Bong / Evaporation Cooling Guide 1: Bong Basics
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Evaporation cooling, or bong cooling, is a simple form of cooling that can lead to a silent system, while maintaining ambient temperatures or lower at the expense of a humid room. How do you manage this? How expensive is this? Easily and cheap.
NOTE: There are no kits that I have ever seen (actually one now, but it does seem to have sucked) for this form of computer cooling; this is a Do-It-Yourself project (DIY).
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I’m going to split this guide up into a few parts to make it a little bit more understandable.
1)Evaporation Cooling
2)The basic concept
3)The basic design
4)Required Parts
5)Maintenance
6)Advantages and Disadvantages
Evaporation Cooling
Evaporation cooling is just what it says, lowering the temperature of something through evaporation. Evaporation coolers, or “bong” coolers in the overclocking world, refers to a type of heat exchanger that uses evaporation cooling as a form of heat exchanger to cool a computer’s CPU or GPU or any other part to around ambient temperatures or lower. Usually, it is a tall tower or a set of smaller towers, and that’s the type we will be going over here.
The Basic Concept
When water falls from any height, and it is hotter than the surrounding area, it will evaporate a little bit depending on how much of the surface of the water is touching the colder air. To maximize surface area, an inexpensive shower head bought from Lowe’s or Home depot or even Wal-Mart provides the maximum surface area of falling water by spreading it into droplets. The water then falls from a high height, and while on the way down, fresh air is pushed by a fan into the loop, which causes more evaporation. The resulting effect is a nearly silent heat exchanger that can handle quite a load and, in some cases, depending on the conditions, can result in a sub-ambient water temperature.
The other thing to realize is evaporation cooling does mean evaporation. A bong cooler requires water to work, and depending on how big your tower and scattering devices efficiency, you will have to add water to the cooler. This could be on a daily or a weekly basis.
You can also install a regulator bottle, which I will more in depth on in Guide 2: Building a Bong Cooler.
The Basic Design
The basic design of a standing bong tower is quite simple, and the beauty of the design can be seen in how cheaply it can be made. All you need is PVC, a PVC break off pipe, anything to scatter the water into droplets, and a fan.
The water is FNORD pumped to the top and through the scattering device. A shower head works perfectly for this application, or a Tupperware container with tiny holes punched through it with a needle. Make sure that the rising heat and water vapor given off by the evaporation can get out, so do not block the tower's top.
The water then falls in droplets as gravity takes its hold. The important part here is about halfway down your tower. This is the break off tube; it’s basically a split off. You need to place a forced air vent input from there, such as a fan, to bring new fresh air in to support effective evaporation.
By the bottom your water will have cooled off, and it’s ready to pump to your computer and then back to the top.
Another requirement to look into is the height of your Bong. As a general rule for my own Bong Towers, 3 foot minimum plus one foot for ever extra 75 watts of heat to cool after 100 watts and another foot for each graphics card. To cool 175 watts of heat and an SLI setup, I would recommend a six foot tower for ambient/sub-ambient temperatures. Of course, this may seem like a lot, but I normally use 3" inner dimension tubing. If you were to widen to 4", 5 feet may work just fine! Test and develop your ideas!
Note: This is also quite overkill, but we're overclockers, we like our bongs big and tall.
Remember, towers are also not the only way. Any way to force water to fall with a current of forced air will lead to evaporation.
Required Parts
An Evaporation Cooler is quite cheap to build, depending on how complex you make it. I’ve made them as little as $20 and as much as $50. A basic walk through Home Depot should be enough to get your ideas formulated and your parts collected. Here’s a general shopping list.
-PVC pipe or any other type of tube that is rigid enough to be stable at 5+ feet tall, get enough to fit your tower’s height, and I would suggest three or more inch inner dimension is required.
-A shower head or other scattering device, or for the DIY, a Tupperware container from your local grocery can work.
-A Break Off PVC piece of the matching size to fit your pipe, also known as a "Y" or Wye.
-A Fan, most likely a computer enthusiast like yourself will have a 120mm or 80mm fan lying around.
-A PVC pipe cap; to cap the bottom of your Bong.
-Pump, I will mention pump requirements here, your pump MUST be able to pump to the top of your bong cooler, and this could be 6 feet. For these projects it’s almost worth it to be an Iwaki, but marine pond pumps are the best money wise. The Mag-Drive series is one of the best Bang to Buck pumps, I own a Mag3 myself, and they are very reliable while providing plentiful head pressure and a FNORD lot of flow. A Mag3 could accommodate a 6 foot tall Bong Tower, but a Mag5 is more accommodated to the job.
-Finally, two plastic or brass barbs for your tubing connections.
Maintenance
On request from Avid6eek I'm amending this in. Maintenance for bong coolers is not that hard. You can run tap water and not have a problem. But dust can cause problems over many months. A cheap aquarium water filter can solve problems if your room is particularly dusty.
And on refilling, without a regulator bottle to regulate the water level in the bottom of the Tower, you may need to add water daily. Remember this, and its always good to check your water level before starting your computer.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Evaporation Cooling
Honestly, this is my favorite section of any guide, as it shows you what you’re up against and is a starting place for new ideas to lower the effect of a disadvantage.
