Over the past couple of months, I’ve been researching the use of chillers to cool my 10 gallon anodizing tank. It hasn’t been a serious problem since the spring weather has not been to terribly hot… yet. I have been in the habit of running my parts in the tank early in the morning as the solution has been allowed to cool all night (to about 70 degrees Fahrenheit). Now that summer is fast approaching, the weather is getting hotter and the temperatures at night are not dipping as low. I need a way to cool my anodizing tank, there is no other way around it.
I’ve read the aquarium chillers work well if they have a titanium coil in them but that some are made with vinyl tubing which is not impervious to the acid solution and can eventually develop leaks. I’ve also frozen distilled water in large chunks and added it during my anodizing run. The problem is that it dilutes the bath and can only be added when the bath has evaporated to a level which requires the distilled water to be replenished. Besides, running a large number of parts in a 10 gallon tank causes the temperature to rise very quickly despite adding over 6 pounds of ice over the 160 minute cook time.
What about using dry ice? Dry ice turns directly from a solid into a gas so it won’t dilute the acid solution, emits only carbon dioxide gas when it evaporates, is extremely cold so it should cool the bath very efficiently, is readily available from most seafood counters at the local grocery store, and is cheaper for the hobbyist to purchase than a large chiller (at least in the short term). Obviously the dry ice would have to be added in moderation and the acid bath temperature monitored closely but is there any reason this would not work?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
-Aaron