# Penguin Waterchiller Review



## replin

Over the next 2 weeks I will be reviewing a Penguin Waterchiller. I have not been active in the forum for a very long time. I usually frequent xtreme and others but haven't been on those in a long time and I like the forum setup here better. I ordered and received and Penguin Waterchiller 1/2 HP 5000 BTU's. I am in the process of building everything and will post pics as I progress. Right now I am wrapping my 8.5 gallon Brew Kettle with K-flex PSA backed 3/4" thick insulation. I am using Koolance QD3 fittings and a Koolance D5 Strong. I am using Feser 1/2" ID White UV and Green UV tubing. the inlet from the brew kettle (reservoir) to the pump with an EK top running down to the Danger Den Computer on my CPU and both GPU's then down to a second D5 pump (standard version) of which will continue green tubing to the water chiller and exiting it will be white UV tubing back up to the reservoir. 



Upon pulling out the water chiller and making sure that I don't grip it on the radiator sides I noticed there was a thumbprint damage to the radiator. It could be possible that I may have done that but I was certain I was careful in taking it out. I made sure to feel all sides before pulling it out(Phrasing). The damage was unfortunate but repairable with time and tools. That will be done at a later date because I want to get this up and running.

If you notice from the previous pics, it is very well packaged. It its double boxed and has heavy duty reinforced cardboard supports with inflatable suspension rafts. I am very pleased with the level of packaging. It's shocking how well packed it is. Kudos to Eric at Penguin Water Chillers.


Note the damage. But fixable.

I am using Bargain Fittings 1" x 1/4" NPT reducer so I could install the Koolance QD3 NPT 1/4" fittings.


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## replin

The guy at Bargain Fittings sent me the wrong fitting by accident. He sent me the 3/4" by 1/4" NPT rather than the 1" by 1/4" NPT reducer. I notified him and he quickly resolved the issue by sending me a new pair of 1" by 1/4" reducers. I should receive them this week. For now I bought a 1" x 3/4" reducer at Home Depot and then used the ones he gave me to reduce it further.


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## LiamG6

This should be interesting







sub'd


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## replin

Hi LiamG6 and thanks for participating. Could use the support.









The following are images of what I just finished now and still a work in progress.





My beautiful Brew Kettle with 2 welded bulkheads. Tip: NEVER GO WITH WELDLESS BULKHEADS. WELDED ONLY!!!


PSA means Pressure sensitive adhesive. If only Armacell/Armaflex and Techlite had this. But Kflex got my first choice b/c of this.




Still need to do the bottom. Wondering how I'm going to measure an even cut. I just worked a 14 hour work day so can anyone help me come up with an idea on how to accurately make the cut so it covers everything and is not messy?


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## LiamG6

just template it, put the kettle on top of the sheet, use chalk or white marker to mark it. is it easy enough to cut with a box cutter or a Stanley knife? how about a hot wire cutter?

Looking forward to seeing the temps


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## replin

Tomorrow I will post a huge update. I finished the brew kettle and will be hooking it all up. I have order a D5 Top from Koolance and some QD3's for the second pump. My question is will a D5 Strong with a 24v controller be enough to handle this entire loop without a second pump?


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## replin

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *LiamG6*
> 
> just template it, put the kettle on top of the sheet, use chalk or white marker to mark it. is it easy enough to cut with a box cutter or a Stanley knife? how about a hot wire cutter?
> 
> Looking forward to seeing the temps


Unfortunately its difficult to cut with scissors and a box knife. My top and new fittings will hopefully arrive tomorrow.

Question for you: now that you've seen what the loop will look like would a D5 Strong running at 24V be enough to power this loop? The reason I ask is because once the water leaves the chiller it has to clime back all the way up to the top where the reservoir will sit. My computer is in the middle of the rack, my Chiller at the bottom and the res at the top. 8.5 gallons of distilled water. Also how many drops of the Nuke Biocide should I use?