Like normal, I will start with the disadvantages to your Bong Tower cooling apparatus, and work my way to the advantages.
Disadvantages
1)Evaporation cooling acts like a humidifier
Yes, evaporation of water acts as a humidifier. This is one of the worst disadvantages to a Bong, because it is unstoppable. The whole effect of the Bong Cooler is completely destroyed if water does not evaporate, and without the evaporation, there’s no point in the Bong Cooler. You’ll just have to let this one rest, deal with it, or make sure your room has good ventilation or a window fan.
2)A bong tower is huge and takes up a lot of space
Yes, but for every inch you add to your tower, your cooling power increases! And you do not have to use PVC. If you have cash, you can buy an acrylic tube and make your tower a masterpiece. Space wise? Not so much. A bong tower can be 6 feet tall and only 5 inches around. It is like a pillar and won’t hog up your floor space.
3)Humidity and sub-ambient temperatures will cause condensation
If your water gets cold enough to form condensation, hats off to you! You have a marvelous Bong Cooler that is doing its job spectacularly. Now throw on some insulation and quit your whining. Sorry people, it has to be said. Do not complain because something is working too well.
4)Refilling your cooling loop can be a pain
It shouldn’t be. If you install a regulator bottle then you can go a longer period of time without refilling. Otherwise, install another break off PVC piece facing upwards that you can use to pour water into.
5)Bong cooling is noisy
If your tube is empty, it may, otherwise surface area items inside the bong helps a load. Things like ping-pong balls and other items work wonders!
Advantages
Bong cooling has some major advantages to regular cooling and to almost all other cooling types. Let’s go over them.
1)Near ambient or lower temperatures!
How could you not like this? Especially without anything like peltiers that take a separate power supply or phase change which requires a lot of time, patience, education, and money.
2)It is very cheap!
It’s even cheaper then buying a radiator! And it is a fun project.
3)It is nearly silent, and does not require any high CFM fans!
An ambient temperature with normal water cooling either does not happen, or requires loud fans and a big radiator.
4)A Bong Tower can handle a very high heat load!
A 5 foot tall Bong Tower can easily cool off a large peltier system to ambient temperatures. Of course, this will cause more evaporation and will need to be refilled more often.
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Conclusion
Evaporative cooling, or a Bong Tower if you must, is quite an awesome way to take basic concepts and little money and create a monster cooling system.
And I am always accepting new ideas to add to my guides so throw me a PM if you want something added or a concept improved upon!
Stay tuned for a worklog/guide to building a Bong Tower!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evaporation cooling, or bong cooling, is a simple form of cooling that can lead to a silent system, while maintaining ambient temperatures or lower at the expense of a humid room. How do you manage this? How expensive is this? Easily and cheap.
NOTE: There are no kits that I have ever seen (actually one now, but it does seem to have sucked) for this form of computer cooling; this is a Do-It-Yourself project (DIY).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m going to split this guide up into a few parts to make it a little bit more understandable.
1)Evaporation Cooling
2)The basic concept
3)The basic design
4)Required Parts
5)Maintenance
6)Advantages and Disadvantages
Evaporation Cooling
Evaporation cooling is just what it says, lowering the temperature of something through evaporation. Evaporation coolers, or “bong” coolers in the overclocking world, refers to a type of heat exchanger that uses evaporation cooling as a form of heat exchanger to cool a computer’s CPU or GPU or any other part to around ambient temperatures or lower. Usually, it is a tall tower or a set of smaller towers, and that’s the type we will be going over here.
The Basic Concept
When water falls from any height, and it is hotter than the surrounding area, it will evaporate a little bit depending on how much of the surface of the water is touching the colder air. To maximize surface area, an inexpensive shower head bought from Lowe’s or Home depot or even Wal-Mart provides the maximum surface area of falling water by spreading it into droplets. The water then falls from a high height, and while on the way down, fresh air is pushed by a fan into the loop, which causes more evaporation. The resulting effect is a nearly silent heat exchanger that can handle quite a load and, in some cases, depending on the conditions, can result in a sub-ambient water temperature.
The other thing to realize is evaporation cooling does mean evaporation. A bong cooler requires water to work, and depending on how big your tower and scattering devices efficiency, you will have to add water to the cooler. This could be on a daily or a weekly basis.
You can also install a regulator bottle, which I will more in depth on in Guide 2: Building a Bong Cooler.
The Basic Design
The basic design of a standing bong tower is quite simple, and the beauty of the design can be seen in how cheaply it can be made. All you need is PVC, a PVC break off pipe, anything to scatter the water into droplets, and a fan.
The water is FNORD pumped to the top and through the scattering device. A shower head works perfectly for this application, or a Tupperware container with tiny holes punched through it with a needle. Make sure that the rising heat and water vapor given off by the evaporation can get out, so do not block the tower's top.
The water then falls in droplets as gravity takes its hold. The important part here is about halfway down your tower. This is the break off tube; it’s basically a split off. You need to place a forced air vent input from there, such as a fan, to bring new fresh air in to support effective evaporation.
