I just had to buy a mag 12. that should give me close to 600gph after I finnish plumbing in my UV

Well, unless I see a MAG 12 on sale for $20, the MAG 7 will have to do for now.

do you have another mag drive pump laying around? you could "T" them togeather at the input to raise the volume.

I picked up 10 fuses today so if you need on in a emergency you can come get one. only 10.00 ea :mrgreen: :wink:

Steve

Nope, no spare pumps laying around. And I did blow another fuse this afternoon and no, I'm not giving you $10 for one! :razz:
This thing is quickly becoming a pain in the butt! I may, for now, swap the MAG 12 return pump with the 7. The tank can survive for now with 500gph return, and then I can use the 12 for the chiller. If that still doesn't do it, there will be a chiller for sale in the 'for sale' forum!!

who else has blowen fuses? I am curious to see if the "low flow" is common to all use fuse blowers. I had 200 gph flow and had to have a 12" fan on high 1 foot away to keep it from blowing more.

Brad had his in a open area with ambiant ventalation but with only 135 gph and blowing a fuse every time you looked at it wrong.

?? anyone else.

I narrowed my cycle down to 2 degrees and no problem but befor with the lower flow that would blow the fuse with in a day. if this is working good tomorow still I will try turning off the fans in the tank and then sunday I will try turning off the fan in the crawl space and see if I am going to blow a fuse still with the proper flow through the unit.

Steve

I dunno. I think my setup wasnt too shabby.

1" ID tubing, thru to the chiller and then out. total of about 6ish' of tubing plumbed to a mag7. Had two fans blowing cold air from my central AC across the back of the chiller. Blew a fuse.

Now I have moved the tank downstairs, added the UV filter to the loop (large 1" intake on it) and added about 3-5' more in tubing...

I never "measured" the flow, but it was decent, especially in the first setup.

ok so now it has been a week sence I upgraded the flow to the maximum level recomended and no fuses blowen. this is with a 2 degree set point and no fans on the tank. my tank has ~ 78.3 degree every time I look at it give or take 1/2 a degree.

Steve

any updates brad?

Yup, I turned the controller to 4 degree set point and put a fan in front of the unit. Haven't blown a fuse for a week or so. There's a thread on RC where some guys changed the size of the plumbing fittings going in and out, which increased the flow rate a lot, and prevented any fuses blowing. So, I can add a larger pump, or change the fittings. Although, I find that when I set the thing to a 2 dgree swing, my tank sat at 81.5 degrees F. Now with the 4 degree swing, my tank sits at 81.5 F. :rolleyes:

chiller
 

After reading this thread, it seems as though in-line chillers can create many complications when they don't work properly. I am currently in the market for a chiller myself and from what I've seen so far, in-line is not the best way to go. There seems to be many variables that can go wrong.
I would pull hairs if I had spent $700 on a chiller and had to muck around with plumming, fuse, pump, etc. It just doesn't seem right.

From what I've gathered, drop-in coil chillers are quite portable and efficient
No plumming, pumps, or leaks to worry about. And for the price difference, I think it is well worth it.

Brad, Steve, if you had a choice, would you buy this product again?
If not, would you consider the drop-in coil? Why or why not?

- Will

Re: chiller
 

Even after the hassle, I would buy this unit again. I think the vendor could have been more helpful with pump recommendations and plumbing suggestions, but overall, this unit does keep my tank at a constant temp.

I like the remote install feature of this unit. The drop in might be nice, but it would need to sit within 6 ft of my sump, which wouldn't work very well for me.

Re: chiller
 

a drop in chiller would have been the ideal but then you have a whole new mess of problems, like where do you put it? how do you make sure it gets proper ventalation if you put it in your stand? how do you get rid of the excess heat it throws into the same room that your tank is in?

like Brad stated it is a awsome little chiller even though it blows the ocasional fuse. but the recomendations for pumps or an actual data sheet of the # of feet of head the internals add to the system would have been helpfull.

Steve

Re: chiller
 

I guess that would be a problem if you had to put it under the stand. Something I didn't have to consider because my sump is in a seperate room. For most application, the 5-6ft of coil wouldn't be long enough to place anywhere else but next to the tank/sump. This would be only contribute more heat and defeat the purpose. I guess there is a place for the in-line after all.

Hello,

A update I guess. I just installed three of these Pacific Coast chillers inside cabinets under the display tanks. I have modified also the connections with 1" female adaptor to accomodate a larger flex hose connection. I could use a 1" MPT x Barb connector but I am using a 1" MPT x 3/4" Barb to mate with a 3/4" ID hose. So far the water turnover rate looks good and I haven't be made awared of any fuse blown out yet.

More updates with pictures of the systems to follow in about a week or two.

Titus

Just changing the barb fittinbgs isn't going to increase your flow rate in them, I did some looking into mine when Brad mentiond that6 some one was changing the fittings to improve the flow through the chiller. the tubing inside is only so big and haveing a larger supply isn't going to increase the internal size but it will help for people that have to many 90's and such from there pump to the chiller and then back to the tank as going with a bigger tube will reduce the head pressure. so if you are using to small of a pump it will help (as in Brads case) or you can just buy a larger pump. I found the reason I blew the second fuse, I had a additive bag over the intake of my mag 12 so it was restricting the flow through the unit.

for anyone wondering I find the mag 12 runnign through my lifeguard UV (25 watt) then down into my chiller and back up to my tank is giving me 595 GPH using 3/4" black vinal tubing. this is only 5 gph under the max rating and I have had no fuses blow sence I upgraded to the mag 12.

Steve

Hello,

Well when I look at the openings inside it is still quite a bit bigger than the barb fittings they provide. And I mean quite a bit bigger.

Titus

Titus, are you setting up the CL650 model? I'll tkae mine apart this wekend to see what it looks like.

hmm, I was led to believe the tube size was the smaller, Brad see how much you can see in yours and let me know.

Steve

Great chiller BUT!!!
 

I got 1/4HP one just a few days ago. Easy as a pie to install using supplied fittings using Mag 7 pump. 2-3 hours into operations it stopped working. Thanks to this thread my troubleshooting lasted only 2 sec. Yes, fuse was gone :cry: I changed the fuse and it died even faster this time. Another fuse went in (yes, I bought some spare when I got the chiller :biggrin: ) and 8” table fan was installed to blow air through the chiller. No more fuse problems.

Now, after first day of usage I changed the fittings using 1” coupling and ¾” barb to feed the chiller with ¾ ID tubing. I also no longer use Mag7, just too noisy to my taste. I installed Eheim 1260 instead, it has same flow rating as Mag 7, but way more silent.

No more fan in front of the chiller and no more blown fuses either over last 24 hours. BTW, my tank sits in smaller glass room that gets quite hot when MHs are on - 27deg. C at peak.

can you take a pic of what you changed in the fittings and what fittings you used please?

Steve

I used the fittings below for IN/OUT on the chiller just for now, using regular hose. The goal is to use just one 1" FPT x 3/4" PVC piping with Flex PVC used in Spa/Pools. I have to do 3/4" ID to match my pump.

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/data/500/330in_out.jpg

I am having a hard time picturing that connecting to the unit, would you be able to take a pic of that also please? I wouldn't mind upgrading my fittings but I need to visualize what everyone is doing so it will make sense. I am using 3/4" vinyl black tubing but it just slides over the 1/2" fittings that comes with the unit. maybe opening that up a little will allow me to turn off the fan.

Steve

Hello,

Brad have you solved this problem yet?

Titus

Well, I went to bigger plumbing and changed the fuse holder to accept larger fuses. I've only blown 1 fuse in 4 months now...

never heard of a chiller that takes a fuse.

AFAIK, they all take fuses....

mine csl certainly doesn’t. none of the older style chillers ive seen do either, maybe the newer style ones with the built in controllers all do.

wow, who knew?? :razz: This is the only chiller I've owned, so....

maybe if you look inside. If it doesen't have a fuse don't use it as it is a grow op hack job and not CSE aproved.

Steve

i have no idea what that means.

Most of the units I have seen that do not have a fuse are home made units for cooling water in hydroponics. the problem that arises if you don't have a fuse is say you have a max draw of 5 amps for your unit. now you get a partial short in the wiring and it starts drawing 13 amps. not enuf to trip your breaker but enuf to start the wiring that is rated for 5 amps to catch fire and possibly burn down your house.

with out the safety feature of a fuse or a thermal breaker you can not get it approved for electrical use in Canada or the US.

Steve

I am not sure what you guys are doing that is giving you so many problems......

I bought a CL280 5 months ago and it has never blown a fuse yet.

I used 1" female adaptors on the unit with 1" slip x 3/4" fipt reducer bushings to 3/4" barb 90's, run off my main return pump.

It's sitting right beside my tank and my computer makes twice the heat the chiller does.

Never had a single problem since install.

we already corrected it a long time ago. to little water flow through the chiller was the culprit.

Steve

ok so now that we had that heat wave I have blowen 3 fuses in 4or 5 days. cleaning the pump now to see if that helps.

Steve

just sent off an e-mail about the fuse popping and hopefully I will get some help there. Pacific coast importers are not the manufactures hopefully they will give me the name of them so I can talk to them directly as they state they will do in there warenty policy.

Steve

Steve, have you looked at expandig the size of the intake/output fittings to allow greater flow? This was described in one of my threads on RC...

Hey Steve , don't bother E-mailling them just give them a call with the 1-800 number on the chiller . They are VERY helpful people

I didn't find them helpful at all, really. They insisted on blaming my setup for the fuses, nothing else.
For the most part, most complaints of this happening have been resolved with more flow through the chiller.

Well , I did :smile:

to be fair, most people report the same as you. I guess after blowing 15 fuses, and not getting anything from them, I just gave up.