IceProbe Thermoelectric Aquarium Chiller - 4 in. x 4 3/4 in. x 7 1/2 in.

The good: - Extremely quiet. Only a 3.5" computer fan turning during operation - Works on a 28 Gal aquarium to cool to 79 Deg F - Fits into the back sump of my nano tank with a little customization The bad (nothing too bad): - The unit might not be enough if you live in a very warm place without indoor Air Conditioning in your home. - It is quite bulky. It did work in my tank, but with some customization. My probe doesnt fully submerge, but I am not using it per the instructions. Overall I am still pleased. - There is no temperature controller included. You will need to purchase one if you dont want your heater and cooler both running and fighting each other. My install: Even though our home is air conditioned, the pumps, skimmer an lights added heat to our tank. It is only June and we were getting up to 81 Deg F. Our target temp is 79 Deg F, so we needed a solution. I took off the plastic nut from the probe, and also removed the foam insulation from the upper part of the probe. In my JBJ tank, I simply fit it as far down as I could with the bottom of the main plastic base sitting on the back of the tank. In this configuration, the probe is 1" - 1 1/2" into the water which is enough to cool the tank. This unit does not have its own temperature controller. For this, I used the InkBird ITC-308 purchased from Amazon. This unit is capable of running both a chiller and a heater. I hooked both into the InkBird and set my desired temp at 79 Deg F. I then set the offset for heating to 1 Deg F and cooling to 1 Deg F (which is the minimum on the Inkbird). When I installed this on my tank, the tank temperature was reading 80.8 Deg F. It took about 2 hours for this unit to cool the tank to 79 Deg F. While running now, I can see the temp on the Inkbird creep up to 80 Deg F. Once it hits 80, the cooler turns on and drops it back down to 79 in about 30 minutes. It has no problem keeping my tank at 79. If you live in a very warm climate and do not have air conditioning, a single unit of this size will probably not be sufficient to cool your tank. The company recommends using more than 1 unit to achieve a higher temperature drop. I would consider after needing 2 of these to just go the chiller route.

I bought this thing for a 7 gallon recirculating aeroponics system. My reservoirs has about 4 gallons at any given time. And BEFORE I purchased this thing, I would constantly have to put frozen water bottles in my reservoir to lower the temps from mid 70’s down to as close to 68 degrees as possible. Every day I’d have to do this, which was getting to be a pain. So I bought this chiller on a whim and hoped it would keep my temps down. Well, it keeps my temps in my reservoir down below 70 degrees without the need to insert any more frozen water bottles. The product keeps temps about 8 degrees below the air temperature in the room that the fan to this chiller is in. If you are looking to lower temps more than 8 degrees, then you might want to look for something else. The chiller is also pretty slow to chill my 7 gallon recirculating reservoir. But, it keeps the temps below my threshold. So for that, I gave the product 5 stars.

Updated UPDATE: Seller appears to be dodging responsibility. Wants me to ship device back and wait for a refund, which of course means opening a big gaping hole in the side of my tank which it just so happens to plug. I have been working on this for months and have personally invested a lot of money. I am doing privately funded research and design in an attempt to start a business and it looks like this $150 chiller is going to break me. To say that I am distraught is a serious understatement. This is so messed up. I honestly can't believe this is actually happening right now. UPDATE: After a few weeks of perfect function there is no longer any heat transfer from the fins even though the fan is still running and now not only do I have a hole in my tank, but everything will be dead in a matter of days. Completely broken hearted right now. I had such high hopes for this thing. Its definitely holding up its end of the bargain. Anyone having trouble with this product just needs to step up their insulation game a bit and make sure the fins have plenty of airflow. You ain't gonna circumvent the laws of thermodynamics, but it will do the job. Very happy. Thanks much.

