Cheap cooler.

[tomkeogh]

Hello all, I Have made a little inexpensive chiller for my 150litre tank, the whole system cost me £40 it has been running for 4 days with a 2degree drop in temp,
The system uses a mini fridge I picked up from homebase for £20 I also bought some tubing and silicone for a further £20.

I simply drilled two hole in the fridge door and siliconed the tube from the filter outlet through the fridge, I am afraid I can not take a picture right now as my camera is on the blink but it is pretty self explanatory.

Like I say I have only achieved a 2degree drop and the weather is pretty mild for example the tank would be reading 19degree today but with fridge is 17.( do not have a digital reader so it may be 17.5)

The system only took 10minutes to assemble and due to cost I think it is a good option for anyone out there that lives in a mild climate but just wants to make there critters a little more chilled.

I am going to test a larger form of the same system using a £50 wine cooler next weekend I will let you all know if there is any more success

 

[Shizeric]

Do you have tubing coiled up inside the fridge?

 

[tomkeogh]

Yes I am just using standard eheim tubing coiled around a couple bottles filled with water (I don't know if it makes a difference and I wrapped cling film around it again I don't know if this makes a difference, At no point does the tank water come in contact with any thing other then the filter and tubing, I presume a system using copper wire would be more efficiant

Like I say I am going to test a larger system soon It has a few snags, the door is made of tempered glass so I have to make a new one with holes in and the tubing is so expensive and I need about 30foot of the stuff.

 

[Shizeric]

I presume a system using copper wire would be more efficiant

Yeah, but copper is a big no no with amphibians.

 

[tomkeogh]

Yeah, but copper is a big no no with amphibians.

It's a good thing I'm cheap then isn't it!

 

[lea]

im doing something very similar....i have the filter hose inside a tuckerbox freezer(the freezer lid opens up and it looks like a box) and the tank temp is sitting 15oC while the outside temp is around 22-24oC....i dont know how it will go in summer when the outside temp hits 35-40oC.......i have also tried wrapping the hose around frozen water bottles(in the freezer) and that works ok as well.