Additional cooling for my reservoir tank.

[Euphoria]

After running my last batch of 20 gallons of corn I noticed my cooling water reservoir (blue plastic tank) was getting pretty warm. I have since made a radiator/fan assembly to pre-chill the return water before it goes back into the reservoir tank. It has a 16" x 16" radiator, coupled to a 20" standard box fan. I also put one of those generic "furnace register" louvered covers over the front to protect the radiator fins from damage, and then bent and mounted a sheet metal top flange to direct airflow into the grill and to add some additional structural stability between the two pieces.

[still_stirrin]

Excellent design Euphoria. Now...that's enginnering!

I'm curious what is the temperature delta across your radiator heat exchanger?
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[Euphoria]

Thanks still_stirrin,
I just built it and ran a leak test on it so far, but I haven't done an actual run with it yet. When I get my next ferment in the boiler I'll follow up on how much heat reduction I'm achieving. I put thermometers in my flute's dephleg outflow line and one in the new radiator outflow line so I can monitor actual heat loss in my coolant across the still and reservoir return.

[Danespirit]

Excellent work..!
Please keep us updated on how it performs.

[Da Yooper]

Very nice set up, that will definitely help cool down your system

[aircarbonarc]

Hey good to see. I'm considering building one myself using 3/4" copper tube and some fins made from sheet. I'm having the same issues with my resovoir water getting warm and having to swap it out a few times a stripping run. Would like to know how this works and will post some photos of my design

[hotmaildotcom1]

I would be very interested in seeing how this worked out. I have an automotive radiator I was thinking of re-purposing for this reason exactly. I just am trying to weed through the forum and see how effective they really are. Where did you get the radiator from or did you make it entirely from scratch?

[Euphoria]

[quote="hotmaildotcom1"]I would be very interested in seeing how this worked out. I have an automotive radiator I was thinking of re-purposing for this reason exactly. I just am trying to weed through the forum and see how effective they really are. Where did you get the radiator from or did you make it entirely from scratch?[/quote]

I got the 16' X 16" water cooler radiator from Amazon. I just soldered up my own fittings to it and mated it to a standard 20" box fan along with some home made sheet metal shrouding to direct the airflow better. I should be running about 22 gallons of sugar wash in the next few days in my 4" four plate flute column. I have installed thermometers in the coolant outflow line from the dephleg and another one in the outflow (return) line of the cooler before it dumps back into the reservoir tank, so I'll post an update on how effective it is and how much of a temperature reduction I can pull off the coolant before it returns to my reservoir barrel.
[attachment=2]Flute_Still 004.JPG[/attachment] [attachment=1]Flute_Still 011.JPG[/attachment] [attachment=0]4 Plate Flute 2 (Medium) - Copy (Small) (Custom).jpg[/attachment]

[bearriver]

Holy cow! You spared no detail there... Stainless push to connects. Irrigation tubing that you can drive over... Wow...

Good choice and congratulations on a very nice setup.

[Euphoria]

Thanks Bear...

[hotmaildotcom1]

This setup is freaking beautiful!

[Euphoria]

Thanks for the kind replies all.

[toetag]

How did this work out for you?

[Euphoria]

Ran 25 gallons of sugar wash for some neutral spirits Friday. Ambient temperature in the garage was about 45 F degrees. Dephlegmator cooling outflow temperature during the run, after achieving a static reflux for a while, ran at about 125-130 F degrees. Return flow to reservoir after cooling through the radiator gizmo knocked off about 20~25 degrees from the cooling water temp during a 5 hour run with my 4" four plate flute. Also pulled off over 2.5 gallons of decent neutral spirits. I'm happy with the temperature drop, and the cooler's ability to hold it there through the run. Makes it a lot nicer to run with a consistent temperature control.

[toetag]

I'm glade it worked for you. I think I'm going to try this Friday. I'm going to run about 18 gallons of uj in my 4in boka.

[Big Stogie]

this is an older thread but if there is a link to the radiator i would like to see it i cant seem to find one like that with copper thanks!

[acfixer69]

Most HVAC/Pluming supply houses will have them in all sizes. Or theirs ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/20x20-Water-to ... Sw~T9aZjc2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[Big Stogie]

thank you!