How Can I Test the Cooling Capacity of My Liquid Cooler?

[jwells]

I've created a small liquid cooler and would like to test for it's cooling capacity. The only way I know of doing it is to circulate the coolant into a small reservoir with a heating element and apply power adding heat till the cooling unit is maxed out holding at a predetermined temperature. Then calculating the wattage by volts * amps. The test equipment would be well insulated to minimize transient heat. Is there a better way or off the shelf apparatus to do this?

 

[CWatters]

You could just run hot water from a tap/faucet through the cooler. To calculate the capacity in Watts you would need to measure the steady state input and output temperatures and the flow rate.

Capacity of cooler = Specific heat capacity of water * Temperature difference * flow rate

Edit: Ideally the input water temperature would be close to the temperature you expect the cooler to normally operate at in the real system.