Initial Impressions: Via Aqua CC25 Chiller - long

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