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## LiamG6

I think 1 pump is enough, but it's always good to have redundancy with these setups. You have just the chiller, 2 gpu's and CPU in the loop right? That's a pretty low restriction loop. Are your gpu blocks in series or in parallel? I'd plumb them in in parallel to keep restriction as low as possible and maybe don't run the pump flat out. With chilled water you can get away with a lower flow rate. But just run the pump at whatever speed is best for it. Not too low not too high, or isn't the D5 strong variable?

As for the biocide, not sure. A few drops I guess depending what the instructions say. Should be a ratio available somewhere. Big loop though so could add more. With chilled water I don't think anything will be growing in there though. Keep the loop clean and should be sweet.

What temps can your chiller hold? Is the coolant going to be slushy? Or just like 5-10*c? Do you need to add some antifreeze/methanol/glycol?


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## [ShowMe!]

Please post the lowest temp the chiller will hit.
What I mean is, what is the lowest temp you can get under load.


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## replin

Ok sorry for being late on this but for some odd reason both my packages are delayed in shipping. I'm still waiting for the Koolance D5 Top and QD3's as well as the 1" x 1/4" reducer. For some odd reason even thought they are shipping from 2 different states both are now held up by USPS.


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## replin




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## SLOPOKE

I'm interested in this too since my HaC-500A will only go down to 4c.


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## replin

Ok good news, finished plumbing my setup and have both pumps installed. I did not receive my new top due to shipping issues but I should receive it sometime this week. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the fact that there is no fan noise and its dead silent for several hours before the whole system turns on again. I will give you guys an accurate number but in the mean time, O FACE!!!









When it does turn on its the equivalent to a windows A/C turning on. So far I love the Penguin chiller. Even when it turns on its not that bad. You can sleep with it on. My temps are extremely low. The brew kettle from MoreBeer.org really helps keep the temps down for a long time. I highly recommend it. Especially wrapped in K-Flex insulation. I have a lot of insulation left over so if any of you are going to copy my build let me know and I'll sell you the Insulation sheet for $10 less than it goes for online including shipping. I never threw away the box it came in so its all ready to go. I have 2 giant insulation sheets. The first one Is mostly used but the second one is untouched. Its 36"x48"x3/4". Let me know. It has PSA backing which is Pressure sensitive adhesive. You just peel and stick and you're done. VERY CONVENIENT.

I'm thinking of modifying the chiller to use Gentle Typhoon AP-45 and AP-15 fans. I have 3 brand new AP-45's untouched and 3 brand new AP-15's untouched. Let me know what you think if this is a good idea. The fan can get very noisy so I thought that replacing it with these fans would be a good start. I have not done it yet because I don't want to void warranty but I want to know your thoughts on this before I do it.

I also have 3 Cooler Master red Jetflo's, 3 Yate Loon Medium speed WHITE LED fans and 3 Cougar red fans, 120mm for all 9. If any of you want to buy I'm selling for a reasonable price. Only used for about a 8 months. I notified the seller for both Bargain FIttings and Penguin Chillers of this review. My testing suite will take a month to do since I want to throw every possible situation at it so that all of you have a piece of mind when buying this chiller. I had few drips when I initially installed it but that was my fault due to how to wrap the QD3 NPT and Bargain Fittings reducers. PLEASE Take heed and review on youtube how to properly wrap your npt fittings with Teflon tape. Leave 1 or 2 threads unwrapped and wrap in a clockwise direction. This makes a monumental difference. NO DRIPS IF DONE RIGHT!

I hired a chick in my IT department to do non stop gaming sessions on my PC while I'm at work. She's on vakay and agreed to do this since she loves my PC set up. Gaming on a Sony 4k screen at 60hz is quite breathtaking. I noticed ever since I downloaded WIndows 10 I've been able to get 4k at 60hz with an HDMI cable whereas with windows 8.1 and before only 30hz. I've heard that Windows 10 has some sort of algorithm that allows this. So far VERY HAPPY with windows 10!

I'm posting new pics in a moment.


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## replin

This was testing it out the loop before actually finalizing it. Then after everything was good I replumbed the entire setup.


