Building a compact evaporator.
 

Folowing Volenti's inspiration, I'm making a high performance silent evaporator. The materials used are from pressure PVC piping parts, as they are cheaper and with better ID than micro irrigation parts.

The base uses 20mm pipes, with 16mm ID, and the fittings have the ID of the pipes, so there's very little pressure drop from using several stacked Tees and elbows.

I'm still trying to find thin (6mm) PVC pipes for the risers, as I can have a very strong adhesion with the main pipes if they are of the same material, but brass or copper ones are my second option.

I assembled all the base parts without glue, and the fit so tight that is more than enough for the pressures involved in this setup. In fact you need to push very hard to fit all the pieces together.

This is what I have at this stage, actual size is 20 x 35 cm. Up to now materials cost is less than US $2!

Looking good... though did you have to put your chewing gum out on it?... you disgust me ;P.

~ Boli

Heh, That's a bar code sticker ;)

Some improvements:

This is designed as a floating structure with the pump attached under it. This way pump vibrations are isolated from the container, and the full lenght of the risers is in contact with the air.

I carved a styrofoam block with the soldering iron, to hold and provide the right flotation to balance the pump; alowing the full structure to float leveled.

Here's the pump with a filter attached and the floater.

And everything floating nice.

Lookin good :D

I'm having trouble finding cost effective 6mm or 1/4" rigid plastic tubes for the risers. Copper or brass are also more expensive than resasonable for this project. The only available cheap option is aluminun, but I don't like the idea of using that metal in my loop. :shrug:

WHy dont you use the irrigation risers like Volenti has?

I have made one as well, I made mine from a copper base, and soldered small (about 20mm high, 3mm in diameter) copper tubes on to the base, which will now let me stickt he riser tubes onto. i have 50 risers

I only have one riser... bit tempremental and on occasion leaks like a bastard but I have put it down to either additives in the system or external handling.

Though I must say that even though I didn't build it myself it is one of my most favourtite things in the world.

Hold on - you say you have 50 risers? Ahhh Your still talking about water cooling... sorry wrong forum.

:D

~ Boli

Good thinking with the floating riser base, I like:D

It's true the micro-irrigation risers aren't ideal, their ID is a little too small, infact if you have a nutzy pump and too few risers the water will shoot out the ends rather then overflowing gently, I had to add more risers to my setup because of this.

Had to put this on hold cause I have a lot of work, maybe in amonth I'm going to resume. :(

I coldn't find that type of risers. The only micro irrigation 1/4" tubing available is too soft and flexible. Also don't like them because the fittings to insert them in the main pipes have an id of about 2mm. :shrug: