What is the best way to get the super thane tubing over the barb fittings on the chiller. Should I heat up the tubing with a heat gun? I tried to force the tube over the barb fitting and it wouldn’t stretch enough.
I heard there is a “Kool Fittings Kit” coming for the CW-3000, and I will order that for sure, but looking for an interim solution ahead when the kool connector kit would be available.
Thanks in advance
Hi Rizzo, welcome.
While I don’t have the chiller, i do have a brass barb for my pond pump.
Brute force, wiggling and a hose clamp is what i used
I tried my best and I’d like to think that I laid into it with quite a lot of force, but I can’t get it to stretch at all over the barb. The OD of the barb matches (and actually is a tiny bit larger) than the OD of the tubing let alone the ID. Not sure what else to do. I was able to stretch some other tubing for my laser chiller over the barb on the back of that chiller, but something seems not right, the barb is too large, maybe I could replace the barbs? ( if I take apart the unit) but other must solve this somehow… haha.
This is something that has only been brought to our attention very recently, and unlike a similar issue with the pond pump, we don’t have a simple solution. The solution with the pond pump was mail a barb (that it should have come with), but the chillers would have a more in depth installation than unscrewing the old one and screwing the new one in.
I’ve been told that using some silicone will allow it to squeeze on there but at this time we don’t have a solution.
Yes that looks like it’s a 3/8 barb to me. Could try and fabricobble a 3/8" id to 1/4" id solution from the home store.
Thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly and confirming that I’m not crazy… haha. I will see what I can figure out and come up with a solution. I will send in a service ticket to PwnCNC just so that I’m in the system should a fix come out that requires specific parts that can be sent my way. Still waiting on 1fininty for my cnc (hopefully later this month), really excited to try out the spindle. Thank you again, I appreciate it Chris.
Brian
Great idea.
Thank you for your understanding. Manufactures change one thing then we have to adapt to overcome, and sometimes we get blindsided and you, the customer, are left inconvenienced.
No problem at all. It’s part of the journey we are all on together, and like you, (and those at PwnCNC) I’m a maker too, so needing to modify or find a creative solution will never deter me.
Just use a lighter or a heat gun and lightly warm the hose and it will slide right on and when it starts to cool down will shrink around the barbs…this is what i did… just dont go crazy with the heat its not necessary…
I have the Kool connectors on my CW-3000 and definitely recommend them.
I tried that and it still wouldn’t fit. I ended up having to cut part of the heated hose off, no matter how hard I pushed even with it warmed up with a heat gun, it didn’t fit on. I’ll be taking apart the chiller and reworking some parts I think to add new proper sized barb fitting. Or kool connectors would be fantastic!
What was your process for installing them? Did you have to rework a lot of the interior connections?
It was an involved process, and for a short period of time we offered it, but they were selling faster than we could make them which is unsustainable.
We’re entertaining a diy kool connector kit though, and should be made available soon
I really like the cool connectors… there Wirth it for sure
What Chris said, PwnCNC sold it that way. Really unfortunate (but understandable given what Chris mentioned) that they won’t be continuing it as they are so worth it imho.
LOVE the kool connectors on everything. I was the only one here capable of installing them onto the chillers and orders were starting to backup as it takes roughly 20-30min to upgrade just one chiller. This is a lot of time to suck-up.
We decided to redesign, but that takes time… so we’re preparing the DiY kit for now. Maybe later we’ll be able to handle the time and space requirements to perform this particular upgrade.
Where do we signup for the DIY kit?
On our homepage at the very bottom is a signup form for our newsletter. When it’s available, it’ll be announced there.
Thank you, sounds like not late to wait list.
FYI…I have a friend that is a plumber by trade. He has a nifty Milwaukee M12 expander that works awesome. He put the hose on the expander jaws, opened them up a bit, heated the hose, and the hose slipped over the connection. The cool thing, the hose sealed perfectly on the fitting when it cooled off. Yes, this was a little tedious, but we are all DIY people!
@Daniel I channeled my inner Daniel and designed / printed and installed an adapter plate to allow for “panel ready” connectors to be installed. A couple other adapter bits from the home center on the inside and she’s ready to go. No leaks so far, going to let it run for a couple hours to make sure. (I still don’t have my CNC yet, waiting on Onefinity, but I have the chiller rework checked off my list.)
