Bomad
July 19th 03, 07:00 PM
Thanks for the review. I too recently bought the same type of chiller.
Initially the unit brought my 110 tank down to 80 deg F without problems and
held it there for about a week. I left for a 2 week vacation and when I got
back the water temp had risen to 86 deg F. The chiller and pump were on but
I noticed that I had reversed the intake and outtake of the chiller.
Corrected same and am now waiting to see if it makes a difference.
"CJImbach" > wrote in message
om...
> Hello all,
>
> Please excuse me if this is not the sort of thing welcome on
> rec:aquaria, but over on alt.coffee we often post our initial and
> advanced impressions of new toys when we buy them - here then is mine:
>
> Since I decided to take the plunge into mini-reefdom from the land of
> nano- and micro-reefs, I have been looking for a small chiller that
> will give me a 5-10 degree f pulldown on a 100 gallon system. When I
> bought the one horse chiller for the Angel tank years ago, the state
> of the art at that time was Teflon lined copper or silver coils and a
> modular flow-thru frame of PVC. That one has served brilliantly for
> years but requires a medusa to keep the temps stable; state of the art
> now is smaller, quieter, lighter, more efficient, and far cheaper.
>
> On the market today, as far as I can tell, is the largest variety of
> 1/4 hp and smaller chillers that has ever been seen: There are
> thermoelectric chillers that offer nearly silent operation at the cost
> of absolute efficiency; traditional large and powerful compressor
> models from the old guard of CSL, AquaLogic, Techlima, etc. and
> finally a new and innovative breed of compressor chillers like the JBJ
> and the Via Aqua that promise quiet operation and titanium HX's with
> built in temp control in very small and inexpensive packages. I had
> decided I wanted one of these.
>
> I am lucky enough to live in an area full of LFS's and supply houses
> and was able to look at many of the options in this category first
> hand. To my eyes, the JBJ is pretty top-of-the heap as far as quality
> and solid construction go. The Aqua Medic's also look really good,
> and the Via Aqua CC25 was so cheap I had to take a look.
>
> After playing with the three of them locally, I decided to go with the
> Via Aqua from LiquidCooling.com (they also have an ebay presence that
> offers their products cheaper than the web store), at less than $300,
> it was a heck of a deal.
>
> Via Aqua is the brand name of Commodity Axis, a consortium that
> sources aquarium stuff from Asia and rebrands it for a variety of
> fairly high-end companies here is the US - one Sacramento, CA-based
> company comes to mind immediately. Their stuff typically comes with
> terrible documentation, lousy packaging, and inaccurate/un-useful
> product specs - but their stuff is usually very well made and is
> priced so far below the competition that it begs to be given a second
> look. such is the case with the CC25.
>
> The box arrived so badly beaten out of shape by UPS that the chiller
> had fully unseated itself from the form-fitting styro. The tubing
> connectors had punched through the foam and the power cord was
> sticking partially out of the box. The CC25 includes a 16-foot length
> of shaded 3/4" tubing that also serves as extra cushioning in the box
> - thank goodness. The strap that the box was sealed with had sunck so
> far into the box that it had a full 3" clearence at its biggest gap.
>
> I removed the chiller from the box and set it up on my play bench for
> inspection - it arrived in perfect shape although a completely
> different color from the CC25 on the instruction manual - I got gray
> and navy, the manual shows white and rainbow. The power switch is a
> VERY NICE water-proofed detent switch, mounted next to the 12 amp 250
> volt fuse and a spec sheet with so many spelling errors that I laughed
> out loud: "Max Cirile" and "Pure Titanium Euaporator" were my
> favorites. I was further amused by the disagreement between the
> outside labeling and the labels inside the machine. The compressor is
> marked 6.8 amps, the label on the outside of the chiller reads 2.05
> amps; a licensee of Mitsubishi manufacturers the components in China.
