Cheep cooling reservoir

Anything cooling/condenser related.

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JellybeanCorncob
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Cheep cooling reservoir

Post by JellybeanCorncob »

Hey
I live in California and we've been having a severe drought. We have water restrictions in place where we live and are penalized $$ if we go over our allotted amount. I was using a 20 gal. Rubbermaid trash can with a recirculating pump to cool my distillate . After a couple hours my liebig cooling water is over well 100 degrees Fahrenheit. I knew I needed a larger container for my recurlating water system. Where we live our yard waste is collected in 95 gallon plastic containers and we allotted 4 per household. So I got on the phone and had our trash coumpany send out another container.
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All I had to do was remove the dumping handle and put 2 rubber plugs in the holes where the handle was.
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Two one inch plugs- $1.95 each
Total cost- $3.90cents plus tax
It saved me nearly $100 bucks not to mention that I can use the water for months. Then water my garden when it gets cloudy or goes green.
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Re: Cheep cooling reservoir

Post by Hound Dog »

If the water gets a little funky, pour in a couple cups of bleach clears things right up.
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JellybeanCorncob
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Re: Cheep cooling reservoir

Post by JellybeanCorncob »

Yep
A little chlorine: boom done clear! :thumbup:
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Re: Cheep cooling reservoir

Post by fruitfart »

Hi Jellybean

I know it's been a while since you posted this, just wanting to know whether you are still doing this?

I live in South Africa and the last couple of years we have been having severe droughts, so keeping my water cool, and recycling has been a bit of a problem. Maybe I should try this setup. How hot does your water end up getting and do you use any other cooling method other than the water in your reservoir?
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Re: Cheep cooling reservoir

Post by bluefish_dist »

A good dose of starsan will also keep the water clean and probably better for the stainless than chlorine.
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Re: Cheep cooling reservoir

Post by Euphoria »

In addition to my plastic "rain barrel" coolant reservoir I added a home built cooling coil and fan that I conjured up to provide additional cooling to the water on its return trip back to the reservoir. Even with the large plastic drum my coolant temps would climb during my run. The fan/radiator unit really helps to drop some of the heat out of the return coolant.
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JellybeanCorncob
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Re: Cheep cooling reservoir

Post by JellybeanCorncob »

Hey Fruitfart
I use the recycle bin all the time. I just used it to strip 10gal of rice wash. Never got too hot. I also only fill it up to 60% full. I’ve never had to add anything to the water to keep it clean. I dump it once a year in my garden and refill.
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Re: Cheep cooling reservoir

Post by JellybeanCorncob »

Nice setup Euphoria!
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Re: Cheep cooling reservoir

Post by SmokyMtn »

Euphoria wrote: Sat Jan 23, 2021 5:19 am In addition to my plastic "rain barrel" coolant reservoir I added a home built cooling coil and fan that I conjured up to provide additional cooling to the water on its return trip back to the reservoir. Even with the large plastic drum my coolant temps would climb during my run. The fan/radiator unit really helps to drop some of the heat out of the return coolant.
Flute_Still 010.JPG CoolingFan2.jpg Still 001 (2).JPG Flute_Still 003.JPG Flute_Still 011.JPG
Have you experimented with pushing vs pulling the air through the heat exchanger? I found 20x20 exchanger on amazon for $165, its recommended cfm is 2200. Cheap box fan like your running is 1820 cfm... close enough. Definitely on my short list to purchase
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Euphoria
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Re: Cheep cooling reservoir

Post by Euphoria »

No, I haven't tried reversing the fan direction to pull air through the radiator. Only to push the air through it, as in my current setup. I don't think that pulling air would be any better, if even as good, as forcefully pushing the air through it. All I know is that it works pretty well as is. The key to using a recycled water cooling setup is to make sure you have a large enough reservoir tank because they will heat up despite your cooling setup, if the reservoir is too small to last for several hours. Don't get me wrong, even my larger reservoir will increase in temperature during the run, but it is still manageable. Might require a little "tweaking" of my dephlemator cooling and condenser cooling water valves a bit, but I've done 8 hour runs and they were still manageable. I also use a submersible "fountain pump" as opposed to a fish pond pump because of its higher lift capacity to get water up and through my dephlemator, which sits pretty high. If you use a weak pump you may not get enough flow or pressure to push the water over the top.
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Re: Cheep cooling reservoir

Post by SmokyMtn »

Euphoria wrote: Mon Mar 22, 2021 5:35 am The key to using a recycled water cooling setup is to make sure you have a large enough reservoir tank because they will heat up despite your cooling setup
From my research. Assuming you don't want to drain and refill any water. 4x to 5x the boiler capacity seems to be the success stories. Handling even the hottest, fastest strip runs. Maybe 4.5x is the real magic number? Thanks for the feedback.
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Re: Cheep cooling reservoir

Post by v-child »

"Where we live our yard waste is collected in 95 gallon plastic containers and we allotted 4 per household. So I got on the phone and had our trash company send out another container."

We I live, the Water utility/ Waste service charges an extra monthly fee for a second container. Yours?
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