Radiator water cooler

[muss]

I hooked up an old car radiator to my lebig condensor and used a small aquarium pump to circulate the water.

The 25l of water got too warm half way through the run and I had to refill it.
Once I attach a radiator fan I hope it can remove enough heat to go on just 1 fill.

[absinthe]

i bet you wont even need the fan

[HookLine]

If you are not using a fan, lie the radiator back at a 45º angle, so that air can naturally flow upwards through the fins.

[JIMB]

Hi, what type of connectors did you use to connect the plastic hose to the radiator.
Where were they purchased?

Thanks,

[Halfbaked]

They look like shark bit fittings that you can pick up at lowes or HD or Manards.

[bearriver]

+1 halfbaked. I've even seen them at the local corner store and grocery.

[MBF]

I know this is an old thread, BUT if you do choose to use a supplemental radiator/heat exchanger AND you have a choice of input/output locations....

You want one that can accommodate a top input (tot take the hot return from the still condenser(s)), and a low output to the reservoir... It seems intuitive that you will be draining the cooler water off the bottom and drawing the hot water down through the core tubes progressively cooling it off.

Make sense? The one in this example is a top in/top out.... While it will certainly work, it is not the most efficient design.... (UNLESS there happens to be (a) core divider(s) to make the fluid "U" or "S" channel through the radiator).

[BentJar]

Radiator cooling works great as we have been using it for 2 years without a single problem. A fan is needed and we use a 20 dollar window fan from wall mart.
Hot water in the top hose connection and cool water out the lower one.
No reservoir is needed.

Bent

[MBF]

Radiator cooling works great as we have been using it for 2 years without a single problem. A fan is needed and we use a 20 dollar window fan from wall mart.
Hot water in the top hose connection and cool water out the lower one.
No reservoir is needed.

Bent

Yep... this is an excellent option for folks with space and/or water limitations. Add a PWM fan-speed controller with a feedback loop containing a temp probe at the reflux condenser coolant outlet, on a radiator/fan setup with sufficient cooling overhead, and you could regulate coolant temp to a very narrow temp range.

[BentJar]

Coolant temp can be easily adjusted to 3 different levels.

The fan has 3 speeds, I run normally on low but for heavy reflux a notch up on the fan speed is all that is needed.
Temp. of coolant out of coil to radiator is 140 deg. Temp after radiator cycle is 90 deg. That can vary according to ambient temp. but not that much.
Mine is an open system and will need a cup of water added to radiator after 2 or 3 runs. Radiator dry needs 5 qts. to fill it up.
I use a dishwasher discharge pump mounted to the lower radiator hose connection to cycle the water thru the condensers and back up to the radiator top hose connection. It makes almost no noise, just a hum.
Radiator and fan are mounted togeather and sit in a window to discharge hot air out of shed.
Many stillers in my area have copied my system and swear " dogged if that aint the slickest thang I ever seen"

[MBF]

Coolant temp can be easily adjusted to 3 different levels.

The fan has 3 speeds, I run normally on low but for heavy reflux a notch up on the fan speed is all that is needed.
Temp. of coolant out of coil to radiator is 140 deg. Temp after radiator cycle is 90 deg. That can vary according to ambient temp. but not that much.
Mine is an open system and will need a cup of water added to radiator after 2 or 3 runs. Radiator dry needs 5 qts. to fill it up.
I use a dishwasher discharge pump mounted to the lower radiator hose connection to cycle the water thru the condensers and back up to the radiator top hose connection. It makes almost no noise, just a hum.
Radiator and fan are mounted togeather and sit in a window to discharge hot air out of shed.
Many stillers in my area have copied my system and swear " dogged if that aint the slickest thang I ever seen"

That's awesome! 50 degree drop across the heat exchanger is impressive. I covet that core!

Just to clarify, I wasn't critiquing your design at all by suggesting the controller with a feedback loop. What you have is superior and more importantly... WORKS!
I am (sometimes unfortunately) wired to always be looking to tweak, improve, and otherwise over-engineer everything....

The controller addition simply occurred to me as an attempt at "fire and forget" cooling.

Have a great day!

-MBF

[cob]

I know this is an old thread, BUT if you do choose to use a supplemental radiator/heat exchanger AND you have a choice of input/output locations....

You want one that can accommodate a top input (tot take the hot return from the still condenser(s)), and a low output to the reservoir... It seems intuitive that you will be draining the cooler water off the bottom and drawing the hot water down through the core tubes progressively cooling it off.

Make sense? The one in this example is a top in/top out.... While it will certainly work, it is not the most efficient design.... (UNLESS there happens to be (a) core divider(s) to make the fluid "U" or "S" channel through the radiator).

if you put your hot water in the top and draw from the bottom, your radiator will be full of air not water,
your radiator will not fill up unless your bottom drain rises higher than your top inlet.

filling from the bottom ensures air purge before overflow to the reservoir.

the OP's cross flow radiator is not top in top out, it is left in right out and will work fine.

[rad14701]

Yes and No, cob...

Thermodynamics rears its ugly head at times and this is one of them... Heat rises and cold sinks... While your counter-flow idea would work it might come with a performance hit with regard to efficiency... There are numerous ways to eliminate the possibility of an air void... Having the lower outlet rise to a level above the inlet is the easiest... And if the entire assembly is situated lower than the still itself, the problem would also be solved...

Or did I miss something...???

[T-Pee]

But...but...why do we always feed our liebig condensers from the bottom?

tp

[Tokoroa_Shiner]

But...but...why do we always feed our liebig condensers from the bottom?

tp

Temp gradient, no air pockets. Different needs. Liebig needs hot at top cold at bottom. Feed cold in at it will warm to the top. Radiator will ideally have hot in top and cold out the bottom. In theory, having hot in the top and cold out should give colder water then hot in the bottom and cold out top. I think. :-/ I may be wrong. But then thermo dynamics isn't my strong point.

[rad14701]

But...but...why do we always feed our liebig condensers from the bottom?

tp

Again, counterflow... We want to coldest water to be the point of last resort from a cooling standpoint... The coldest water hits the coldest spirits first, so it retains more knockdown power for further up... The cold water is trying to cool something... With the radiator, the radiator is trying to cool the hot water... Opposite scenario... Remember, there's good reason why virtually every water cooled engine has the hot water entering the top of the radiator and cooler water exiting the bottom...


Posted the same time as Tokoroa_Shiner...

[MBF]

if you put your hot water in the top and draw from the bottom, your radiator will be full of air not water,
your radiator will not fill up unless your bottom drain rises higher than your top inlet.

filling from the bottom ensures air purge before overflow to the reservoir.

the OP's cross flow radiator is not top in top out, it is left in right out and will work fine.

rad got here first... and is correct, of course... depends on where the heat exchanger is located. My MAIN point was that you shouldn't have both high input/output unless the core has a splitter plate somewhere, otherwise the hot water simply short circuits and you lose a lot of efficiency. In my head, I was picturing the heat exchanger near the floor taking the hot water from the reflux condenser at the top of a column near the ceiling.

[cob]

Yes and No, cob...

Thermodynamics rears its ugly head at times and this is one of them... Heat rises and cold sinks... While your counter-flow idea would work it might come with a performance hit with regard to efficiency... There are numerous ways to eliminate the possibility of an air void... Having the lower outlet rise to a level above the inlet is the easiest... And if the entire assembly is situated lower than the still itself, the problem would also be solved...

Or did I miss something...???

possibly, top inlet the flow from the still is to little to fill more than 2-3 tubes in the radiator ever unless like you and I both noted

the outlet is raised above the level of the top inlet. even at that there will be trapped air in the top of the radiator.

in the op's picture there is air above his outlet level.

bottom inlet fills the radiator, no air voids, the fan pulls heat from the entire mass of water in the radiator.

between pressurized upward water flow and the cooling of air flow on the radiator the outlet tempature at the

outlet will be as low as it can be reguardless of thermodynamics

[BentJar]

An open system has no air or hot pockets trapped inside. Yall are looking at this as if the car is mounted in a car. I discharge into the upper hose connection which is open to the air. Mounting the radiator on the floor is a problem.
Put the darn thing up behind the still about chest high.
Guys.... it works like a charm.

[BentJar]

COB, with the coolant being pumped from the lower rad. hose connection, then up to the top coil, all air is purged as soon as you turn on the pump. Same rule applies here, you feed the product condenser from the bottom.

In the original post, the fellow needs to put a 90 degree hose on the top hose connection and raise the system up off the floor. Midway of the still will work but higher takes a lot of stress off the pump and noise as well.

My system uses 2 valves (old AC manifold) to regulate coolant to both condensers. I have found this to useless as both are now run wide open at all times. I built it that way when I was using city water to cool with and turned off the water to the product condenser while refluxing. All that will be revamped before still time next spring and the manifold removed.

One more important thing to do is drain the system when you are done to prevent freeze up and popping off fitting on the still. I learned the hard way of course.
I put in a drain valve in the pump discharge line that dumps out under the shed.

[rad14701]

I thought the assembly was situated on the floor, as it was in the initial picture... Being mounted where it is, it probably makes little difference which direction the water flows...

[copperlover1]

I saw this post and just had to give it a go. I have no easy water source during the winter months. Picked up a junkyard radiator. I piped in my fountain pump. Old box fan. I am running a 2" VM. 36" column packed with marbles. 72"x1/2 ID stainless gas line reflux coil. And 36" Liebig 3/4" over 1/2". Propane under a 15 gallon keg. Water output on bottom of radiator running about 50*F. Return water at top of radiator about 90*F. Running 2 qts an hour at 90%ABV. Ambient garage temp is about 32*F. Fan running on low speed. I am never going back to my trash can full of water.

[BentJar]

Nice job there copper lover. Like I been sayin all along, once you get going with a radiator cooler you never look back.

This winter I removed the AIR CONDITIONER manifold valves and installed a 1/2 x 60 in. stainless gas line as my upper condenser. That work increased water flow with less restriction on my pump. Took me a while to figure out how to bend the gas line to fit into a 2 inch tube. Coiling it did not work so I bent it into a W shape and it slid right in.
I got to re-do my cooling hoses but its been working real good. Im using 3/8 hoses for ice makers from lowes because they come in different lenths and have the fitting made on them. Plus they look good. clean not a rats nest

[winelegs]

Sorry guys but rather than starting a new thread I have a double pass radiator, would I be better filling from the bottom also?

Regards

And if anyone are unsure of rad types
https://www.speedwaymotors.com/amp/the- ... tors/28799