Wine Chiller Incubator?

[cyberlocc]

I have seen a few threads here of people talking about it, building a wine chiller incubator.

I am curious if anyone has a build log, or some pics of a complete one with a rundown.

I get the basics just wanting to get some tips and pics on a finished product.

I do not mean one that heats only, I mean one that leaves the cooler in tact for a climate control.

 

[MelissaB]

I'll have to look around in my bookmarked web sites. I remember seeing a page where someone used Peltier modules to make an incubator that heated and cooled. Not sure how reliable or what the range was. It's on my list of things to try when I get some free time.

 

[cyberlocc]

I'll have to look around in my bookmarked web sites. I remember seeing a page where someone used Peltier modules to make an incubator that heated and cooled. Not sure how reliable or what the range was. It's on my list of things to try when I get some free time.

That was kinda my plan. to use a thermoelectric fridge, (peltier wine chiller) and then just add the heat tape, of maybe get one of the double sectioned ones and removed them from the chiller and rewire.

Anyway I was thinking that with a Herpstat 2, to shut off heat and turn on cooling, or vice versa. I think most wine chiller can chill down to 70 in room temps of 90, and the cham room shouldn't be 90 anyway lol.

I know the peltier wine chillers are suppose to be very reliable, as long as you dont block the peltiers exhaust.

 

[cyberlocc]

I'll have to look around in my bookmarked web sites. I remember seeing a page where someone used Peltier modules to make an incubator that heated and cooled. Not sure how reliable or what the range was. It's on my list of things to try when I get some free time.

Did you ever find that bookmark?

 

[Fiona's Mom]

But where do you keep your wine????

 

[cyberlocc]

But where do you keep your wine????

I dont drink wine and I am dumb because I was trying to overthink this and I shouldn't .

So what I am going to do is, buy a 2 section wine chiller, I am going to remove the divider, and flip the peltier. Doing so will cause one to heat up the chiller the other will cause it to cool. Each will have there own 12v converter and there fans (2 on each) hooked to it.

What this will achieve is with the help of a herpstat 2, when heat is need peltier on the bottom will turn on, when it reaches its temp (lets say 70) it will turn off. When the temp reaches too hot (lets say 72) the cooler will turn on and maintain/drop the temp to back to the temp I want (72).

I will then convection. To do that, I will have at the top left of the unit a fan blowing out, this fan will blow into a pvc pipe, this pvc pipe will route down to the bottom right. I may add a water chamber to the PVC pipe, but I think a dish with water inside should do a fine job of that . (I may double fans so 2 on top 2 on bottom not sure yet, that will have to be trial and error, what I may also do is run both the fans on the peltiers inside 24x7, this will push the air to the front and help to circulate it.)

Those fans will run off yet another power supply, I will also have that PSU powering some Temperature gauges, as well as the lights.

Before I was thinking how I could use all the Wine Chillers circuitry and make this work. However there is no need honestly and I was over complicating things by trying. I will keep the peltiers and sinks and the actual unit the board and everything else will be scrapped.

Besides I trust a herpstat over the Chinese wine chillers stat and hardware .

 

[cyberlocc]

Well I have reached a new issue now I am on the hunt for a stat, spyders support cooling. they do not support on off heat, VEs, have on off heat they dont not support cooling.

So in light of that I need to find a nice 12v DC thermostat with heating and cooling.

 

[Fiona's Mom]

Sounds too complicated for me...I'll just use mine for wine....for medicinal purposes only of course!!

 

[cyberlocc]

Well if it helps anyone I found a stat, not sure that its trustworthy. I do have one of the 110 versions and they work fairly well, so IDK hopefully it will work and I will try to keep a backup. As it is cheap Chinese equipment lol.

It will be a bit before I can get to work on this I have a lot of projects going and dont need an incubator for a bit. However when I do it I will make a thread of how ect.

 

[MelissaB]

Did you ever find that bookmark?

Not yet, but I will, I promise. Been super busy with work and after work stuff. I want to say it was a bee keeper's site. They used them for the queens, somehow.

 

[cyberlocc]

Not yet, but I will, I promise. Been super busy with work and after work stuff. I want to say it was a bee keeper's site. They used them for the queens, somehow.

Cool, I will be sure to let you know when I build one as well to tell you how it works out.

It *should* work with no issue in my design, *however* the only issue is the amount it can drop the temp. so a 100w peltier, should be able to drop 90 maybe 95 to 72-74. And the goal of course is to never let it get that hot lol.

However for anyone that wants to do this I few a few things I have noticed and thought about.

1. Using a peltier for heat is sub par, You will be chilling the room, and its effectiveness will go down the hotter it gets. It will also require a dc Stat, of which they are lacking. If you want to use 1 good stat you have 1 option and that is a spyder robotics Herpstat 2, VE stats can be in on off mode (for the heat peltier) but do not support cooling. The spyder will support cooling but wants to dim the heat only, therefor I would do Heat tape heat and Peltier cool.

2. The Wine chiller isn't the best medium for this IMO, I think a standard mini fridge would work better as it is insulated better, you do lose the window however. A compressor mini fridge also has the large dent in the back where a peltier or 2 can be installed. So buying a High Quality Peltier and a HQ DC power supply for them is best IMO. (I actually have a old fridge that I gutted to try this with after I clear up some other projects that will be my pro-type of the real one , though it will be done cheaply just for testing)

3. The best fridge I have found to my liking is the True brand fridges that are used in stores )lots of people use them for this, they can be found broken affordable enoug). They have a shelving system, that allows heat tape on the sides of the fridge. This ensures ample room for heat tape and peltiers. These fridges also have Signs on the top or the ability to make one . This is good as it gives places to cut out for the stat, and led thermostats. The benefit I find to this situation is, the peltiers can then be installed on the top of the unit, This will allow the heat to rise away from the fridge, as well as the cooling fans to blow down.

They could then be left on 24/7 to help with Convection if desired. Cold Air falls so this is ideal and helps with the need for ventilation for the peltier on top. It does however place the peltier in a hotter place in the room. Experimentation would need to be done with that.

4. Another good idea, would be to watercool the peltiers, I do this with PCs already, however running a lot can cause failures semi quickly without a good pump and even then its up in the air. Not sure how trusting of a plan this is albeit doable. This will however increase the peltiers efficiency and life, as well as allow it to cool better. It will add a few hundred to the project for most (I could do it cheap as I have tons of water cooling parts around )

 

[Rango3d]

Hope that helps

 

[cyberlocc]

Hope that helps

Does it have a peltier to cool still?

 

[Rango3d]

Does it have a peltier to cool still?

No I removed it and I wish I didn't. It works like a champ.