Water Chiller Selection

Another one I had on my list, the reviews scared me a bit but, maybe every product should be reviewed personally.

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I had that Chinese chiller, but it broke in just a couple few weeks if I remember correctly. I was pissed I didnā€™t just get the more expensive one first. Wasted ~$100

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My bad. Full disclosure: havenā€™t even had it going for a full grow. Itā€™s in a garage with >90 degree heat regularly, so itā€™s doing great.

Just got a wattage meter that reports to smartthings and all in itā€™s drawing ~130kW/mo @ $0.15/kwH youā€™re looking at < $20/mo all in.

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I just bought this same one on eBay for $80 + tax and added a 2-year coverage plan for $6 which includes free repairs/replacement and free shipping (both ways). If anyone has any tips about this specific unit, like some of the ones already mentioned, please share!

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I have the same one. Its hard to use. I havnt even needed to use it yet.

Ugh, I bought it reluctantly cuz I know Iā€™m going to need it. Hope it doesnā€™t become a pain to deal with.

I also thought I would need one, never ended up requiring one. Hydroguard does fine.

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We had a 70 degree day yesterday and my reservoir was reading at 78 with a box fan pointing to the back of the Grobo. I donā€™t like having my ac on until the weather gets beyond 80 degrees so Iā€™m definitely going to need the chiller now that weā€™ve entered spring here. Iā€™ve been using Hydroguard, but it might be less effective since Iā€™m using tap water (I donā€™t plan on switching my water source yet since many growers have had success with tap).

@Hellyesshedid I nursed it through my first grow. Sometimes the water would freeze inside the chiller. Unplugged, until the ice melted on the inlet, outlet ports. Then plugged back in. That grow was right in the middle of summer. About a month into the second grow, it quit chilling altogether. With the ambient conditions now, I donā€™t need it. Was going to go with hydroguard for my next grow

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Damn, how often would that happen? Since I have 2 year insurance on the chiller, I donā€™t mind if I have to send it in once a year. Do you think having an external pump would make a difference in any way?

About once a week, maybe less. Iā€™m retired and pass by the unit frequently during the day. I just got in the habit of glancing at the temp. When it was up, Iā€™d check. Regarding the pump size, itā€™s so small, I donā€™t think it would matter.

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Sorry, just for clarity - when you say youā€™d glance at the temps and when the temps were up, youā€™d check on it - youā€™re saying that when the unit is reading higher temps that that letā€™s you know something is wrong (like water being frozen inside the chiller), right? How long would you have to keep it unplugged for when that happened before you could go ahead and plug it back in? Do you think there is any way for me to prevent the water from freezing?

Thanks for your help btw!

I had my chiller set to keep the water between 17.5C and 18.5C. When the digital display on the chiller would be above 18.5C, Iā€™d investigate. Unplugging for 2 hours would work for me. And I have no idea how to keep it from freezing :grinning:

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Ok, thank you! If I find any new info Iā€™ll add it to this thread.

:+1:

This is a good one and easy to useā€¦
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BHHQLKR/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_7?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

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Many growers have had success with tap but not in the grobo, are you sure you werenā€™t reading about a tent, flora flex, potted, or outside grow?

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I reluctantly spent the $100 for the cheap unit from China, Iā€™m not ready to get a $300 unit :grimacing:

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Oops, I thought @chris_barfield meant he was using tap in the Grobo! But yeah more so hydroponic tent setups, but I donā€™t see how thatā€™d be much different from the Grobo. If it conflicts with the automated feeding, Iā€™d be willing to manually feed and just keep bottles 1&2 connected for any pH changes in the reservoir.

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It is different in the way of how the machine operates and gets clogged up by certain things within the water.
Not so much the plant itself but the system used.
Sensors, probes, lines, etcā€¦

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