How to clean/flush & store my secondhand cooler?

[DiscoHobbit]

Hi Guys!

Yesterday i scored a good deal on a secondhand cooler (pic attached) and the guy said he'd emptied it as much as he could and it had been sitting still since 3-4 months. So i already expected some foul stuff to come out. When i flushed tapwater through my girlfriend on the other side of the house even started gagging from the rotten eggs smell. I flushed some 60L of water through, but it still vaguely smells, so i'd like to know what stuff is safe to use to let run through this thing and for how long.

Apart from that, ill only use it for 2 months a year tops, so what is the best way to store it, empty or filled and if filled, filled with what?

 

[griss]

Do you mean chiller? I can’t offer any advice as I’ve never used a chiller despite living in the Midwest US with very hot summer temps.

 

[DiscoHobbit]

Do you mean chiller? I can’t offer any advice as I’ve never used a chiller despite living in the Midwest US with very hot summer temps.

ah yes chiller, my bad

 

[Reefing102]

Yea I can’t help either as I’m upper Midwest. Hopefully some of our southern friends will pop in.

I would imagine running a citric acid mix through it may help with the smell but can’t be sure

 

[BeanAnimal]

a mild bleach solution or white vinegar solution, citric acid, etc. the smell is hydrogen sulfide and likely anaerobic bacteria , it will go away.

 

[DiscoHobbit]

a mild bleach solution or white vinegar solution, citric acid, etc. the smell is hydrogen sulfide and likely anaerobic bacteria , it will go away.

kind of a noob on this, what are the ratios of the mild bleach or vinegar solution?

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Even if it's use is limited, it might be better if it stayed plumbed all year round & turned on when needed.

 

[DiscoHobbit]

wow great advice guys, thanks!

 

[DiscoHobbit]

Even if it's use is limited, it might be better if it stayed plumbed all year round & turned on when needed.

id like that, but i live in the Netherlands in a city (read small appartment), so i dont really have the space to have an ugly chiller year round...

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Small Apartment, I hope you realize how much heat a chiller can pump into a small room.
When I ran one I put it on a shelf next to a window & vented it outside.
It stayed there all year long with water running.

 

[BeanAnimal]

"For my birthday I got a humidifier and a de-humidifier... I put them in the same room and let them fight it out."
-Stephen Wright

 

[DiscoHobbit]

Small Apartment, I hope you realize how much heat a chiller can pump into a small room.
When I ran one I put it on a shelf next to a window & vented it outside.
It stayed there all year long with water running.

I can let it vent outside thats not a problem! So did you plumb it onto your return so it would go through the cooler before going back in the display?

 

[DiscoHobbit]

Look up the manual for your chiller and it should tell you how to clean it.
This is what it says on a random brand I looked up.
Usually it involves back flushing so yo don't push goo deeper inside.

A: Over time, the titanium heat exchanger will accumulatecalcium build up that will impede the cooling process. You mayalso have particulate matter and debris accumulating on theintegrated temperature probe giving inaccurate readings. Werecommend Back flushing the chiller every 6 months.

Step 1

Items needed:

a. 5 gallon bucket

b. 3 gallons fresh water

c. 1gallonofhouseholdvinegar d. Submersiblepump

e. Vinly tubing



Step 2

Add 3 gallons of freshwater and 1 gallon of household vinegar intobucket



Step3

Connect vinly tubing to the submersible pump and other end intothe “OUT” of the chiller

Connect vinly tubing to the “IN” of the chiller and place back into the5 gallon bucket.



Step 4

Let the pump run through the chiller for 1 hour in the oppositedirection. This will help clean the temperature probe as it islocated on the “IN” of the chiller



Step 5

Turn off submersible pump after 1 hour, and discard liquid insidethe bucket. Refill the bucket with

4 gallons of fresh water and run the submersible pump foranother 30 minutes to remove any residual vinegar from thechiller.

i couldnt find anything like this in my manual (hailea hc-300a) but i just did what you recommended. Sadly theres a valve somehwere in the mine, so i cant run in the reverse way.

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

My chiller ran off the return pump - 1st piece inline before the tank.