Cleaning rdwc system and chiller

Texagonian

Texagonian

Outlaw
Just wanting advice from all the hydro veterans on what’s been the best way to clean their rdwc system and especially the chiller. I’ve got some of that lab grade h2o2 that I was gonna run through the system and scrub the buckets and bulk heads to basically protein skim and the rinse everything. Any other suggestions would be much appreciated. Peace!
 
Heisen

Heisen

Dont Need One
Admin
Drain and rinse everything and hose down the. Buckets, flush it all out and shop vac the buckets out. 20ml bleach per gallon of water and refill the system. Reverse your hose lines to the chiller and turn pump on. Let it run for 24 hours and than empty. Refill system with water than flush 1 more time and shop vac out the rest of the water. Unhook the chiller and tilt it over to get the rest of water out. Dont leave chiller tilted just tilt quick enough to get the water out
Your all set till your ready to refill.
 
Greenthumbskunk

Greenthumbskunk

PICK YOUR OWN
Texagonian said:
Just wanting advice from all the hydro veterans on what’s been the best way to clean their rdwc system and especially the chiller. I’ve got some of that lab grade h2o2 that I was gonna run through the system and scrub the buckets and bulk heads to basically protein skim and the rinse everything. Any other suggestions would be much appreciated. Peace!
Click to expand...

I took a 5 gal bucket and placed the pump in the bucket that had a H2O2 mix in it. Had the return hose also going inside the bucket. Turned it on and left it running for a while. Come back with some clean water and then placed the pump and return hose in the fresh water and ran it for a while. Emptied that and did it again but this time left the return hose outside the bucket to run nothing but fresh water through it.
Then I put it back in the rez tank for the new grow.
Seems to work.
 
dstroy

dstroy

Insanely Active Member
You can run closed loop chilling too, which is more expensive and not as reliable because of the extra pumps and plumbing, but much easier to clean.

Instead of pumping nutrient solution through the chiller, you pump water (referred to as "coolant" in this context) through it. Plain water, with a little dawn dish soap as a surfactant, and some bleach.

That's the coolant, the chiller cools the coolant down inside of the coolant reservoir. I use a coleman cooler.

Then, you pump the coolant through stainless steel immersion chillers. No nutrient solution ever comes into contact with coolant, only with the outside of the coils and piping.

Very easy to clean. It's how I do it.
 
Texagonian

Texagonian

Outlaw
I thought about something like that but I just got through building my system and found a smoking deal on two half horse chillers. I thought about making a thermal electric peltier type cooling system but I went cheap and easy for the moment anyways. Thanks for the input, much appreciated ✌🏻
 
Greenthumbskunk

Greenthumbskunk

PICK YOUR OWN
Texagonian said:
I thought about something like that but I just got through building my system and found a smoking deal on two half horse chillers. I thought about making a thermal electric peltier type cooling system but I went cheap and easy for the moment anyways. Thanks for the input, much appreciated ✌🏻
Click to expand...

How much were those chillers?
 
Texagonian

Texagonian

Outlaw
I got the two 1/2 horse chillers for 40 bucks. Benefits of being in a flooded market where everyone and their dog grows or comes here thinking they’re gonna give it a go and then find out how much work is involved so they just go buy it from one of the hundreds of dispensaries. Go Oregon! On the flip side any excess I have is basically worthless.
 
Texagonian

Texagonian

Outlaw
Waxman420 said:
Wow 40 bucks a piece have to start checking oregon craigslist!!
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OfferUp is where I found them but Craigslist has them occasionally. Portland Craigslist but you can hit any of the cities in Oregon because there is usually a plethora of grow equipment for sale and almost all is obo 🤙🏻
 
Texagonian

Texagonian

Outlaw
Greenthumbskunk said:
Theirs nothing like that around here. Everything is still underground.
Click to expand...
That sucks but kinda cool in an outlaw kinda way. It’s so flooded here that I ended up donating my old 1000w switchable ballasts and air cooled hoods and used them as tax write offs because no one wanted to pay shit. I wasn’t even asking that much. It’s also made getting rid of any overage difficult. You bust your ass for a stellar harvest and you got cats telling you they’ll give you 75 an ounce. Sorry, guess I’ll just stockpile, make oil, edibles, etc. I like hooking folks up especially when in need but damn! Sorry, guess I needed to vent✌🏻
 
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