Will this work as a water chiller?

[Pieter Swart]

Hey Guys,

I am curious about this. I was browsing my local Homey Depot and came across this:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Chiller-D...t_rid=46160687

Will this work as a water chiller as a replacement for a cw5000?

Just curious, if it can, then it might be a suitable "lower cost " water chiller?
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Would this be suitable for an 80 - 100 w machine? I am curious, for future reference... again, just curious...

[Pieter Swart]

Well I think I answered my own question... no pump on this unit... so probably not... unless you add a pump I suppose

[Kev Williams]

Not sure how the 1.32 gallon per HOUR of 'cold water output' would work either, just wondering if it can keep 2 gallons of circulating water 65° while heating it with the laser at the same...

[Bert McMahan]

I don't think it will. I assume it uses a standard refrigerant system that's not crazy efficient.

I use an AACH25 chiller on my 80W laser and it works fine for long vector runs (an hour or so). It's rated at 1/4 HP of cooling capacity. It's technically on the low end of what I really need, but I keep an eye on things and run my laser in a cool indoor room, so it seems to work OK.

I don't see the specifications on cooling power for the Home Depot chiller but we can make some educated guesses. My AACH25 is rated at 460 W of actual power draw. The Home Depot one is rated at 140 W. Assuming that they both use basically the same technology (i.e., refrigerant pumps), then we can assume that their chilling capacity scales roughly to their power draw. The AACH draws about 3.29x the power of the Home Depot unit, so we can assume it has about 3.29x the cooling capacity.

That will almost certainly not be even close to chilling an 80W laser, and certainly not a 100W laser.

(Note that most chillers include pumps; I used the AACH25 as a reference as it specifically does NOT have a pump)

[Keith Downing]

Don't forget, half the benefit of the high end water chiller is the peace of mind you get from the temperature reading on the front as well as the flow monitor/alarm. Those are a lot of what make it worth the money IMO; and I don't think this has either.

[Jeff Body]

I don't think it will. I assume it uses a standard refrigerant system that's not crazy efficient.

I use an AACH25 chiller on my 80W laser and it works fine for long vector runs (an hour or so). It's rated at 1/4 HP of cooling capacity. It's technically on the low end of what I really need, but I keep an eye on things and run my laser in a cool indoor room, so it seems to work OK.

I don't see the specifications on cooling power for the Home Depot chiller but we can make some educated guesses. My AACH25 is rated at 460 W of actual power draw. The Home Depot one is rated at 140 W. Assuming that they both use basically the same technology (i.e., refrigerant pumps), then we can assume that their chilling capacity scales roughly to their power draw. The AACH draws about 3.29x the power of the Home Depot unit, so we can assume it has about 3.29x the cooling capacity.

That will almost certainly not be even close to chilling an 80W laser, and certainly not a 100W laser.

(Note that most chillers include pumps; I used the AACH25 as a reference as it specifically does NOT have a pump)

I use the AACH25 chiller for my 60W setup. It actually has the same BTUs as the CW5000 chiller.
I simple run a 5 gallon bucket with a large aquarium pump. I've been engraving for the last 3 hours and it's holding 17*C rock solid.

[Pieter Swart]

Yeah I thought not..

Like I said, I was curious...

I have no Hvac experience, so walking by this unit on the shelf I said "hey let me ask for your thoughts"

[Bill George]

I just ordered this one to go with my new 40 Watt machine, pump and all designed for laser use no bucket required and about the same price on Sale > lightobject.com/Lightobject-600W-Mini-Water-Chiller

[Doug Fisher]

At that price, that unit looks like it could be a good value purchase.

[Sam Rodriguez]

I used a Ice cube maker purchased from Sams club. 125.00 then I bought some digital gages 3 to be exact ebay 12.00 each and 1 relay system, and a flow gage with flow meter 15.00 and then 1 pump. my laser is a 90w.
I live in florida where its darn hot... my system works like a charm in fact it works too good. Ill have tpo post up some pics. I think in all I have maybe 200 in it?

chillers are darn expensive. this is why I built my own.

Quick web page throw together.... http://www.hyperlinks.net/laser-chil...e-chiller-pt1/

-Sam

[Pieter Swart]

Hey Sam,

Could you contact me via PM?

I used a Ice cube maker purchased from Sams club. 125.00 then I bought some digital gages 3 to be exact ebay 12.00 each and 1 relay system, and a flow gage with flow meter 15.00 and then 1 pump. my laser is a 90w.
I live in florida where its darn hot... my system works like a charm in fact it works too good. Ill have tpo post up some pics. I think in all I have maybe 200 in it?

chillers are darn expensive. this is why I built my own.

Quick web page throw together.... http://www.hyperlinks.net/laser-chil...e-chiller-pt1/

-Sam

[Sam Rodriguez]

PM sent

[Jerome Stanek]

Sam could you post a how to build it

[Sam Rodriguez]

Sam could you post a how to build it

Jerome, as with a lot of my projects I spend more time building, Than recording. I try to take pics while Im doing things but time does often get the best of me.
The project is quite simple though. Ill go take more pics and throw up a how to. the only catch is I don't have a spare ice cube maker to show before and afters etc...
In truth I don't think it would matter much or which ice maker you selected. The concept would be the same.

Most of these ice makers have: 1: a Refrigerant based cooling system, plus something to monitor/manage the refrigerant pump. Then a liquid pump to move the water, and then some mechanism to dump the cubes. and of course off/on switches fans etc..

1: I re wired the ice cube machine to turn off and on when I wanted it to.
2: I bypassed any logic boards controlling the cube management. their still in the machine but disconnected.
3: I added a higher velocity fan.
4: I also by-passed the internal liquid pump.
5: I added my own liquid feed tube to dump the coolant in right from the top of the cube maker. (drill hole in top of machine pass hose thru)
5a: the liquid (right from the entry hose) feeds into a manifold of sorts. so as to cause the liquid to drain right over the coolant rods. thus cooling the liquid immediately.
Then draining into the lower sump (now cooled) to be picked up by the pump and sent out to the C02 tube.
6: Need to build and install the liquid manifold into the ice maker.
7: install a sump pump in the lower sump area. (drill hole in cover for hose entry/exit option I guess)this is the main pump circulating the coolant
8: deal with wiring the unit to turn off and on using an external temperature controller. I bought a cheap eBay unit less than 20.00
9: invent your own hose/pluming route for your machine. I opted for 100% silicone hose. several reasons. 1 its damn flexible. 2: its easy on the connectors.3: its thick as heck possibly adding some thermal insulation to the system.4: it stays soft forever. (un-like vinyl).

Thats pretty much it . Again Ill try to put something together.
-Sam