Glycol chiller

Looking for something for my new CF5 unitank from Spike Brewing. I thought about the window ac diy build but I’m not sure I’d be happy with the look of it. I was thinking about bending mini fridge freezer into a container and trying that but I’m not sure it would be enough to cold crash. The Stasis looks neat and has pumps and controllers already installed. Anyone have a decent looking diy setup or something that doesn’t cost more than my unitank.

Are you looking to be able to control the fermentation then cold crash afterwards with one unit? If so, I think hands down, a premade gizmo will be the best ticket and most effective.
I’m sure you could make a water tank, put in a fridge and control pumps and temps with Johnson controller… But that would take some doing and money…
Sneezles61

Yeah the Stasis looks nice and is the cheapest of the glycol chillers but at $659 there is no way.
I’ll have to price out the window ac glycol build and if I can be around $150-200 range I could live with the look if it works.

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Something like this

I made one and it worked surprisingly well. As you mentioned the look was off putting as was the foot print. But it did work very well.

Yeah I might just go for that option. I plan on using an itc308. If I have a manual dial a/c the thermostat would be bypassed by wiring two wires together. Then just keep the other dial set to H cool and that’s it right? Besides making room for the cooler to fit up close without having to bend the evaporator all that much.

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I had a manual AC and never had to worry about settings or wiring. I used a Ranco set at 27° and had the thermostat probe pulled outside the unit. I ran the probe through the top of the cooler with a wrap around the probe right into the glycol.
I found getting the evaporator into the cooler at the right height without bending the copper was the most challenging part of the build.

Yeah that’s a good idea then no messing with wiring. Think I can fit this in just about 2’x2’ footprint if I shave the handles off cooler. I didn’t have to do a ton of bending just a couple tweaks and its sitting flush on bottom of cooler. I decided to stop trying to make it perfect before I caused a leak. Build a 2’x2’ platform on some casters and maybe box it in with the condenser end open and some side vents to pull in air. Hinged top on cooler side. Might make it look decent.

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Looks good! I too put mine on a double level platform of plywood with casters. Guess how many times I moved it. Unless you guessed ZERO guess again.

This looks good. Me on airport. Waiting. And thinking. Got a window ac in my workshed. I dont use. Good make a glysol cooler out of this.

I’ve ran it a a couple times for a few minutes and gets ice cold. Going to do a water test soon. Need to decide on how many gallons I want to put in it. I’ll probably make a few volume marks in the cooler. I was going to box it in but for now ill just leave it as is. Once I get the pump and tubing I’ll decide on where drill the holes. Put some thick rubber under compressor and condenser section to help with vibration amd noise.

My other thought was make a wide enough platform that I can put the CF5 and roll chiller under it and slide it out like a drawer if needed.

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Very nice! So the coil in the cooler will be immersed water?
Sneezles61

Yes I filled it with about 8 gallons last night for a test run. Almost fully covering the coil. Probably a little more than I wanted since food grade glycol is pretty expensive. Think I’ll displace some water with something so I don’t have to use as much. The compressor got fairly warm in a short time sp that might be another benefit of less water/glycol. We will see.

This looks real nice. Awesome