Underpowered Canister for Chiller

[aquafanatic]

Hi all,

May I know what can happen if I were to use a underpowered canister filter, ie a lower flowrate filter & connect to a higher required flowrate chiller?
Can it still chills my 180 litres tank? How about electricity consumption?

All help and advise greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks.

Depends on the chiller that you are using. The typical lower end chiller design has the temperature sensor in the waterbox together with the cooling elements. This design seems to have the disadvantage of detecting a lower temperature than actual when the flowrate is low. The flowrate affects the amount (rate) of water entering the cooling chamber, so the water in the chamber get chill very much faster and reaches setpoint that cuts off the compressor. Result is the chiller will kick in and out much more frequently.
Better designed chillers like Arctica has the temp detector at a separate inlet chamber. This is less affected by reduced flowrate as the temp sensed is almost actual tank temperature.
Hope the info is correct and helps.