A Dead Compressor
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar
Our refrigerator has been making funny noises for the last few months. I am meticulous about cleaning the coils and thought this was some sort of ice maker event. This week the compressor appears to have died and I was out in the yard at 7 AM building emergency food shelves in the battery dome to act as our temporary refrigeration unit. At this point we have to make a decision. Do we continue with our "Energy Star" 2000W per day fridge or do we start over with a modified chest freezer with a 200W per day load.
5 comments:
Hi Mikey...been reading your blog for a while now, first time to post, thanks for putting it out there!
I've got a few bookmarks that I thought might be of interest. Your probably already up to speed on this though...
Convert a chest freezer to a fridge:
http://johnlvs2run.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/chest-fridge-conversion/
(retail for controller): http://www.leeners.com/beer-equipment-kegging.html
or, make a DC fridge: fridge:http://www.raycotechnologies.org/build_your_own_battery_powered_r.htm
I'll be interested to see how it goes!
-Jeff
Cost of repair of the fridge versus cost of the modified chest freezer. Then find out expected life span of the repairs, modified freezer...
Then you can calculate projected energy costs as well, maybe that would be important.
Whichever ends up being cheaper ultimately, is likely the best choice.
Sometimes when the compressor goes, it's often ready to die from other causes. In fact, when the ice melts off the cooling coils, hidden corrosion can be revealed and the freon/coolant leaks out.
are the start/run capacitor(s) mounted outside the compressor housing? i doubt that would cause the weird noises but at least its something to check.
if you end up changing compressors, do you think youd be able to convert the fridge into a chest style freezer while youre at it? if youre planing to modify a freezer anyway, you might as well give it a try with the stuff you already have.
Check out Home Depot for Magic Chef brand,we have a freezer and refer and both use 1.5 and 1.6 amps.Been off grid for long time and these units work well with low power use.
totally sweet looking army boba fett DC eutectic fridge:
http://polarpowerinc.com/products/refrigerator/dc-eutecticref.htm
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