1/4HP Aquarium chiller for conicals - will I regret it?

[PeteNMA]

Long time no post it seems.

I've been doing a lot of research to improve my cold side processes and yesterday finally pulled the trigger on a 7 gal Brewmaster Chronical and am now trying to figure out my cooling situation.

Living in North Carolina and brewing in the garage means that my ambient temps are soon going to be hitting the high 90s, possibly even higher, so my previously planned solution of BrewJackets looks like a no go. They work fine inside an already conditioned environment but they don't have what it takes to use in the garage.

I'm trying to decide between a 1/4hp aquarium chiller ($350 on amazon) or the 1/3hp glycol power pack ($1000 from SS brew tech). I think that the 1/4 chiller will have enough capacity to crash cool a 7 gallon batch even in the hottest times, especially if I set it up with a decently size cooler holding tank then I can always dump some ice in if needed. I expect that the aquarium chiller thermostat could easily be bypassed and run a glycol loop down to a sub freezing temperature.

I'm more than capable of taking care of any electrical or plumbing work required and the $650 price differential is essentially another Chronical so its certainly tempting.

Nevertheless I don't want to blow about half the cost of the SSB system on an aquarium chiller setup which doesn't work as well as I'd like. I don't get to brew consistently so when I do I don't want to have to mess with equipment or lose a batch to a bad fermentation.

Anyone switch out an aquarium chiller system for a glycol power pack?

 

[augiedoggy]

The 1/4hp will be plenty for one conical... I use a larger one (I think 1/2hp) but I also have it setup to control 4 conicals (2 of them 12.5gallon) and have done three at a time many times with no problems whatsoever so... Honestly, how well you insulate your conical matters more and few people do much in this area because they want everything to look nice and shiny.
There are people having success with much less powerful methods like peltier chips and using a minifrige or freezer with a coil in a bucketful of water and many DIY chiller setups with window ac units or dehumidifiers (which would be smaller than a 1/4hp chiller I think)

 

[PeteNMA]

Where are your conical housed? Mine will be in an unconditioned garage in North Carolina where we regularly hit 100+ during summertimes.

Are you running glycol in your system? Any modifications to the chiller to get it to go below 40f?

 

[dunnry]

Long time no post it seems.

I've been doing a lot of research to improve my cold side processes and yesterday finally pulled the trigger on a 7 gal Brewmaster Chronical and am now trying to figure out my cooling situation.

Living in North Carolina and brewing in the garage means that my ambient temps are soon going to be hitting the high 90s, possibly even higher, so my previously planned solution of BrewJackets looks like a no go. They work fine inside an already conditioned environment but they don't have what it takes to use in the garage.

I'm trying to decide between a 1/4hp aquarium chiller ($350 on amazon) or the 1/3hp glycol power pack ($1000 from SS brew tech). I think that the 1/4 chiller will have enough capacity to crash cool a 7 gallon batch even in the hottest times, especially if I set it up with a decently size cooler holding tank then I can always dump some ice in if needed. I expect that the aquarium chiller thermostat could easily be bypassed and run a glycol loop down to a sub freezing temperature.

I'm more than capable of taking care of any electrical or plumbing work required and the $650 price differential is essentially another Chronical so its certainly tempting.

Nevertheless I don't want to blow about half the cost of the SSB system on an aquarium chiller setup which doesn't work as well as I'd like. I don't get to brew consistently so when I do I don't want to have to mess with equipment or lose a batch to a bad fermentation.

Anyone switch out an aquarium chiller system for a glycol power pack?

I run an Aquarium chiller (this one) with a 14g SS Chronical. I have a 5 gal cooler hooked to it as the chill water source.

I keep the cooler/chiller combo running constantly and keep the water in there around 45F at all times when fermenting. The little pump that comes with SS temp control solution sits in the cooler and is wired to an inkbird 2-stage controller. I have no trouble cold crashing to 48F or keeping that temp for lagering. However, the ambient temp in my basement is ~68F. I think you would be fine keeping a 7 or 14g Chronical in fermentation temp ranges, but likely not lagering ranges with a similar setup but a 90F garage.

PS - if you ever decide to bypass the thermostat on one of these, I would love to know how...

 

[augiedoggy]

The key is insulation. and not the stylish but fairly inefficient neoprene jacket.. I use two layers of foil faced bubble wrap held together with foiul faced hvac tape. I CIP.. My conicals are in my build thread below but they are in a spare bedroom I brew in and it is not air conditioned so yeah muggy and 80s in the summer... I have not yet modded the thermostat to go lower than like 38 now but I will be very soon... it barley runs .. I have 11 gallons of pale ale being held at 63 now...