Vehicle Radiator For Reticulated Cooling

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Vehicle Radiator For Reticulated Cooling

Postby Vultch » Sat Mar 07, 2020 3:07 pm

I recently acquired a radiator and thermo fan from a Ford Festiva to set up as a cooling system for my 4" bubbler.
So I set to and assembled a cooling system with a 350w Ozito pump and a 100 litre water tank.
Unfortunately this setup does not cope cooling both RC and PC so for now I am just using this system to cool the PC
and using mains water for the RC.
So my question is for the guys using vehicle radiators, what size/type are you using and how efficient is your setup?.
Vultch
 
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Location: Kings Meadows Tas
equipment: Still Spirits T500
4" 4 plate bubbler on 50 litre keg, reticulated cooling using 100 litre tank and car radiator.

Re: Vehicle Radiator For Reticulated Cooling

Postby bluc » Sat Mar 07, 2020 3:57 pm

What sort fan you using?
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Re: Vehicle Radiator For Reticulated Cooling

Postby RC Al » Sat Mar 07, 2020 4:03 pm

Do you have a shroud on the fan? they are pretty important, if there is space between the outside edge of the fan housing and the rad, the air will flow around, not through - can even be made of cardboard
Are you providing sufficient amps to the fan - typically 15-25A @12-14v
Have you ensured that there is no air trapped in the recirc system?
A (any) car cooling system is designed to cope with way more heat than what you should be poking at a 4"
Is it possible that you may be using too much flow, giving the water no time to soak the heat in?
Last edited by RC Al on Sat Mar 07, 2020 4:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Vehicle Radiator For Reticulated Cooling

Postby Vultch » Sat Mar 07, 2020 4:58 pm

Thanks for the quick replies.
I am using the OEM fan and shroud.
Fan is powered by a 12volt, 40amp power supply and is pulling a decent flow of air through the radiator.
The only thing is the fan and shroud only covers about 3/4 of the radiator. Just the way it is designed by Ford.
Pretty confident there is no air trapped in the system.
When operating the still I was running water through the PC flat out and pretty much just a trickle through the RC
to achieve a toothpick stream of product.
I then tried reducing the flow through the PC thinking the longer it took passing through the radiator the better.
So now I'm thinking the radiator is not big enough or some of the tubes are blocked, even though water appears
to flow quite freely through the system.
Vultch
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Jul 22, 2016 10:26 am
Location: Kings Meadows Tas
equipment: Still Spirits T500
4" 4 plate bubbler on 50 litre keg, reticulated cooling using 100 litre tank and car radiator.

Re: Vehicle Radiator For Reticulated Cooling

Postby RC Al » Sat Mar 07, 2020 5:13 pm

Sounds like you did everything properly, maybe your still is more powerful than a Fiesta :laughing-rolling:
Sorry man i'm out of ideas
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Re: Vehicle Radiator For Reticulated Cooling

Postby Vultch » Sat Mar 07, 2020 5:37 pm

RC Al wrote: maybe your still is more powerful than a Fiesta :laughing-rollin

Well I was pretty sure this radiator would be enough to knock down 2400 watts but........
Vultch
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Jul 22, 2016 10:26 am
Location: Kings Meadows Tas
equipment: Still Spirits T500
4" 4 plate bubbler on 50 litre keg, reticulated cooling using 100 litre tank and car radiator.

Re: Vehicle Radiator For Reticulated Cooling

Postby db1979 » Sat Mar 07, 2020 5:51 pm

A radiator setup will only ever get you within a certain temperature of ambient air temperature. What is important is consistent temp in your cooling. So long as it does that then it's working. When you say it's not cooling, is it keeping temp constant or is it gradually rising?
I recently made a change to my system and I've got some more work to do on it but before I stuffed with it I was getting stable temps just above ambient. I run a twin fan radiator with a 40 W fountain pump that sits in a 10 L reservoir. I've tried to maximise the diameter of my cooling lines wherever I can, with at least half of it being 32 mm wide, the rest is 19 mm.
At the moment I've got my radiator sitting too close to the shed wall, and the warm air ends up recirculating through it too much. I've got plans to make it mobile with modular plumbing to move it outside the shed. Space is a premium for me, so a radiator is a good solution.
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Re: Vehicle Radiator For Reticulated Cooling

Postby Vultch » Sat Mar 07, 2020 6:30 pm

I have now done 3 runs with this setup with the boiler only half charged (about 25 litres) and each time the water temperature
continued to rise from about 24 -25 degrees to about 30 - 32 degrees so I just assumed if I fill the boiler and run the still
the water temperature would increase to 40+ degrees.
Each of these runs were done on warm days. (30+ degrees)
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Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Jul 22, 2016 10:26 am
Location: Kings Meadows Tas
equipment: Still Spirits T500
4" 4 plate bubbler on 50 litre keg, reticulated cooling using 100 litre tank and car radiator.