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## replin

I am using Logisys UV LED and THEY ARE AMAZING. I've used oznium LED's and there was so much light bleed it was insane. These Logisys are much better. I am so impressed I bought 3 more. Waiting to receive them this week. Also I am using a combination of Feser and Primochill Advanced LRT tubing. I have 2 10 foot rolls for Feser White and Green tubing and 1 10 foot roll of Primochill green tubing. Feser is volumes better than Primochill. I've used Primo chill 2 years ago and it was stiff and hard to use. Then I tried it again to give them the benefit of the doubt and again stiff and hard to use. Feser is far more flexible and easier to maneuver. I will never go back to Primochill again. I'd rather use Masterkleer or XSPC before spending $25 on a 10 foot overpriced roll of Primochill. Although their Sysprep is pretty novel.

Feser Blue UV is incredible. Very bright and lights ups very easily whereas most Blue UV tubing from other brands do not. I am now purchasing 10 feet of each UV Black, Red and Orange tubing from sidewinder PC. I need to stock up on this tubing before it goes extinct. The two biggest advantages that Feser has over Primochill is that the Feser tubing is see through and very flexible whereas the Primochill is neither.


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## replin




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## replin

Do you guys have any recommendations to set the temps to turn on at on my water chiller? So far I set it to 90 degrees fahrenheit. Do you have any recommendations within reason? Remember I am not using insulation anywhere else except on the reservoir.


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## replin

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *SLOPOKE*
> 
> I'm interested in this too since my HaC-500A will only go down to 4c.


Supposedly this will go down to negative 58 degrees fahrenheit.


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## LiamG6

If you don;t have insulation then set it about 2 degrees above your dew point, but dew point varies so you'll either need to incorporate some kind of controller or work it out each time you turn the PC on, or just stay at a temp that is usually above dew point, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having a chiller. Are you going to do any really chilled runs? Why don't you insulate? Or at least use Tygon Norprene tubing, so you can get slightly cooler temps without going all out.

Switching to the gentle typhoons would be good for silence but you'll have to compare the airflow with the fan you are replacing.


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## replin

Ok so problems have arisen. The water chiller has been leaking quite a lot of water. Either the water has evaporated somehow or more than a gallon has leaked. My carpet was very wet next to the chiller. so I dried it and it still wouldn't dry. So I took a hair dryer and spent 30 min drying the carpet. Problem solved. However I spoke with Eric and as awesome as his customer service is I am very worried about my chiller. He says there is no reason it should be leaking based on the parameters I gave him but it is. Apparently if you over tighten it can cause leaks but I read the instructions to the T and made sure that nothing was misinterpreted. I even had a good friend of mine help me. The leaks are happening inside of the chiller and not on the fittings themselves. I made sure we did not over tighten and that everything was followed. So far I'm not happy. But I do love the idea of a water chiller and while it lasted it was awesome because my computer was dead silent and only noisy for about 10 minutes every 11 hours of non gaming sessions and every 4 during gaming sessions. I am thinking of purchasing the Hailea HC-500B.


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## replin

I can already imagine how this will work out. Most small companies don't have that exceptional customer handlings that larger companies have where if the product is under warranty and there are issues they will pay shipping to and from. So more likely than not I will have to pay shipping to him and from him in order to get this fixed. That will take several weeks if not a month or more and it will cost several hundred dollars in shipping. My guess is about $100 one way. Thank god i kept the boxes and packing materials. This is very disappointing. I just hope we can resolve this quickly and cheaply. So far during gaming sessions the chiller would turn on every 4 hours or so. Very happy with that result. However it differed greatly on games. On GTA V it would turn on every 2 hours and a half or so. Every other game was 4 hours. Still doing more testing.


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## replin

Just in case you are wondering I am cooling 2x Radeon r9 290 and a Core i7 4770K. I was thinking of adding a R9 295 X2 to my system with a EK water block to get quad crossfire. But as of right now I am discouraged by this whole endeavor. I was hoping the small ebay based company would come through with a stellar product.


