Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Water Cooled X-L

This is topic Water Cooled X-L in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Adam Fraser (Member # 1074) on 11-16-2002, 02:05 PM:

I'm buying a Simplex X-L that is water cooled for my home theatre that I'm building. Can I just not use the water cooling? Odviously i won't be putting out anywhere near the amount of light output that would require it. Is there anything else I'll have to change on a former drive in machine?

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Adam Fraser
www.pinestheatre.com

Posted by Dick Prather (Member # 1136) on 11-16-2002, 02:17 PM:

Adam,
Unless the trap has been modified the water cooled part can be removed and replaced with an air cooled version. You can also just leave it in and have it not hooked up.

Drive in's usually ran a narrow shutter which will give you a travel ghost indoor. Check shutter blades for 83 degrees fixed or adjustable. Set for 83 to 90 degree width.

Some also used a high speed intermittent which will be noisy and require more film gate pressure to keep it steady. Trade off for regular one if you can.

May have oil gauge and pick up for up angle at DI. May need to convert back to normal dowm angle set up.

Castings and covers may be warped because of heat from large lamp.

Good Luck
Dick

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 11-16-2002, 02:19 PM:

I think that would depend on the size lamp you are using. You probably wouldn't need water cooling for a 2K bulb, but for 3K and up
I think you'd be running into a heat problem without additional gate cooling. I've seen connections to a cold water faucet, with the water
trickling constantly, exiting via a copper line into a sink. A better way is a recycling reservoir (old ones of iron, which rust, but new ones are plastic.) The pump is oil-filled and lies submerged at bottom, with clear plastic hoses replacing the heavy rubber and woven metal ones formerly used. Works well, the motor/pump unit lasts for years without any servicing. Anti-freeze added to the reservoir prevents algea, and blowing air through the hoses every several years wouldn't hurt if you must have something to do besides topping up the water level every couple of years.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 11-16-2002, 04:42 PM:

The water circulating units out there use fairly large tanks. If you don't have a lot of room, you might consider alternatives. I opted not to use the conventional system and simply bought a water pump circulator that is used for fish aquariums. The ones got for each projector is called Fluval, don't know the model number, but it holds about half a gallon of water and is a closed system. But because the tank is much smaller than the conventional units, I also pipe the water through a passive automotive heat exchanger -- basically just copper tubing with fins which is used to dissipate heat from the car's oil circulation system.

The XL water gate has copper tubes; unlike the Century's head which has brass graduated nipples. The nipples are designed to grip the plastic tubing, the XL's copper tubes wont. I coat the copper tubes with silicone glue before inserting them into the plastic tubing. Once mated, I pack the joints with more silicone. Haven't had a leak yet.

Eliminating those two big 10 gallon water drums and getting by with only small water circulators and flat heat exchangers which sit nicely on the back side of the pedestals is great, but I just bought these solid state heat exchanger plates -- you apply 12vDC to them and they get cold. I am going to either submerge these plates in the water tanks or glue them directly to directly to the passive heat exchanger fins (I don't know what I would do without silicone glue). The smaller aquarium tank has been working fine, but I saw these solid state cooler plates and figured it couldn't hurt to add them to the system.

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 11-16-2002, 09:03 PM:

If you elect to use the cooler, don't use just straight water. It'll get ikky and will cause corrosion. I would recommend a mixture of 50/50 distilled water and a good brand of anti-freeze, unless someone has a better idea of a concoption that will work without chewing everything up with corrosion.

I don't know how good of quality of water you have, but up here, the place where I live uses well water. That stuff is gross until they rebuilt the system.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 11-17-2002, 01:04 AM:

I think you will find that on the solid state (thermoelectric) heat exchanger plates, when one side gets cold the other gets hot (which is which depends on the polarity of the DC you apply). So submerging them entirely would not provide any net cooling effect. You'd have to somehow build them into the wall of the tank, cool side in, hot side out. Attaching them to the automotive oil coolers might work but I think you might do as well by buying a couple muffin fans to blow air through the coolers.

Posted by Dick Prather (Member # 1136) on 11-17-2002, 03:15 AM:

Seems like a lot of water cooling work for a home theatre
Dick

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 11-18-2002, 10:06 AM:

You could simply trade me your XL, for a really nice clean Brenkert BX-60 I have sitting in storage. I was hoping to replace my Brenkert's with XL's as time and finances warranted!

Posted by Adam Fraser (Member # 1074) on 11-18-2002, 02:59 PM:

Thanks guys for all the info, I'll have to get the projector and see how it functions before I can see about trades, but odds are I'll stick with the X-L as it is the only projector I have experience with at our theatre. [Smile]

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 11-18-2002, 06:46 PM:

I agree with Steve. The thermoelectric units just transfer heat energy from one side to the other. You don't "make" cold, you just transfer or remove heat energy, and it has to go somewhere.

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 11-19-2002, 06:11 PM:

Good try, Barry! [Big Grin]

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 11-20-2002, 01:19 AM:

You are right guys, the plates are just exchangers --reversing the polarity does change which side gets hot and which side gets cold. The only way they can be effective is attaching the cold plate to the fins. Muffin fans are not a bad idea either. Hmmm, before you know it, I'll have more junk than the size of the big water drum that I am trying to eliminate!