I received a gift today... Now what??

[Slowninja]

I got a used but working drinking fountain today. You know the kind with the cooler and stuff?

I want to use it for a recirculating water supply for my condensor.

Will it work like I'm hoping? And how should I plumb it? (Ie barrel to condensor to cooler back to barrel, or barrel to cooler to condensor then back to barrel?)

[Richard7]

I would put it on the return to the barrel if it was me. You don't want the water to cool going to the condenser. Can you control how much it cools?

[jholmz]

you would have to bypass the button so its a continuous flow run from barrel to condensor the through cooler and back to barrel that way your cooling the warm water coming out but not feeding too cold water back to the condensor dont know if it will make the water too cold and cause shock cooling or not. another way would be to run from your barrel through the fountain and then back into your barrel only using it when needed to cool the barrel water

[bellybuster]

Those coolers have about a 1gallon tank that is jacket cooled, don't want to burst your bubble but it won't cool anything continuously. Tried one as a cooler for my immersion chiller and it was a flop.

[midcarolina]

Couple things.....
Depending on how large your water tank/ barrell is it could work great.......
Rip all the unneccesary cabinetry off of it..... you will need to replace the thermostat.... I would get a thermostat with a long bulb and have it sense the water temp about halfway up the barrell....
Make sure you have some kind of balancing valve in the water piping so you can control the GPM going through the chiller that way you can optimize temperature drop across the chiller barrel....

[Tater]

Water coolers are to small for what you aiming at.Most hold less then a gallon .They are designed to bring around a qt of water from 5o -60 degrees f to 40 f. Compressors in them are only around 600 btu .

[midcarolina]

perhaps I should have asked what type/model cooler you have......... If it is one of the cheap office/home water coolers no that will not work.......

But if it is a commercial/school grade cooler like I was thinking then I do beleive it will work with a few modifications.......