water or oil cooling??

[jimmy101]

Doesn't look very safe...

Ya, a ground-fault circuit breaker (GFI) would probably be a good idea.

(In the US, most homes built in the last 20 years or so already have GFIs in the kitchen, bathrooms, garage and outdoors.)

[psycix]

A fridge compressor? It looks like an electrolysis machine to me...

Stop doing stuff with water. Its dangerous in your hands.

[POLAND_SPUD]

just the bottom of it is under water...
anyway the compressor is connected to the tank, gauge & fittings via 8 meters of 4X2 tubing...
so it's not that it is dangerous

so far it seems quite promising... after 1 hour of continuous work the water increased temperature to 40 deg C and the top of the casing was only slightly warmer... I really have to find a way to seal it & immerse it completely and/or use more water

[Crna Legija]

I think if you tap two holes at the bottom and connect a small car radiator it would be better.

[psycix]

I think if you tap two holes at the bottom and connect a small car radiator it would be better.

I know it will be better.
Cool the oil!

[Hotwired]

Why not think out of the pump housing. Feed it chilled air

Ironically this will need another pump and radiator system to cool the air but don't worry about that. At least the air con will be working as designed

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

I still think an improvised radiator will suffice, using steel wool as Rag had suggested. At least it will stay dry

[Hotwired]

What is the purpose of the steel wool?

Compared to just having a fan blowing air over the casing.

It's got a lot of surface area but it's got very very little of that in contact with the paint of the casing.

It also restricts airflow somewhat.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

That's the point of the sheet metal, it would increased the contact area with the casing.

[POLAND_SPUD]

I think if you tap two holes at the bottom and connect a small car radiator it would be better.

I'd have to drill and tap two holes.... With this deigns I just have to seal it perfectly and voila - it works

Of course, I might as well use a car radiator with this design. it would be a lot easier to tap holes in a large plastic bucket/barrel or some other container

[spudamine]

I still think an improvised radiator will suffice, using steel wool as Rag had suggested. At least it will stay dry

I've got something a little bit like your diagram, twin 40w fans on the ends in a push pull setup but no steel wool, it works very well without it thankyou
Like hotwired said I think adding steel wool would just reduce the airflow. steel is also a poor conductor of heat compared with aluminium or copper, would be hard to ceate a good thermal junction to the case with and individual strands would be too thin to conduct much heat away anyway. actually, I think you would just end up insulating your compressor

@ poland, that looks effective but also obscenely dangerous. As I said before (and others) cooling the oil has a lot of potential, you can then get rid of the oil-case thermal gradient, which may only be a few degrees, but as you are limited by ambient temperature it's quite significant.

[POLAND_SPUD]

damn... that looks great

you can then get rid of the oil-case thermal gradient, which may only be a few degrees, but as you are limited by ambient temperature it's quite significant

I am not limited to ambient temperatures... Mains water has temperature of about 7 deg C so I might as well use water that will be lost anyway (for irrigation) to cool the compressor

Now I only have to find a way to perfectly seal the 3 pin connector