somethings made for a room - computer fans are like throwing a baseball at a city bus compared to these.

The best place that I have found to get an actual good chiller at a good price is used from a local club, craigslist or marketplace. Just make sure that it is working. Unfortunately, December is a better time to get them.

r20crazy · May 19, 2020

they are just fans and heat sinks... and rust or fail. most are made with copper piping for fw use. if its a small tank look for either evap cooling (like stated in post above) or an iceprobe (fancy fan/heatsink that works well for nano) on an inkbird controller (the iceprobe controller isn't necessary). another option is to do a reverse light cycle until fall.... (aka lights on say 8pm.... off 5am when ambient temp is cooler) for emergency have a few half liter or liter frozen water bottles you can float (with cap on) in tank one at a time, then re-freeze if someone is around to do that