So the refrigeration gods have blessed me this week and a portable air conditioner has crapped out at work. The evaporator fan has cut out and finding a replacement for that and installing it would cost more than the unit is worth. So I cleared it with my boss and it's mine. The compressor is still amazing. The unit itself has only been used for a few months. The place it was being used in was an office and someone accidentally dropped a pencil down the front and jammed the evaporator fan and fried the motor.

The unit is a 1 ton, 11600 BTU, 1850 W of cooling. The plan is to remove both the condenser and the evap and replace them with 2 water cooled condensers. One of the water cooled condensers will act as a condenser and remove the heat from the refrigeration lines. The second water cooled condenser will act as the evaporator and chill the water that loops around the lines.

The original fans for both the condenser and evaporator are the same, 115 v AC 53w fans. I will be replacing those with aquarium water pumps. Those will be 115v AC 45 w pumps, 500-600 GPH pumps, one for each loop.

I'm pretty sure with those AC pumps I won't need any other pumps in the loop. The plan to cool the hot loop/condenser is 2 MOA-RA3 an 3 480 mm SR-1's. The condensers are rated at 130F so I think those should be enough to cool the condenser. If I need more I may have room for another 2 MOA-RA3's.


I'm open to suggestions and input as to what you think would work better or if I'd be better off doing/using other parts. There will be pictures to come later today and throughout the build process.

Whatever you decide to do, make you you post pics... or it never happened ;)

yep, "someone" dropped a pencil in it, anyway GL with your build.

nateman_doo


Whatever you decide to do, make you you post pics... or it never happened ;)

+1
 
To the OP,

Yes. Pics and a simple, thorough explanation of your progress would be definately appreciated.  I for one, will look forward to this little project.

Pictures are here.
 
This is just taking everything apart and the guts of the A/C.
 
These for the most part are just relays for the condenser and evaporator fans. They control the voltage going to each and based on the temp in the room, tell the evap fan to come on or stay off.
By jaskarnsidhu
 
This is a pic of the current condenser fan and the compressor start capacitor. The capacitor is on the bottom right, it has that tope coloured cap on it.
By jaskarnsidhu
 
Here is the original spec's for this A/C unit. I was wrong about the amount of watts for cooling. Its actually 1300 and not 1800. I dont know where I got 1800 from.
By jaskarnsidhu
 
A better picture of the whole unit.
By jaskarnsidhu
 
Compressor and condenser.
By jaskarnsidhu
 
A front side picture. You can see the side of the compressor start capacitor here. Also thats the evap on top.
By jaskarnsidhu
 
 
There will be more pictures to come as parts come in and parts come off. Next step will be to recover the refrigerant, remove all the plastic and sweat off the evap and condensers.
 
Stay tuned for more :)

Subscribed.

Stay tuned for updates tonight.

Done yet?

Progress so far with Pictures.
 
This is puncturing the line to be able to recover the refrigerant in the system. There are no access valves so a line punch was needed.
 
By jaskarnsidhu 
 
 
Here is the actual recovery process via a recovery machine. The old refrigerant is being taking from the AC and put into a recovery cylinder.
 
By jaskarnsidhu
 
This is what the unit looks like after everything is stripped down and its awaiting the flame. Next step will be to sweat off the copper joints.
 
By jaskarnsidhu
 
The actual sweating part. Removing the condenser and the evaporator. In this picture I've already removed the evaporator and am finishing off the condenser.
 
By jaskarnsidhu
 
Taping off the lines so moisture doesnt get in.
 
By jaskarnsidhu
 
What the lines look like once they have all been taped off. That is my buddy in the back that has been helping me.
 
By jaskarnsidhu
 
 
I didnt know if I would be able to fabricate a proper base mounting plate for the compressor or if the custom made case I am getting would be able to handle the weight of the compressor. So to be on the safe side I removed the old base plate incase I needed it, and painted it black.
 
By jaskarnsidhu

If I am understanding you correctly, your going to be putting the air cooled condenser (via second water loop) in the computer case? if so that's a whole lot of heat to add to a room. is it possible to run that to the outside and use a glycol in the loop so it does not freeze?