I would say this is a great product but it is only rated for 50w, and that is not much cooling power. These things work good if you have the following conditions. Your not using a glass tank, the glass transfers heat too efficently for this to keep up unless your in a really small tank. I think that the peltier is undersized it's cop is about 0.5 at max power with a dT of 10f. This is not a great use of power but if your running a res of 10gal or less then it will keep a res at 65f in a room at 73f. Less water it will chill quicker, another thing is if you run an insulated tank, and have the ability to control the voltage going into this device the COP can jump up to 2.5 or higher. A cop of 0.25 is about 2.5% efficent. a cop of 2.5 is 25% efficent. It is quiet very quiet compared to a refergerant based chiller. Also if your controlling the voltage you can reverse the voltage and this becomes a water heater still the COP will be bad but have I told you it's super quiet. It is slow as it works on conduction and the probe is not that large. I wouldn't try to use this in an aquarium setting with fish, unless your in a small tank or don't need that much dT (delta T) dT is how much colder you want your tank than the ambient temperature. The probe is coated so it doesn't interact with stuff you would put in a hydroponic reservior. It works with a 5 gallon DWC system, and you can get insulation for 5 gallon buckets this thing works great for that application. You could run it in a 83f tent and it would keep your water temperature in the 68f range. However for a few more bucks you can get a refrigerant based chiller, and get way more cooling with more efficency. At 160 bucks it's a bit spendy but a 1/10hp chiller that isn't garbage is 2x more expensive and creates a lot more noise. You will need a temperature controller for this, and the best temperature controllers are really expensive for thermo-electric coolers. I hack my own controllers out of a RC brushed motor speed controller and an ESP32. I have ran this device from the wall with the supplied wall wart, and it does chill but once it gets to 65f it just wastes power. You can use an on off controller but again you will waste power running a peltier at 100% power the COP goes down to 0 once it's max dT is reached, and your just heating up the air around the device then.

Bought this to cool my Fluval Sea Evo 13.5 gal aquarium. Considering that the ambient air temperature at night is around 77, the water temperature in the aquarium never drops below 79 degrees, so have set the Temperature Controller running the IceProbe at 79 degrees. At this setting, the water temperature throughout the day stays at 82, the ambient air temperature being 87 - 89, so the IceProbe is not struggling to maintain temperature. UPDATE - 1 year and 9 months later, the peltier died. Ordered another chiller today 7/31/2019. Also ordered two peltiers, ($7.77) so will repair the unit that died and will run both chillers on the aquarium, left and right hand corners. Will get a couple more peltiers later. It's the only part that can go bad in the chiller, (apart from the fan) so the unit can last forever. Another Update 2 September 2019 - The days have gotten really warm lately. Wonder why! Have both units running and they can't keep up. During the night the water temp can't get below 82 degrees. During the day it rises to 85-86. Have to use frozen water bottles to get the temp down, otherwise they will just run all day and eat up electricity, and not doing anything. Bummer! THIS IS THE FINAL UPDATE - I SWEAR! 6 Sept. 2019. Was really puzzled as to why with 2 chillers running the temperature was so high. Granted, it's warmer outside, but still. So here is what went down:- . Bought a stick-on thermostat off Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PXZB9QY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 . The temperature read 79.7F. The Medusa Temperature Controller that the two chillers are connected to read 83. That's a difference of some 3 degrees. . Went over to the hardware store and bought on of those mercury filled glass thermometers by Marina Aquarium, you know, the old reliable one that have been around for years. Stuck it in the tank and the temperature read 80 degrees. Looks like the Medusa Controller I have been using for years was giving a higher reading. Guess it needed recalibrating. So if the temp gets up to 83 during the day, I can live with that. It's better than 86. I'm too old for this stress :-)