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## replin

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *LiamG6*
> 
> If you don;t have insulation then set it about 2 degrees above your dew point, but dew point varies so you'll either need to incorporate some kind of controller or work it out each time you turn the PC on, or just stay at a temp that is usually above dew point, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having a chiller. Are you going to do any really chilled runs? Why don't you insulate? Or at least use Tygon Norprene tubing, so you can get slightly cooler temps without going all out.
> 
> Switching to the gentle typhoons would be good for silence but you'll have to compare the airflow with the fan you are replacing.


Ok what would be a good temp to start at in Fahrenheit? Like a general figure taking averages into account. If the temp in my place is regulated at 69 degrees


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## LiamG6

you will have to calculate the temperature you want to run. Dew point is a calculation based on Humidity and ambient temperature. So the best way is to buy a humidity sensor and a temp sensor and don't play any guessing games as guessing could spell condensation, ie death to components if left unchecked. Find the daily humidity level for your location and your room temperature and then look up a dew point chart to figure out a safe temperature to run your chiller at. A couple of degrees above the calculated dew point is advised to be safe.

That's a real bummer about the leaks, have you solved that? Or just decided to replace it? You should be able to open it up and fix any water leaks yourself if you don't want to pay the shipping costs.


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## [ShowMe!]

About the leaks inside the chiller.

Is it possible some cold part of the chiller is exposed inside?

Because if it is, then condensation would happen like on a cup of water with ice cubes, and you would get water running down the outside of your cup, or in this case, some cold part inside your chiller.

That may be the source of the liquid, basically a cold part condensing the water out of the air and leaking it on to the floor.

I wonder what temperature the chiller was designed for.

Could it be that the heat exchanger is not insulated on the inside of your chiller at all and your running it below dew point?

ALSO....

I find it very concerning that you are running a chilled setup with not insulation.

You can potentially kill your entire computer if you get condensation on your electronic parts.

The dew point, or the point condensation happens varies with temperature and humidity.

Be careful bro, you will kill your rig, then you will be really mad.


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## [ShowMe!]

If possible can you please unscrew the screws on the cover of the chiller and post pictures of what is inside?

We would be able to help you a lot more if we see whats inside the chiller.


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## LiamG6

yeah if I was you there is no way I would be running a chiller above dew point haha, its pointless, just insulate your motherboard and your tubing and let that baby get cold. Have you got any specifications on the chiller?

are you actually losing fluid out of your loop? or is it just condensing the the moisture in the room and dripping onto the floor as show me said?


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## replin

Ok so I filed an RMA and they paid for return shipping which is awesome and surprising. I sent it out on Wednesday so I will find out what they say.


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## replin

Wow ever since I shipped back the chiller they have not responded to any of my emails and have disappeared of the face of the earth. Now I'm worried.

I've read in many other forums that people run them without insulation and just keep it 10 degrees above the dew point as a safety precaution to compensate between fluctuations in humidity and temp. My room stays pretty regulated temp wise. I'm buying a NEAT temp controller for my room so i can make sure that the temp always stays within a certain range.

I need to find a way to seal the brew kettle top so it doesn't evaporate water.


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## replin

I called paypal just in case because I paid through them and they have buyer protection. At first Eric was very responsive and now gone as soon as I shipped it out.


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## replin

Ok so I finally got in touch with them and I am returning it for a refund. I just purchased a JBJ 1/2 HP chiller. I read they are extremely quiet, and very efficient. It came with a temp controller and just waiting for it to arrive.

As for Penguin Chillers this is my conclusion on them:
Mileage may vary. The item was extremely well packaged. And it performed very well just an issue with a leak. I recommend that future buyers put it in a glass container to contain any leakage of water and that it's not considered a normal part of operation. It must be treated with care and you must read instructions. Issues are expected to affect a small percentage of all products and I was unlucky. But definitely a step up from eco chiller, active aqua and hailea. Jbj is on a different level and not comparable due to price range. Its unfortunate that it did not work for me. However I'm sure it will work for the rest of you. They thought I was being impatient with them but they were not responding after I sent it out even though I gave them a wide berth between the 18th and the 24th before I responded again on the 24th and then 3 more times on the 26th. They gave me a prepaid shipping label to send the unit back AND refunded me the full amount PLUS SHIPPING. That is unheard of for a small ebay based business. By the way save your self $50 and buy directly from their website which is what I did initially. It goes through paypal so you have buyer protection. Other than that I really liked the unit despite the issues I had. When I got the chance to buy a JBJ for a smoking price I jumped on it. I will continue this review with my JBJ.