The compressor is rated for 130F max, so it wont go higher than that. The plan now is to use 4 MOA-RA3 Pro's and 3 SR-1's for cooling the condenser loop.
 
Another option Im looking into is possibly having a water line fill the reservoir and having an in-line float control when to open and close. This way, when there is evaporation in the system, the water will be replaced with fresh, cooler water.....but that would be a lot more work and a bit more complex.

That compressor is HUGE!

It is, it's a one ton compressor. Kinda over kill for computer cooling but it will be cooling TEC's for the CPU and when they are released the TEC's for the 690 classified or 680 classified.

nice i have a simular project going, but i using a fishtank cooler suitable for a 200galloon. subd

Can anyone help me with some info here please? Is a 550 GPH pump going to be enough to push water thru 2 CPU's, 3 590's and 2 570?

Depending on how cold you go, it might be ok.  Using my 12,000 BTU chiller, the flow with a 700gpm pump I use, is but a trickle.  That's with 1 cpu & 2 gpus.  But I'm @ -20c full load, so who cares about flow at that point.
 
If you are using water above freezing point, I think you'll be fine.  Test it, my friend.  

You are using a pump that is pumping 700 GPM? Thats 3080 litres per minute. And you say thats just a trickle?
 
If thats the case I dont think my 500 GPH AC pump is going to cut it.

Sorry GP"H", not GPM

If your coolant temps are/were higher, how would that effect the flow rate? Would increased temps increase the flow rate and efficiency of the pump?
 
I may have to choose a bigger pump.

Yes, even an antifreeze liquid becomes thick when -20 to -30c.  If you are around 10C (50F), you will have no problem with flow.  Even down to 0c should be fine.  I say 10C because that's around the dew point in ambient conditions and condensation starts to form then....I suspect you want to stay away from condensation.

Yes that is true but I have plans to insulate and protect against condensation.
 
Im interested to hear about your 1 ton water chiller. Did you construct it yourself or buy it pre-assembled? What parts did you use? If you have some pictures I'd love to see it.

I just dropped the evap into a cooler and filled it with windshield wiper/anti-freeze mix.  Then submerged the pump and circulated the liquid.  I'll look for some pics.

A few early test pics, but if you look at the "Get it Colder II" thread you'll find the evga get it colder crew's set-up's.

 

Im essentially doing the same thing, only im replacing the evap with a water cooled condenser that will act as the evap. This way its already insulated so i dont have to worry about frosting up the evap and I can just run a 25%/75% glycol water mix.

Do you use the original AC controls to control your liquid temp/evap temps? Where do you have the condenser exhaust air going to?

Yes, I use the original controls.  I have it in my basement so I just blow the exhaust right in the room.
 
How cold do you plan on going?

Don't forget to upgrade the electric in your house if your going to have that running all the time ;)
 
Maybe a dedicated breaker for the chiller, and one for the computer.

Already ahead of you there Nateman. I'm currently in the process of moving. When my new home is finished and built my man cave will have 2 separate 30 A breakers and a separate 20 A breaker. The chiller itself will only draw 11 A max and my two computers with their 1200 psu power supplies will draw 20 A. 2 monitors and speakers and the two computers can go into one of the 30 A plugs while the chiller goes into the other 30 A plug.

The house should be finished by the end of this summer. By then I hope to have all of my computing affairs in order.

Picking up the evap coil and water pump today. I found 2 really good pumps. I can either go with a 30 W 800 GPH pump or a 60 W 1300 GPH pump. I'm leaning towards the 60 W 1300 GPH pump but the water connections are 1". I'd need a reducer to go from 1" to 1/2" for my blocks. I don't know how much the pressure will increase and if my blocks can handle it. Anyone have any suggestions?

Go with the bigger one.  I ran a pump that was 1100 gph and it worked good.(before it crapped out on me)  You can find connectors at home depot/Lowes.  You probably know where to find 'em.