> Flow direction is clearly marked and the hose clips are those
> brilliant screw-on types that work so well on the Magnum disconnects.
> The large LCD display shows 1/2 degree f accuracy and the controls
> appear easy to operate.
>
> I set up the chiller with a 2000 lph pump in a 5 gallon mixing barrel
> I keep for lugging coral around, topped it with water, and powered the
> pump on. I read through the manual very carefully (all three salient
> pages) and powered the machine on. It started beeping loudly and
> furiously. No where in the blasted manual did it say this thing
> beeped! Powered it off and rifled through the documentation. On a
> 1/4 sheet of chartreuse paper tucked into the box is an addendum:
> Press Set after turning on to set temp.
>
> OK - great documentation!
>
> I powered it back to, lots of beeping, pressed Set, silence.
> Ahhh..and the display read 65. Adjusted the temp down to 50 degrees
> and a couple of minutes later the chiller kicked on and within 5
> minutes had the water down to an accurate 50 degrees f!
>
> So I put the little chiller on my big tank - 90 gallons - that is
> undergoing pressure testing right now and it was at an ambient 65 as
> well. In less than 2 hours it was running at 50 degrees. Wow, that
> is some serious chilling power in such a small package! Now the tank
> is unlit, has only air-lifts in it, etc. so there are no additional
> sources of heat to which may have accounted for the quick drop in temp
> but I was still impressed.
>
> Overall build quality is quite high. Internally the HX is beautifully
> made and covered with thick insulation. The cables are covered in
> fiberglass and the BIG fan is nicely balanced. When the machine is on
> it is VERY quiet - much quieter than my peltier/fan assist ice plug
> bank. The sound of the water pump was louder than the compressor.
>
> I will write more as I learn more about this little thing. I am going
> to skid mount it so that I can shuttle it from tank to tank in hot
> weather is necessary and then keep it in the garage most of the time
> since it only gets hot here in spurts.
>
> Hope this was at all helpful, I know I always look for something like
> this before I make a purchase.
>
> Best!
> -Jesse
Initially the unit brought my 110 tank down to 80 deg F without problems and
held it there for about a week. I left for a 2 week vacation and when I got
back the water temp had risen to 86 deg F. The chiller and pump were on but
I noticed that I had reversed the intake and outtake of the chiller.
Corrected same and am now waiting to see if it makes a difference.
"CJImbach" > wrote in message
om...
> Hello all,
>
> Please excuse me if this is not the sort of thing welcome on
> rec:aquaria, but over on alt.coffee we often post our initial and
> advanced impressions of new toys when we buy them - here then is mine:
>
> Since I decided to take the plunge into mini-reefdom from the land of
> nano- and micro-reefs, I have been looking for a small chiller that
> will give me a 5-10 degree f pulldown on a 100 gallon system. When I
> bought the one horse chiller for the Angel tank years ago, the state
> of the art at that time was Teflon lined copper or silver coils and a
> modular flow-thru frame of PVC. That one has served brilliantly for
> years but requires a medusa to keep the temps stable; state of the art
> now is smaller, quieter, lighter, more efficient, and far cheaper.
>
> On the market today, as far as I can tell, is the largest variety of
> 1/4 hp and smaller chillers that has ever been seen: There are
> thermoelectric chillers that offer nearly silent operation at the cost
> of absolute efficiency; traditional large and powerful compressor
> models from the old guard of CSL, AquaLogic, Techlima, etc. and
> finally a new and innovative breed of compressor chillers like the JBJ
> and the Via Aqua that promise quiet operation and titanium HX's with
> built in temp control in very small and inexpensive packages. I had
> decided I wanted one of these.
>
> I am lucky enough to live in an area full of LFS's and supply houses
> and was able to look at many of the options in this category first
> hand. To my eyes, the JBJ is pretty top-of-the heap as far as quality
> and solid construction go. The Aqua Medic's also look really good,
> and the Via Aqua CC25 was so cheap I had to take a look.
