1/10HP Chiller Suggestions

[shiveley]

I'm in the market for a 1/10HP Chiller (because that's about as much chiller as I can afford right now). Does anyone have any recommendations, suggestions, or comments with regard to these?

Listed below are some of the chillers that seem to fit into my price range. I have no previous experience with chillers, and it looks as though I might be needing one in the very near future; so your feedback will be extremely helpful.

Sea Line SL-150A 1/10HP
Pacific Coast GenX CL-280 1/10HP
Current USA Prime Inline 1/10HP
Aqua Euro AC-10 1/10HP
JBJ Arctica Titanium DBA-075 1/10HP
Coralife Aqua Chill 1/10 HP

Thanks for your help!

 

[MrMikeB]

Have you tried a fan? I am amazed on how much heat displacement I get with a simple fan on the sump.

 

[bsaastad]

fwiw, I've been running the Arctica DBA-075 for several years now and have been quite happy with it. Good temp pull down and pretty quiet. Don't know how it compares with the others as it's the only chiller I've owned.

 

[schrun209]

I also run the arctica but I have the 1/4 horse version, mine too is pretty quite and pulls down temp pretty fast, but I guess that all depends on your ambient temperature and how many gallons your cooling. It's my first chiller and so far I've been really happy with it.

 

[Nuuze]

JBJ 1/10 here too...

Quite but like most chillers will warm up the roo quite a bit when its on. Right now my chiller comes on 2-3 times a day for an hour or so.

 

[Pico1]

The Current USA seems to be the best after all the reasearch I've done. It has the same BTU (1500) as the tradewinds 1/5 HP and is higer than all other 1/10 HP chillers out. It also has a rear cord and controls a heater up to 300W. It's a great deal for $340 shipped from fostersmith.com. I'm ordering mine this weekend from them. I called current-USA and told them I have a 90G tank with halides and 1 degree rise every hour with the lights on and they said their 1/10 should only be on 15-20 minutes every hour with the lights on. I'll let you know how I like it once I get mine next week.

 

[shiveley]

I thought I read that the UV and heater ports were not available on 1/10th HP Current USA chiller.

Oh, I get it now, "Integrated Dual Stage Thermostat: controls both the chiller and an external heater up to 300 watts (heater not included)."

 

[Pico1]

Yes, I think the chiller has a special outlet for you to plug your heater into and it controlls both.

 

[shiveley]

The fine folks at Red Sea sent me a "cooling fan" for the Red Sea Max (Now that, my friends, is good customer service!). I'll hook that up tonight to see how it works. Based upon what I've been told, and what I've read here, it should do the trick.

 

[shiveley]

well, the additional cooling fan seems to have done the trick, but I guess I won't know for sure until the weather heats up again. But it did drop from a range of 82.5-83.5 to 78.6-80.6, so there is improvement.

 

[plankton]

Evaporative cooling should do the trick. Do you have an auto-top off on your 75G?

 

[dots]

I see a lot of people on here very often suggest fans and speak of evaporative cooling, which works don't get me wrong.......but a chiller man, soooo sweet especially if the exaust is plumbed out side of the room.

But seriously, I have one of the least recommended chillers that I got used from a buddy just to try out and am sold on them, even to the point of deeming it "mandatory".......whats one of the first things you buy?......a heater, correct? Why not control both ends of the spectrum?

Granted, this is an expensive hobby and we can't always get what we want, when we want it.....but IMO evaporative cooling, though proven, is based on the ambient air temp/humitidy and therefor performance can/does vary daily.

Considering the money invested in livestock, even more so for SPSers like myself where the degree of error is already small.......there is just nothing else that can give me piece of mind.

I tried cooling with the AC two summers ago and though effective also a really big pain to deal with and still was sketchy at times.

If you have or are considering colored sticks, (but temp stability helps all types), have halides, and want a little piece of mind.......I would really consider finding one.....even a cheap one like my Via Aqua Polar Bear type......seen here as example not recommendation on supplier and I have seen them a low as $350. This is the importer/supplier and they seem to be on average double.

http://www.commodityaxis.com/ProductData.aspx?id=62

Granted, the suckers can be expensive.......but IMO oh so worth it and a piece of mind.

