My Chiller Setup **Lots of pictures**
- Thread starter ReefRelated
- Start date
ReefRelated
Moved On
Nice job and good idea for the cap tube. Looks like my vise in the garage from us using it to solder with also 
electric130
Active member
anybody willing to come to charlotte, NC and build one of these for me? i don't have the money just yet, but i'm definitely going to do some sort of a chiller.
ReefRelated
Moved On
The copper gaskets we had were a little wider than what you have there. They looked more like washers. Those may work fine. Please post a pic of the cap tube side. I would like to see how that turned out. I like your idea for that.
electric130
Active member
tony, to avoid freezing up the water jacket, how about installing a liquid flow sensor on the water line feeding the chiller. the sensor would control a relay that would connect/disconnect power to the chiller. with water flowing, the main power relay would be energized and power would flow across contacts and power the chiller. if water flow stops, the relay would de-energize and remove power to the chiller. this would in no way affect the temp controller how you have it wired.
i used to work for a company that maintained public pools. all of the pools had automatic chemical dosers on them. they had a flow sensor installed on the main return line from the pumps and filters. if the pumps weren't running, the flow sensor would prevent chemicals from being dosed.
you might be able to adapt the following to fit your needs:
http://www.overclockers.com/tips642/
something similar to this is what they used on the pools. i can't remember the name of the company of the equipment. i don' t know how much these are either:
http://www.palladiumtechs.com/Product Data Sheets/Water Flow Sensor.pdf
or maybe this one:
http://www.flowmeterdirectory.co.uk/links/jlcinternational.html
i used to work for a company that maintained public pools. all of the pools had automatic chemical dosers on them. they had a flow sensor installed on the main return line from the pumps and filters. if the pumps weren't running, the flow sensor would prevent chemicals from being dosed.
you might be able to adapt the following to fit your needs:
http://www.overclockers.com/tips642/
something similar to this is what they used on the pools. i can't remember the name of the company of the equipment. i don' t know how much these are either:
http://www.palladiumtechs.com/Product Data Sheets/Water Flow Sensor.pdf
or maybe this one:
http://www.flowmeterdirectory.co.uk/links/jlcinternational.html
electric130
Active member
Re: Salt water and calcium
Re: Salt water and calcium
good point. and if it did, i'm sure you'd have to clean it so much that it would quickly become a serious PITA. oh well, i tried. i'll go back to giving advice on lighting and other electrical stuff. at least i have half a clue about that stuff. i'm in over my head with this AC stuff.
Re: Salt water and calcium
RGibson said:
good point. and if it did, i'm sure you'd have to clean it so much that it would quickly become a serious PITA. oh well, i tried. i'll go back to giving advice on lighting and other electrical stuff. at least i have half a clue about that stuff. i'm in over my head with this AC stuff.
ReefRelated
Moved On
robthorn said:
I thought you already said that Rob?
BTW That carbon should be here any minute. I am leaving saturday, so if you want some before I leave you'll have to get with me by friday. Ooops I hear the UPS man now. It's here.
ReefRelated
Moved On
I got the carbon and it is in a bag, not a bucket. Of course they charged me for the bucket and not the bag ($20.00 more). I prefer the bag because it's so much cheaper. They said they don't send bags unless you buy at least 10. I just called them and he is going to credit my card the difference. Awsome baby! The total now is $136.90 instead of $156.40. I am going to weigh it right now. Call me when you get a chance.
AcroSteve
Make my Funk a P-Funk
Tony, Here is the Cap Tube side.
Doing a pressure test tonight with nitrogen.
Tried to pull a vacuum last night and it did not hold. I hope it was due to residual freon left in the system that did not vaporize. The system was only open for about 15 minutes before I pulled a vacuum for about 35 minutes.
It was getting late, so I just shut the pump and the valves off.
I will probably pull another vacuum first. The easiest way might be to use the sniffer, but then I would be poking holes in the ozone - not to mention the waste of freon If I had a leak.
Doing a pressure test tonight with nitrogen.
Tried to pull a vacuum last night and it did not hold. I hope it was due to residual freon left in the system that did not vaporize. The system was only open for about 15 minutes before I pulled a vacuum for about 35 minutes.
It was getting late, so I just shut the pump and the valves off.
I will probably pull another vacuum first. The easiest way might be to use the sniffer, but then I would be poking holes in the ozone - not to mention the waste of freon If I had a leak.
stranglehold you have to use large wrenches and all the muscle you have to get it to seal. I can't open the pictures here in the cafeteria at work so I have no clue what your pieces look like. You really have to mash that copper washer. If you took it back apart you should see some serious marks in the washer. I took one back apart and used a new washer one time I just didn't have enough butt to get it to seal. There appeared to be no damage whatsoever to the titanium. The new washer sealed it right up though with 2 18" pipe wrenches and lots of grunting.
