Cooling reservoir build

[MementoMori]

Hey everyone Whiskey here! I'm building a cooling res to help out my runs. I have a glycol chiller for brewing that will help pre chill the 50 gal of water. I'm adding a radiator and fan assembly to help out as well. Keep you all posted. Cheers.

[Boozewaves]

this thread might be of interest . seems similar to what you are thinking so it may be worth a look https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtop ... 87&t=66690

[MementoMori]

So I got all the connections dry fit. I'm going to glue them up well tonight and do a leak test. The fan assembly comes tomorrow, more pics once I'm done. I'm excited to connect my glycol chiller and do my spirit run soon after. Keep you all posted.

[MementoMori]

thank you
this thread might be of interest . seems similar to what you are thinking so it may be worth a look https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtop ... 87&t=66690

[SmokyMtn]

The successful recirculating stories that I've researched. Have a reservoir 4x to 5x larger than the boiler capacity. Even with a forced air heat exchanger. I sized mine 5.5x just to be safe.

[bluefish_dist]

My cooling water tanks were in the 5-6x range. Worked well as long as I didn’t want to run continuously, ie day after day after day.
I tried a car radiator. Failed miserably. They simply are not designed to do what we need. It only dropped the temp of the water by 3-5 deg f. While it may have been dumping heat, it simply would not cool the water enough to be used again. A linear radiator like a pipe with fins on it may work better vs a typical tank style like in a car. Best solution was just a huge tank of water.

[ash_from_oz]

Been looking at doing this for a while, the 5-6x boiler size has put me off I don't have the space for an additiom 200l container. Keen to see how the active cooling going with keeping water temps down so I can stop wasting so much water.

[Yummyrum]

If you are going to use Glycol , only use Propylene Glycol which is FDA approved and safe .

Never use Ethylene Glycol ( the green stuff used in car radiators ) as it is as poisonous as Methanol .

Not saying you are going to drink it , but leaks and accidents do happen .

[SmokyMtn]

If the radiator ends up not working. https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtop ... r#p7443067

[The Baker]

Been looking at doing this for a while, the 5-6x boiler size has put me off I don't have the space for an additional 200l container. Keen to see how the active cooling going with keeping water temps down so I can stop wasting so much water.

Depending on your set-up, you could put the 200 litre container OUTSIDE, with inlet and outlet pipes let through the wall...

Geoff