In an inquiry Marko9 made a couple of months back, most around here do not have them.........it is primarily due to your livestock and lighting choices that differ from my needs? Or a bugetary consideration........or you just hadn't seen how well one works and can't justify the cost?

I have had excellent results using my el cheapo and would just like to recommend to any considering one, but still on the fence.....worth the money......

When you do buy the biggest you can afford to be used in a potential upgrade and not have to run all day to keep up with the heat and in the end last longer.

I myself may need to get another, it seems to be running more and more lately......hopefully just needs a good cleaning.....

 

[plankton]

Chillers are not only expensive to buy but expensive to run, since they use a heck of alot of current to drive those heat pumps. So, in addition to paying for the electricity you need to make sure your AC circuits can provide the needed current. I believe my 1/3HP aqualogic chiller uses 7+ amps at run-time.

Also, if you don't look at heat management of your tank and room in which the tank is housed and rely solely on the chiller maintaining the temp of your tank you might be surprised by a cooked tank one day if the chiller (or controller) fails on you.

Some use chillers as the last step in a temp management system where the house AC is the first method of maintaining temp since we humans enjoy reasonable temps as well, then fans, then chiller, then shutting off of heat-generating halides assuming they are still on if heat is still too high as the last straw. So, the chiller then becomes a bit of insurance that hopefully never has to be used.

shiveley - a used 1/5HP chiller could prolly pull down your 75G 10 deg F rather easily. Of course depends on how much heat you are putting into the tank, ambient temp and all that. I've seen used 1/5 chillers for as low as $300. Aqualogic has always been my favorite because of quality, but I've heard very good things about Arctica.

PS If you don't have your fans (or other devices) on a temp controller [e.g. Renco - spelling?) then I'd highly recommend doing so since there are many variables to how much time you'd need to run the fans to drive temp down. Alot easier to run fans until tank temp drops below a threashold.

Scott

 

[Justin74]

My concern is the money it will take to run a chiller. Last year I relied very heavily on the house's AC to help keep the tank at it's threshold. That was a very expenisive mistake. Not only does my AC sux monkey butt and doesnt keep my house cooler than 80 degrees durring 100+ weather, but has to run all morning and night to even do that. The results were energy bills in excess of $400+ month. Then due to my not paying attention how fast the bill was climbing and paying it accordingly they shut me off! And many of you may remember me crying in my beer last year after reducing all my sps to 1/3 there original sizes and taking some heavy hits on the fish I was keeping at the time. Point is, dont wanna go that rout again!

So, my attack plan this year was to run fans all day long throughout the house which I now have over 5 stratigically placed and during that time when needed then the chiller could kick on, and I myself will only use the AC when I get home from work. Or, is thing going to suck up as much energy as my AC unit? I would assume not, as my needs are for the smaller 1/10hp size, any input?

-Justin

 

[dots]

I see that cost of the hobby is a major drive for people when selecting equipment.

Its interesting to see the ways people work within thier bugets to acomplish what they do. But I admit, I have few other responsibilities and this is "therapy" for me.....so I rationalize my therapy shouldn't cause me undo stress.

As I have said, and I think we all can agree that SPS has a smaller degree of error and this is how I justify the cost and gear most of my methodology on.....if it gets too much, time for me to take up crosswords or hopscotch....its this fear of loss that keeps me vigilant........but recently I have been a little lax and am paying for it now!!!!

I have found that if you try to push the limits....sooner or later your going to loose so I try to play it safe. I have a few pieces that I really treasure and were hard and expensive to obtain so I suppose again its just a drop in the bucket and the "cost of doing business" buying stuff like a chiller and paying for the electricity.

As far as failure of equipment......replace it before the service life is up.

However, I try not to let the house get overly hot during the summer but don't rely on it. I think if one designs a system with effiencies like this and oversizes items like a chiller and pay a little more for a larger one, it will be running less often but when it does is very effient and is running shorter times.

I find chillers an invaluable piece of hardware to have, just like the right lighting.

Justin, it has been found to set your AC at a moderate temp and leave it there, rather yo-yo it. It costs more for the unit (home) to bring down a high temp and keep turning it up and down.....68 or 72 degrees I think it was. Its hard to quanitfy your savings out right with so many variables to consider. You may be able to model a "guess" in Excel, but would need to purchase a unit and play with it a little to be sure.