ReefRelated
Moved On
Nice fittings you made there. Like Rob said...lots of muscle. We took turns on mine wrenching it. You may think your gonna break it but it does take a lot of muscle. It would be a total bumber if you snapped the flared part of the titanium off. The first time we did this, we tried it without those copper seals and of course we didn't get it to seal even after some serious wrenching. When we took it back apart to put the seals in there we looked at the flared titanium to see if we had marked it up. There was no sign of damage. It didn't even mark it.
AcroSteve
Make my Funk a P-Funk
I am almost there!!!
I found a leak. I should have known something was leaking when I could only get 25" of vacuum. Well now I am tesing it at 29" to see if it is holding.
What went wrong?
Those washers I got were not the same. I bought 4 of them and only one of them worked. The one that worked, did not interfer with the nut when I threaded it onto the fitting. The three that did not work could be felt interfering with the nut as it was threaded on. I thought that it would mash and seal OK but here is a picture of one of them.
I found a leak. I should have known something was leaking when I could only get 25" of vacuum. Well now I am tesing it at 29" to see if it is holding.
What went wrong?
Those washers I got were not the same. I bought 4 of them and only one of them worked. The one that worked, did not interfer with the nut when I threaded it onto the fitting. The three that did not work could be felt interfering with the nut as it was threaded on. I thought that it would mash and seal OK but here is a picture of one of them.
AcroSteve
Make my Funk a P-Funk
The first one was actually cut in half.
My solution was to go through some left over parts from when I re-built the engine in my Toyota. There were several copper and alluminum washers from the fuel system that I did not use.
I chose one of the copper ones and it worked just fine. Probably metric - so it ws slightly smaller. The alluminum might have been a better choice as it would be softer still.
I think the mfg tolerances on these washer is why some worked and some did not.
Anyway, should add some freon tonight and then check tomorrow with my leak detector and then top off the charge.
This just puts me 1 day behind my estimate.
My solution was to go through some left over parts from when I re-built the engine in my Toyota. There were several copper and alluminum washers from the fuel system that I did not use.
I chose one of the copper ones and it worked just fine. Probably metric - so it ws slightly smaller. The alluminum might have been a better choice as it would be softer still.
I think the mfg tolerances on these washer is why some worked and some did not.
Anyway, should add some freon tonight and then check tomorrow with my leak detector and then top off the charge.
This just puts me 1 day behind my estimate.
AcroSteve
Make my Funk a P-Funk
Robthorn, I am humbly asking for some guidance here. I would rather not lock up this compressor as I did to my heat pump once while following some information given to my by a questionable HVAC contractor. I did end up with a very nice Trane 12XL. But that is a long story so here goes what is relevant.
I have a 12oz charge in the system and my data is
High side 170 psi
Suction 38-45 psi not very steady.
Water inlet temp of 82
Temp drop of water in the chiller 2 degrees
Suction line temp 62
Ambient outside temp 73
Tank temp dropped 2 degrees in 40 minutes
My chart shows a superheat of about 28 degrees - but that is based on 400cfm/ton airflow. How does that relate to my waterflow of 1000 gph?
I imagine all of my "indoor" temperatures would be wet bulb. If that is the case, my superheat is more like 43.
How do I calculate my superheat?
Should I just charge to a certain set of pressures?
As you can probably tell, I am not a experienced contractor - I just know enought to be dangerous. But I am really excited about my progress.
Thanks
. I would rather not lock up this compressor as I did to my heat pump once while following some information given to my by a questionable HVAC contractor. I did end up with a very nice Trane 12XL. But that is a long story so here goes what is relevant. I have a 12oz charge in the system and my data is
High side 170 psi
Suction 38-45 psi not very steady.
Water inlet temp of 82
Temp drop of water in the chiller 2 degrees
Suction line temp 62
Ambient outside temp 73
Tank temp dropped 2 degrees in 40 minutes
My chart shows a superheat of about 28 degrees - but that is based on 400cfm/ton airflow. How does that relate to my waterflow of 1000 gph?
I imagine all of my "indoor" temperatures would be wet bulb. If that is the case, my superheat is more like 43.
How do I calculate my superheat?
Should I just charge to a certain set of pressures?
As you can probably tell, I am not a experienced contractor - I just know enought to be dangerous. But I am really excited about my progress.
Thanks
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