I recommend you all give them a chance if you want a high power water chiller for a low price with low noise levels and efficient cooling.

Got any requests? Want me to open the sucker up and do a review of the internals. I know the different brands of compressors and power supplies so let me know. A buddy of mine will be purchasing a Penguin chiller soon so I'lll ask him if it goes below 4C.

Also I received my Koolance d5 top and installed it on the second pump. Its pretty bad ass looking. Oh and do yourselves a favor and buy quick disconnect fittings its amazing that I can just connect my old radiators and be back up and running in 15 minutes. Whereas when you have non quick disconnects its tedious.


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## replin

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *LiamG6*
> 
> yeah if I was you there is no way I would be running a chiller above dew point haha, its pointless, just insulate your motherboard and your tubing and let that baby get cold. Have you got any specifications on the chiller?
> 
> are you actually losing fluid out of your loop? or is it just condensing the the moisture in the room and dripping onto the floor as show me said?


Got any recommendations on what insulation to use? How much of the motherboard and video cards should I cover?


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## Cyber Locc

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *replin*
> 
> Got any recommendations on what insulation to use? How much of the motherboard and video cards should I cover?


How is this coming also did your buddy ever get his? I am very curious about getting below 4c.


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## replin

Ok sorry for the tremendous delay. I bought a JBJ DA-500B water chiller. and its awesome. Despite what I read about it being very silent I was very surprised to find out it was quite loud. Its about as loud as a window AC. The Penguin produced less noise but not significantly less. However build quality is more rugged with the JBJ. It's definitely more 'industrial' grade. The Penguin was more fragile. Especially the connections it had. The connections felt delicate whereas the connections on the JBJ are rock solid and come with tighteners that you don't have to worry about over tightening because its sturdier. If you tighten too much on the Penguin can you end up causing a fissure that makes it leak. JBJ you don't really have to worry about that. However, there are some negs. I had to jerry rig these connectors in a 'ghetto' fashion in order to get it to work. due to the connection limitations you really can only use the adapters it came with. So I had to get creative. I went to Parkrose Hardware and this old timer there came up with this brilliant way to get it to work. Whereas at Home Depot and Lowes they were clueless. The penguin allows you use to any fitting/reducer out there which is very advantageous. Notice what I used. I would recommend going with the JBJ 1/3 HP since the connections are more inline for water cooling your PC since they support 1/2" fittings.


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## Cyber Locc

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *replin*
> 
> Ok sorry for the tremendous delay. I bought a JBJ DA-500B water chiller. and its awesome. Despite what I read about it being very silent I was very surprised to find out it was quite loud. Its about as loud as a window AC. The Penguin produced less noise but not significantly less. However build quality is more rugged with the JBJ. It's definitely more 'industrial' grade. The Penguin was more fragile. Especially the connections it had. The connections felt delicate whereas the connections on the JBJ are rock solid and come with tighteners that you don't have to worry about over tightening because its sturdier. If you tighten too much on the Penguin can you end up causing a fissure that makes it leak. JBJ you don't really have to worry about that. However, there are some negs. I had to jerry rig these connectors in a 'ghetto' fashion in order to get it to work. due to the connection limitations you really can only use the adapters it came with. So I had to get creative. I went to Parkrose Hardware and this old timer there came up with this brilliant way to get it to work. Whereas at Home Depot and Lowes they were clueless. The penguin allows you use to any fitting/reducer out there which is very advantageous. Notice what I used. I would recommend going with the JBJ 1/3 HP since the connections are more inline for water cooling your PC since they support 1/2" fittings.


but can it get below 4c







That would be its only advantage that I can see, Haliea has watercooling fittings (by Aqua Computer) made specifically for it the 4c is the killer.


