Nova Kool Refrigerator

[Ed Brenner]

Well I went for broke. After pulling out the Norcold ammonia refrig and determining it was the rebuilt unit gone bad and making measurements

for what would fit in the hole. A normal house refrig would barely fit, but the doors would not swing open without hitting the dinette  set

No easy way to modify the space for the frig,would involve major rework of interior. Didn't want to rebuild an already rebuilt 16 year old

absorption unit.So a new one or a compressor type Rv / marine type unit. After playing bid wars with two Nova Kool dealers I was able to

get their unit for not a whole lot more than a new Norcold unit.

All the difference in the world. I plugged it in as soon as I got it on the shop floor. Two hours later 38 deg in refrig 10 in freezer.

Next morning when I looked 32 in refrig -2 in freezer.Thermostat set at little over half cold.

The only thing I have to do is block off the back of unit so that all of my AC in bus don't go through bottom grill and out the back and up

the chimmney for the old gas unit.This unit does all it venting through the front at floor level.It runs on 12/24 volts DC or 120 AC. Really

runs on the 12/24. If plugged in to 120 it converts down to the DC. So going down the road runs off the battery bank.

So as TOMC said in my earlier post Why would anyone mess with an Ammonia absorption unit,especially if doing a new build.

Thanks ED

[luvrbus]

Only draw back you find with that fridge is the amp draw they misrepresent that to you it will double when the outside temp goes over 75 degrees so put plenty of insulation around it.
We had one the Coachmen van on the side of the van it took me awhile to figure out why it would run so long on a battery in the winter and short in AZ summer I thought it was just the difference in temps till Coachmen showed me the chart they had

[technomadia]

I was just researching NovaKool last night - looks like a great fridge.  I think I'd much rather have an efficient 12-volt compressor fridge than propane powered.  Seems like an ideal pick.

   - Chris

[luvrbus]

All depends on what you are doing with the bus lot of good propane fridges out there I went from a house type to a propane type and never looked back the current bushes in the desert don't produce much electricity,now plugged in a RV park a compressor type is the way to go

good luck

[TomC]

If I was reading the NovaKool book correctly-the Danfoss compressor is a variable speed compressor.  I believe they wire it on a lower speed setting-hence only a 5.5 amp draw at 12vdc. And since the refrigerator pulls in the inside air only, on a hot summer day, you would usually be running the air conditioning anyway-so the refrigerator shouldn't know the difference.  The big thing is to have the back of the refrigerator cabinet sealed off since the bottom mount has a small fan to cool the condenser-you don't want warm air coming in from the outside.  I fired mine up and you could hardly hear the compressor.  I'm going to wire mine both 120vac and 12vdc since it can switch over automatically when hooked up.  I also made wood panels for the doors to further hide the doors a bit.  Good Luck, TomC

[belfert]

What is the advantage of using 110 volt with these units?  You already have a 110 volt converter or inverter presumably that could supply 12/24 volts to the unit.

I had looked at a 12/24 volt DC compressor fridge a number of years ago.  The 110 volt option was simply a converter added to the unit.

[technomadia]

What is the advantage of using 110 volt with these units?  You already have a 110 volt converter or inverter presumably that could supply 12/24 volts to the unit.

Redundancy - this way your fridge keeps working even if you have your 12volt system shut down for a while - maintenance or an upgrade perhaps.

  - Chris

[luvrbus]

That is what Brian is trying to tell you even plugged in to 110 the compressor is still 12 or 24 volt

good luck,

[belfert]

That is what Brian is trying to tell you even plugged in to 110 the compressor is still 12 or 24 volt

Sure, the compressor is still 12/24 volt.  The 110 volt option is just converting 110 volt to 12/24 volt DC inside the fridge. 

[TomC]

I thought that too-but when I bought mine, the dual voltage was actually cheaper then the straight 12/24vdc model-hence bought the dual voltage.  Good luck, TomC