Re: Vehicle Radiator For Reticulated Cooling

Postby db1979 » Sat Mar 07, 2020 6:48 pm

If it's working properly it should sit at around 32 degrees on a 30 degree day. So long as your cooling temp stabilises while you're running heads then you're all good. You need stable temps so your reflux ratio is stable.
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Location: South of the big smoke in banana bender land.
equipment: Eve - 4" x 4 plate solid state bubbler (sieve plates), 330 mm packed section on a keg boiler with 2 x 2000 W elements.
Currently having a makeover: 2" x 4 plate solid state bubbler (1" bubble caps, no sight glasses...maybe not for much longer!) on a bain-marie boiler.

Re: Vehicle Radiator For Reticulated Cooling

Postby Tesla101 » Sat Mar 07, 2020 8:42 pm

I've been running a radiator with a couple of 14" 12v fans using a 460w ozito subby pump in a 120l wheelie bin and my cooling temp never goes a few degrees above ambient temp.
Mind you I'm running a T500 with the cooling running through the RC and then the PC.
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Re: Vehicle Radiator For Reticulated Cooling

Postby db1979 » Sat Mar 07, 2020 9:18 pm

Tesla101 wrote:I've been running a radiator with a couple of 14" 12v fans using a 460w ozito subby pump in a 120l wheelie bin and my cooling temp never goes a few degrees above ambient temp.
Mind you I'm running a T500 with the cooling running through the RC and then the PC.

:handgestures-thumbupleft: you're winning then
db1979
 
Posts: 1760
Joined: Sat Dec 29, 2012 3:47 pm
Location: South of the big smoke in banana bender land.
equipment: Eve - 4" x 4 plate solid state bubbler (sieve plates), 330 mm packed section on a keg boiler with 2 x 2000 W elements.
Currently having a makeover: 2" x 4 plate solid state bubbler (1" bubble caps, no sight glasses...maybe not for much longer!) on a bain-marie boiler.

Re: Vehicle Radiator For Reticulated Cooling

Postby scythe » Sun Mar 08, 2020 7:30 am

Yeah a radiator will only get below ambient temp if you have a secondary method of cooling the water.
Like setting it up in a cool room.
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Re: Vehicle Radiator For Reticulated Cooling

Postby Tesla101 » Sun Mar 08, 2020 9:04 am

db1979 wrote:
Tesla101 wrote:I've been running a radiator with a couple of 14" 12v fans using a 460w ozito subby pump in a 120l wheelie bin and my cooling temp never goes a few degrees above ambient temp.
Mind you I'm running a T500 with the cooling running through the RC and then the PC.

:handgestures-thumbupleft: you're winning then


Thanks db :)

Oops, I just noticed I made a mistake. I'm running the T500 with the cooling running through the PC and then the RC
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Re: Vehicle Radiator For Reticulated Cooling

Postby Teddysad » Sun Mar 08, 2020 1:07 pm

I use a 200l reservoir and a 2 fan car radiator, a fountain pump works well and is not overpowered
Throwing a full 2400w at it with my 100mm setup means I can hold it at between 1.5° and 2 ° above the ambient room temp all day long.
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Re: Vehicle Radiator For Reticulated Cooling

Postby db1979 » Sun Mar 08, 2020 4:16 pm

Teddysad wrote:I use a 200l reservoir and a 2 fan car radiator, a fountain pump works well and is not overpowered
Throwing a full 2400w at it with my 100mm setup means I can hold it at between 1.5° and 2 ° above the ambient room temp all day long.

:handgestures-thumbupleft:
db1979
 
Posts: 1760
Joined: Sat Dec 29, 2012 3:47 pm
Location: South of the big smoke in banana bender land.
equipment: Eve - 4" x 4 plate solid state bubbler (sieve plates), 330 mm packed section on a keg boiler with 2 x 2000 W elements.
Currently having a makeover: 2" x 4 plate solid state bubbler (1" bubble caps, no sight glasses...maybe not for much longer!) on a bain-marie boiler.


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