I live in Florida and decided during quarantine that I wanted to try growing peppers and onions in my office closet. I've spent the last 4 weeks buying every hydroponic solution I could, trying to figure out why my plants were always closer to dead than alive. I have a small setup -- a 5 gallon bucket of nutrients and a RDWC setup I got off Amazon (https://amzn.to/3acGSqG). Little did I know, with the Florida heat and my small closet space, a RDWC can actually cook your plants because of the water that sits in the hydroponic system when the pump is not running. I needed a way to cool my nutrients without investing in a 400$ water chiller meant for (much) bigger grow ops. I read all of the reviews on this product and saw the review from the control engineer saying I needed to forget about an expensive controller buy a simple 18$ one (review is here for reference https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3C88YUKT446KA/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B001JSVLBO). Well that was a stupid idea -- that guy knows way more than I do. If you're reading this now and you need a controller, spend an extra 15$ and buy this (https://amzn.to/34EnDVH). However, if you like to get in over your head like me, keep reading. You'll need a few items from your local hardware store -- 1. A 1-1/4" hole saw (https://amzn.to/2xnu5o7). You'll need this to drill a hole in whatever tank is holding your nutrient solution. 2. A generic wall outlet -- something like this (https://amzn.to/3bcOYkd) 3. A 3 prong extension cord, you know, the usual kind (https://amzn.to/2K4ImbZ) 4. If you have an extra computer power plug laying around, that should be fine. Otherwise you can use a lamp cord. I used something like this (https://amzn.to/2K7GLSH) 5. Finally, a place to put it all, nice and neat. I used something like this, but I took my controller to the hardware store and found one that was a snug fit (https://amzn.to/3bdfw56) 6. (optional) an outlet cover, 'cause we're fancy and like aesthetics. Time to put it together! 1. Cut the tail off the computer power cord (or similar) mentioned in the part list -- #4. The tail being the part that does not plug into the wall (the female end, cut it off). Pull the casing back a bit and strip the black (hot wire) and white (neutral). Leave the green alone, cut it so that its just the two black and white wires exposed. Put some electrical tape over it for good measure. 2. Strip the black and white wires and connect them to the controller by first unscrewing the screws in the terminals. Black (hot) goes into port 1 (closest to the left when looking at the back), the white (neutral) goes into port 2. Screw the screws tight to secure the wires. 3. Connect the controller's sensor wire to ports 3 and 4 -- the order does not matter. 4. Plug in the power cable connected to the controller and make sure it powers on. 5. If all is well, it should startup and show you what the ambient temperature is. Disconnect the power cable afterwards. 6. Take your extension cord (part #3) and cut the tail off (female part). Then cut an additional 6-8 inches from that -- we'll need a bit of copper wire for the next steps. Set it aside. 7. Grab the mutilated extension cord -- the one with the male plug remaining. Strip all 3 wires -- white, green, black back a bit. Connect the white wire to the neutral screw (mine was silver). The green wire goes to the green screw. Connect the black wire (hot, power) to the temperature controller, terminal #7. At this point you should have: the power cord (section with the male end) connected to the electrical outlet via the white and green wires. The power cord's black wire should be connected to the controller port #7. 8. Remember that piece we cut off in step #6? Grab that, pull the black wire out of the casing, and strip both ends. Plug one end into the controller terminal #8, and the other side of that wire goes now to the brass screw on the new outlet (the one that has the green and white wires connected). At this point you should have 3 wires connected to the outlet, green and white directly from the extension cord, and black coming from the controller. 9. Make it look pretty! I'll leave this up to you. Make sure to cover any exposed wires with electrical tape. 10. Finally -- you should have three plugs now -- one from the aquarium chiller, one from the extension cord, and one that power the controller. Plug the aquarium chiller plug into the new outlet. Plug the other two cables into a standard wall outlet that has power. 11. Mount the chiller to your bucket, inserting the probe through the hole and tightly securing it with a wrench. Check for leaks! Congratulations, you're a boss. Go out there and grow!

For the price, I am disappointed. This unit IS working, but not as I had hoped. I have a 10 gallon tank. After reading reviews I figured this unit would suit my needs perfectly. It does suit them, but barely. Some complained that it does not cool much, but they also reported having much larger tanks than mine so I felt comfortable with the purchase. Basically my axolotl's tank was would continue to climb during the day. When I cycled it, the tank would raised to 75 or 76 degrees in the hot afternoons (I live in a triple heat index area during summer months). I need the tank at around 68 degrees, ideally. I installed the unit about 7 hours ago (top mount with probe fully submerged). Since that time it has maintained a temperature of around 72 degrees, it rose a bit above that this afternoon. So, all in all it appears to only be cooling the tank down by about 3 degrees so far. I will update if it improves over time. I will keep the unit because it IS helping and I need to maintain lower temperatures in this tank, I just wish it cooled the water down a bit more for a little 10 gallon tank :(

Okay this is the simplest review I’ve ever given. I have held an interest in 5 gal water cooler idea for DWC for a while. Found an Igloo Water Cooler $5 at a thrift store and purchased/installed this item. I put 4 gals of 52 degree water in it, plugged in the chiller, and within 15 minutes was down to 51.4 degrees with 900W of LED lighting hovering 18” over said cooler. The canapoy area is registering 78 degrees. I had to install my temp control module to get the chiller to stop cooling it. This thing is badass and allows grower to eliminate plumbing to a reservoir and water pumps pushing the water to and from said reservoir. Also makes the individual grow container completely portable. Plan on buying a dozen more!! UPDATE: 3 hrs later........water temp 48 degrees and canopy temp 78. This device is INCREDIBLE! Additional Note: the initial temp provided was around noon. The second temp given was around 2:00 pm (same day), and by 8:00 pm (same day) was 42.6 degrees with an ambient canopy temp still holding at 78 with 3-300 watt LED lights running. Hope this helps any Pythium (root rot) sufferers. This thing is virtually silent and generated no additional heat.