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## replin

If you notice I used a PVC tube with a fastner on one end with the provided adapter and on the other end I bought a 3/4" to 1/2" reducer with fastener and then plugged my tubing on. It worked very well. Its air tight and no water drips. I love it so far.

Another neg is the temperature controller it came with. It really doesn't give you any customization as far as the Penguin had. However that is a relatively easy fix. The Penguin controller can be bought for $10 on ebay. It's a chinese made one but still very effective, cheap and loads of customizing options. My biggest complaint is that I set the temp and it gives you 3 minutes before it turns on and reduces the temps back down another degree below the set point. This sucks because it will turn on every 10 minutes during gaming. During idle it will turn on every 4 hours or so. During day to day normal use it will turn on every 2 hours. I plan to buy the chinese controller and set the temp to 55 degrees to cool down to and to have it turn on at 90 degrees. That way it will turn on every 3-4 hours or so during gaming sessions and run for 15 minutes before turning off. So far I love my setup. I bought this thing used for $630 lightly used. Supposedly 40 hours of usage and it sat in a warehouse for a couple years apparently. It has a slight odor to it but its slowly starting to dissipate. When I get my new temp controller I'll rest then. So far this is well worth the price and far better than what I expected.


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## replin




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## replin

Yes my JBJ can easily hit 4 degrees C and quite a bit lower.


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## replin

I personally don't want to test it because I would have to run insulation but according a aquarium shop near by they showed me it can.


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## replin

I have 2 pumps running in succession. One near the res and one after going through my cpu and GPU's. I was thinking of buying a Dual D5 Top or creating the mathematical construct of one so I can get increased gallons/hour and head pressure. I want to make sure its pushing >500 gallons/hour. I have a Koolance strong with a 24v controller running full power and a second pump non strong running full power. Problem the DUAL d5 i want from EK is no longer being sold so I guess the math construct is my only options.


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## Cyber Locc

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *replin*
> 
> I personally don't want to test it because I would have to run insulation but according a aquarium shop near by they showed me it can.


They showed it going lower? I am not asking if it can physically the issue with the haliea is that the controller will not allow below 4c. Which is not really strange if you think about it as they are for aquariums and 0c would freeze the water lol.

I will have to look more into this as I was going to build my own from an AC but if these can go to -30c then I may go with one of these.


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## replin

Why don't you buy a freezer and do what others have done with that? Ok I just got a reply back from the dude. He said he thought I was joking. So the temp controller said 4 but that wasnt really the case. He's not sure how low it will go since he never had to do it. I just checked the manual and it too doesnt say the range.


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## replin

Ok found a link. It says between 32 degrees F and 99 degrees F. Which means lower than 4 C.
http://www.marinedepot.com/JBJ_Mini_Arctica_Chiller_w_Digital_Controller_1_15HP_1_4_HP_Less_with_a_Built_In_Controller-JBJ_Lighting-JB1111-FICHINQCBC-JB1135-vi.html

For some reason it doesn't mention the temp range on the DA 500B.


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## Cyber Locc

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *replin*
> 
> Why don't you buy a freezer and do what others have done with that? Ok I just got a reply back from the dude. He said he thought I was joking. So the temp controller said 4 but that wasnt really the case. He's not sure how low it will go since he never had to do it. I just checked the manual and it too doesnt say the range.


It is a Window AC they use, you cant use a freezer its not built to be constantly loaded as it would be in this case. I will most likely have to







, I like the idea of a boxed chiller as it has a box already that looks purty with a window AC I will have to build my own. Therte is laser waterchillers they go to -30 and lower some of them are even designed to run the 3m liquid carbon.
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *replin*
> 
> Ok found a link. It says between 32 degrees F and 99 degrees F. Which means lower than 4 C.
> http://www.marinedepot.com/JBJ_Mini_Arctica_Chiller_w_Digital_Controller_1_15HP_1_4_HP_Less_with_a_Built_In_Controller-JBJ_Lighting-JB1111-FICHINQCBC-JB1135-vi.html
> 
> For some reason it doesn't mention the temp range on the DA 500B.


32f would be 0c, good to know







. Thank you kindly.


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