I often joke its colder in Sac in the summer rather the winter since everybody has thier AC set way low.

I think solar cells would be a great way to power our tanks......

 

[Justin74]

My problem really, is I dont own this house And my landlord is too tight to do anything about the poor living conditions here. Which reminds me I need to focus on my renters rights and make sure Im not being douped like I feel I am. I fought tooth and nail and after 2 and half years finally got a dual paned window to replace the one that had 1/4-1/2 inch gaps that the previous owner let ivy travel up the house into the window seal! And this is a 4x8' front window, and the sad thing is this is but one window out 5 and 2 sliding glass doors that need replacing which makes the suggested 78 rule not applicable(72 for winter months dot, btw trust me after living in this house for over 6 years I am very familiar with the most efficient ways to run an ac unit, but again is just not applicable with this particular house); not to mention the fact that I have to use a unit that was built with the house from the early 70's, which every tech Ive called out to alleviate my woes say its just too small for the house. I would expect these conditions in a slum, but I live in a decent neighborhood. Just makes me bitter, and am in a money trap as it is so every penny I can save to enjoy what I do is worth it. Unfortunately I dont have inexhaustable resources and cant afford to light my tank like a NASA control tower, nor can I keep my house at 76 like I like, so some are forced to take chances for a piece of heaven but we do what we can do I guess.


-Justin

 

[kevin95695]

Wow. Heavy. Touching on some of the deepest aspects of being a reef geek. Things I contemplated in my own addiction, only at a much cruder level.

So what's the best 1/10th hp chiller?

 

[plankton]

-dots - "I think solar cells would be a great way to power our tanks......"

Funny you mention that. I bought a 55W solar panel, solar charge controller, 18ah battery and true sine wave inverter. [Note - pumps run MUCH quieter on true-sine wave inverters then square wave and even house AC] After all the calculations I _think_ I can run a single Seio 1500 24x7 'off the grid' and it only cost me $400 in start-up costs. VBG

Seio 1500 - 34W
Inverter - 7W overhead (no load - stupid fan)
Total load = 41W (3.3A at 12.3 VDC)

But, sun only shines half the day during summer time, I loose some electricity from wiring, so I might make it. Will start collecting current measurements from solar panel over time to see how many amp hours I can really drive in 1 day.

-Justin - Sorry, to hear about your current challenges.

- kevin95695 - I don't have any reviews to refer to, but a typical 1/10 HP chiller is rated for about 1200 BTU or 10 deg pull on a 80G tank (that is the max pull-down with no limit on how long the chiller runs and with no halides on it etc). For a 75G+ tank I would seriously consider a larger chiller 1/5HP+. Favorite chiller manufactures from friends are : AquaLogic, Arctica and Pacific Coast. Some threads have reported problems with Prime chillers, but don't know if that was isolated or not.

Don't forget chillers use lots of electricity and produce lots of heat so vent well.

 

[dots]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9927868#post9927868 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kevin95695
Wow. Heavy. Touching on some of the deepest aspects of being a reef geek. Things I contemplated in my own addiction, only at a much cruder level.

The decisions you make in life, for instance: to buy a chiller or not, is based on your value system. Because we only see things from one point of view, our own, we often overlook that others may or may not value the same things.

I value my stupid little colored sticks to the point to where I try to ensure my success as much as possible and don't think twice about expenses like a chiller......when pondering why people wouldn't as well, I thought they might have a different value structure and am quite interested in peoples motivations for the hobby........amazingly as I have found they vary greatly........as you see my "nerdom" reaches farther than just being a "fishnerd".:rollface:

I completly understand where you are comming from Justin. I too am in an apartment with single pane windows that resemble the old Lego windows I played with as a child. I admit I spend more than I should and a family man like yourself has greater responsibilites than a box of water, which is exactly what I am speaking of.

 

[Justin74]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9929137#post9929137 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dots
family man like yourself has greater responsibilites than a box of water, which is exactly what I am speaking of.

Ya, like trying to keep my house clean so Im not embarrased when my fishnerd buddies come over A house with 5 females, youd think I'd be the pigpen....Who knew?!:lol2:

-Justin