>
> After playing with the three of them locally, I decided to go with the
> Via Aqua from LiquidCooling.com (they also have an ebay presence that
> offers their products cheaper than the web store), at less than $300,
> it was a heck of a deal.
>
> Via Aqua is the brand name of Commodity Axis, a consortium that
> sources aquarium stuff from Asia and rebrands it for a variety of
> fairly high-end companies here is the US - one Sacramento, CA-based
> company comes to mind immediately. Their stuff typically comes with
> terrible documentation, lousy packaging, and inaccurate/un-useful
> product specs - but their stuff is usually very well made and is
> priced so far below the competition that it begs to be given a second
> look. such is the case with the CC25.
>
> The box arrived so badly beaten out of shape by UPS that the chiller
> had fully unseated itself from the form-fitting styro. The tubing
> connectors had punched through the foam and the power cord was
> sticking partially out of the box. The CC25 includes a 16-foot length
> of shaded 3/4" tubing that also serves as extra cushioning in the box
> - thank goodness. The strap that the box was sealed with had sunck so
> far into the box that it had a full 3" clearence at its biggest gap.
>
> I removed the chiller from the box and set it up on my play bench for
> inspection - it arrived in perfect shape although a completely
> different color from the CC25 on the instruction manual - I got gray
> and navy, the manual shows white and rainbow. The power switch is a
> VERY NICE water-proofed detent switch, mounted next to the 12 amp 250
> volt fuse and a spec sheet with so many spelling errors that I laughed
> out loud: "Max Cirile" and "Pure Titanium Euaporator" were my
> favorites. I was further amused by the disagreement between the
> outside labeling and the labels inside the machine. The compressor is
> marked 6.8 amps, the label on the outside of the chiller reads 2.05
> amps; a licensee of Mitsubishi manufacturers the components in China.
> Flow direction is clearly marked and the hose clips are those
> brilliant screw-on types that work so well on the Magnum disconnects.
> The large LCD display shows 1/2 degree f accuracy and the controls
> appear easy to operate.
>
> I set up the chiller with a 2000 lph pump in a 5 gallon mixing barrel
> I keep for lugging coral around, topped it with water, and powered the
> pump on. I read through the manual very carefully (all three salient
> pages) and powered the machine on. It started beeping loudly and
> furiously. No where in the blasted manual did it say this thing
> beeped! Powered it off and rifled through the documentation. On a
> 1/4 sheet of chartreuse paper tucked into the box is an addendum:
> Press Set after turning on to set temp.
>
> OK - great documentation!
>
> I powered it back to, lots of beeping, pressed Set, silence.
> Ahhh..and the display read 65. Adjusted the temp down to 50 degrees
> and a couple of minutes later the chiller kicked on and within 5
> minutes had the water down to an accurate 50 degrees f!
>
> So I put the little chiller on my big tank - 90 gallons - that is
> undergoing pressure testing right now and it was at an ambient 65 as
> well. In less than 2 hours it was running at 50 degrees. Wow, that
> is some serious chilling power in such a small package! Now the tank
> is unlit, has only air-lifts in it, etc. so there are no additional
> sources of heat to which may have accounted for the quick drop in temp
> but I was still impressed.
>
> Overall build quality is quite high. Internally the HX is beautifully
> made and covered with thick insulation. The cables are covered in
> fiberglass and the BIG fan is nicely balanced. When the machine is on
> it is VERY quiet - much quieter than my peltier/fan assist ice plug
> bank. The sound of the water pump was louder than the compressor.
>
> I will write more as I learn more about this little thing. I am going
> to skid mount it so that I can shuttle it from tank to tank in hot
> weather is necessary and then keep it in the garage most of the time
> since it only gets hot here in spurts.
>
> Hope this was at all helpful, I know I always look for something like
> this before I make a purchase.
>
> Best!
> -Jesse