By the bottom your water will have cooled off, and it’s ready to pump to your computer and then back to the top.
Another requirement to look into is the height of your Bong. As a general rule for my own Bong Towers, 3 foot minimum plus one foot for ever extra 75 watts of heat to cool after 100 watts and another foot for each graphics card. To cool 175 watts of heat and an SLI setup, I would recommend a six foot tower for ambient/sub-ambient temperatures. Of course, this may seem like a lot, but I normally use 3" inner dimension tubing. If you were to widen to 4", 5 feet may work just fine! Test and develop your ideas!
Note: This is also quite overkill, but we're overclockers, we like our bongs big and tall.
Remember, towers are also not the only way. Any way to force water to fall with a current of forced air will lead to evaporation.
Required Parts
An Evaporation Cooler is quite cheap to build, depending on how complex you make it. I’ve made them as little as $20 and as much as $50. A basic walk through Home Depot should be enough to get your ideas formulated and your parts collected. Here’s a general shopping list.
-PVC pipe or any other type of tube that is rigid enough to be stable at 5+ feet tall, get enough to fit your tower’s height, and I would suggest three or more inch inner dimension is required.
-A shower head or other scattering device, or for the DIY, a Tupperware container from your local grocery can work.
-A Break Off PVC piece of the matching size to fit your pipe, also known as a "Y" or Wye.
-A Fan, most likely a computer enthusiast like yourself will have a 120mm or 80mm fan lying around.
-A PVC pipe cap; to cap the bottom of your Bong.
-Pump, I will mention pump requirements here, your pump MUST be able to pump to the top of your bong cooler, and this could be 6 feet. For these projects it’s almost worth it to be an Iwaki, but marine pond pumps are the best money wise. The Mag-Drive series is one of the best Bang to Buck pumps, I own a Mag3 myself, and they are very reliable while providing plentiful head pressure and a FNORD lot of flow. A Mag3 could accommodate a 6 foot tall Bong Tower, but a Mag5 is more accommodated to the job.
-Finally, two plastic or brass barbs for your tubing connections.
Maintenance
On request from Avid6eek I'm amending this in. Maintenance for bong coolers is not that hard. You can run tap water and not have a problem. But dust can cause problems over many months. A cheap aquarium water filter can solve problems if your room is particularly dusty.
And on refilling, without a regulator bottle to regulate the water level in the bottom of the Tower, you may need to add water daily. Remember this, and its always good to check your water level before starting your computer.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Evaporation Cooling
Honestly, this is my favorite section of any guide, as it shows you what you’re up against and is a starting place for new ideas to lower the effect of a disadvantage.
Like normal, I will start with the disadvantages to your Bong Tower cooling apparatus, and work my way to the advantages.
Disadvantages
1)Evaporation cooling acts like a humidifier
Yes, evaporation of water acts as a humidifier. This is one of the worst disadvantages to a Bong, because it is unstoppable. The whole effect of the Bong Cooler is completely destroyed if water does not evaporate, and without the evaporation, there’s no point in the Bong Cooler. You’ll just have to let this one rest, deal with it, or make sure your room has good ventilation or a window fan.
2)A bong tower is huge and takes up a lot of space
Yes, but for every inch you add to your tower, your cooling power increases! And you do not have to use PVC. If you have cash, you can buy an acrylic tube and make your tower a masterpiece. Space wise? Not so much. A bong tower can be 6 feet tall and only 5 inches around. It is like a pillar and won’t hog up your floor space.
3)Humidity and sub-ambient temperatures will cause condensation
If your water gets cold enough to form condensation, hats off to you! You have a marvelous Bong Cooler that is doing its job spectacularly. Now throw on some insulation and quit your whining. Sorry people, it has to be said. Do not complain because something is working too well.
4)Refilling your cooling loop can be a pain
It shouldn’t be. If you install a regulator bottle then you can go a longer period of time without refilling. Otherwise, install another break off PVC piece facing upwards that you can use to pour water into.
5)Bong cooling is noisy
If your tube is empty, it may, otherwise surface area items inside the bong helps a load. Things like ping-pong balls and other items work wonders!
Advantages
Bong cooling has some major advantages to regular cooling and to almost all other cooling types. Let’s go over them.
1)Near ambient or lower temperatures!
How could you not like this? Especially without anything like peltiers that take a separate power supply or phase change which requires a lot of time, patience, education, and money.
2)It is very cheap!
It’s even cheaper then buying a radiator! And it is a fun project.
3)It is nearly silent, and does not require any high CFM fans!
An ambient temperature with normal water cooling either does not happen, or requires loud fans and a big radiator.
4)A Bong Tower can handle a very high heat load!
A 5 foot tall Bong Tower can easily cool off a large peltier system to ambient temperatures. Of course, this will cause more evaporation and will need to be refilled more often.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion
Evaporative cooling, or a Bong Tower if you must, is quite an awesome way to take basic concepts and little money and create a monster cooling system.
And I am always accepting new ideas to add to my guides so throw me a PM if you want something added or a concept improved upon!
Stay tuned for a worklog/guide to building a Bong Tower!
