Refrigeration

[morgan320i]

My 424 has a water cooled belt driven compressor,
Anyone know much?
How much they typically draw, easy to convert to a newer small compressor?

[RichCarter]

Engine driven or electric motor?
12v or 115v?
holding plates?

[morgan320i]

12v not near the engine

[RichCarter]

A water cooled system will almost always be more efficient than an air-cooled system. I assume that the system you have is working. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…
You should be able to measure power consumption by looking at the ammeter while it’s running. It likely cycles on and off, so you’d have to record the power reading at regular intervals and average it out to find out what the total draw is. There are instruments that will do this for you but it’s a bit of work to swap one out for what you have just for one measurement. If you’re concerned about power consumption, look first at how your box is insulated. It doesn’t matter how efficient your machinery is if the thing isn’t insulated well.

[Rich Harris]

Rich brings up a good point. The insulation in your unit is key. I just finished tearing out my old refrigerator. The foam insulation was poor. It was set and a prior owner had attempted a fix by adding spray foam. Unfortunately the spray foam just made it harder for me to pull it out. I intend to replace the old unit With at least 4″ of foam in the refrigerator compartment and 6″ of foam in the freezer compartment.

[Eduardo Acosta]

So quick question from a newbie owner. How do you know that the foam is no longer good ?. Are you measuring the temp inside and that is how you made that determination ?. How do you know how much to insulation to add ?.

[RichCarter]

The foam doesn’t go bad. It was never good from the factory. As built, my cooler had about 2 inches of foam on the sides and about a half-inch under the coutertop and on the lid. I have engine-driven refrigeration so battery consumption is not an issue. I would get condensation on the countertop on humid days. The only thing I’ve done to improve my system is to replace the lid. As built, the lid was hinged in the middle. You could open one side or the other but to really get in there you need to remove the lid. Where to put it? I replaced it with a well insulated one-piece lid hinged on the back and supported with gas lifts. If I had an electric reefer, I’d have to improve the rest of the insulation or I’d run my batteries down. I assume you’d have to remove the countertop and pull everything out, starting over with proper insulation and a new liner. Someone who’s done this can probably describe what he did.

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