The mini fridge chiller

Has anyone built a working mini fridge chiller? I've thought about it several times and just read an article that says it can't work. I don't see why it wouldn't work, so I would like to hear some personal a counts of it if there are any.

 

Not a personal account Mike, but theres a guy on Ebay that converts small window unit air conditioners into chillers. He plumbs them to pass water through the a/c then return back to tank.......basically the same principle. No bells and wistles & they sure aren't pretty, but are rated above 1/2hp? Black paint & I think he has a like a 90 day guarantee for $350. Its a "buyitnow" auction but I'm sure you can get it down right below $300 possibly. I'd buy one before I forked out $800, for sure!!

 

the only problem with them is that most times water runs thru copper pipes

 

mike if you come up with one that cools the tanks water and will still keep beer cold, i want one.

 

I made one that runs A LOT ( like completely packed full) of airline tubing in the fridge part and it keeps my 90 gal at 80F in 85F conditions. you can kinda ghetto rig it to work with an RKL. If you have any more questions feel free to ask

 

I would coil tubing inside the refrigerator compartment. Tank water would never touch any part of the fridge.

I was thinking about leaving enough room in the fridge to store frozen food.

That sounds like what I was thinking. How do you control it. I was thinking about putting the pump that runs water through it on a controller so the fridge stays cold inside and when the tank gets hot the pump will kick on sending just enough cold water into the sump to cool it back down. This will give more exposure time for the water to cool as it sits in the fridge, should save money by not re-cooling the fridge every time it comes on and will allow me to keep cold food in it.

Do you have any pictures?

 

in on vacations right now so no pictures at the time... but i just run it thru a rio 150 with a gate valve 3/4 of the way open and it holds my temp constant... i think im just lucky that my outside the tank temp/lights dont vary it too much

 

HMmmm.....one tap for beer, the other for cold water??? ;D

 

If you had a keg-a-rator or have ever built one the principle behind this wouldn't really be at all different. It would be very effective especially if you had an old mini-fridge laying around.

I think that mikejrice has the right idea with his plan. I would probably put a holding tank inside though, instead of a bunch of tubing (cheaper perhaps?). It would sort of function as a hot water heater does.

 

To do this you could use a temp controler and a servo to do this.

Bill