Amish Cooling Unit

12 volt compressor fridges such as the Danfoss are just too small. We already have a MH with a residential fridge and it works great. But many times in Mexico the CG's have bad electricity. With a propane fridge we just unplug the MH. With a residential we would have to run the Gennie more than usual. Not good for the neighbours! We haven't decided what MH we will be buying but likely something older ( maybe a high end 20 plus years old). I would not want to be stuck in Mexico with no fridge so might plan on fixing it before it breaks !


Moisheh

Your topic really made me laugh this morning...

moisheh wrote:
...replacing your cooling unit ... It was a hot topic. ...

:B :B :S :B :B

Since we had Leon at National Refrigeration install his cooling unit several years ago, we haven't had a bit of trouble with our Norcold.

Leon is Amish, but his systems are not what is known as "the Amish cooling unit." He can tell you why his system is better. You can buy parts from him and do it yourself or you can visit his home/business in Shipshewana, Indiana, and he will do it for you.

Dale

Last summer we had an Amish oooling coil installed in our Norcold 1211 unit by JC Refrigeration in Shipshewanna, IN.they actually make the units there and install as well. They know proper installation is critical and that is what they do. They also will put fans on the top cooling fins if you want, and at our request installed a halon fire extinguisher in the outside compartment and a circulation fan on the inside. We also opted for helium gas rather than hydrogen to charge the system out of safety considerations .

To say it works well is an understatement. JR at JC refrigeration is fantastic. No more frozen lettuce in the bottom drawer and temps are now even throughout the inside compartment based on careful temp measurements I did. We had to keep lowering the temp setting from the 5-6 we were using to 2-3 now to maintain 38-40 deg in the main compartmen after the conversion.

Be careful, there are some outfits that claim to be “Amish” and may well be, but they do not make entirely new units specifically designed for your refer and the use of helium, but only remove, pressure check and recharge your existing coil.

moisheh,

How exciting to be buying a new RV.

I would plan on adding solar and would go residential fridge.

Mexico......brown outs/power outages.....reason for the 'absorption fridge'

Amish cooling unit....DIY project.
Right inside the RV. 4 hours +

RV Cooling Warehouse in above link is GREAT place to purchase.
They also will HELP you....great support
AND you can request via E-mail a complete 'HOW TO CHANGE OUT A COOLING UNIT' guide prior to purchasing

Danfoss and Waeco units pull very little amperage. Not much more than an absorbtion unit with auxillary condenser fans. They are very efficient.

I know when my 3 way expires (if it ever does), I'll replace it with a compressor fridge and I have a TC so limited battery power too. A small compressor fridge is about the same price as the 'Amish cooling unit' and you get the entire unit, not just the plumbing.

For me, a big plus is, they don't have to be level to work either whereas a thremosiphon unit ammonia fridge has to be level to operate efficiently and un level operation can ruin an ammonia fridge. Not so with a compressor unit.

A residential style compressor fridge is no where as efficient as a Danfoss or Warco unit. Biult for in a house with basically unlimited 110 volt power. The Danfoss and Waeco units run on 12 volt or 110.

Old technology isn't necessarily bad technology. If it works, it works. More efficient (and expensive) electric compressor units are great if you can afford them and you have the electricity to run them. If you need to run on propane then the absorbtion fridge is the way to go.

I rebuilt my fridge with an Amish cooling unit and it's been great. About half of my camping is without hookups so I need the ability to run the fridge off of propane (I don't have a multi-megawatt battery bank and solar system).

Practically every large company and building in the world uses the absorption cycle system for cooling and/or refrigeration. It is very long lived system (an absorption refer was removed from service after 72 years, still working), the absorption cycle requires a fraction of the electrical or energy input that a compressor requires, plus uses the natural substances ammonia and water, instead of ozone depleting halocarbons.

Still very much a 'modern technology'. There's an ice hotel in Fairbanks Alaska I had the pleasure of touring that not long ago installed a large absorption system to keep their ice motel frozen using thermal hot springs water. The water wasn't hot enough for a lot of other more 'modern' systems but works fine with the ammonia absorption system.

SidecarFlip wrote:
If you cannot install / use a residential unit, consider a Danfoss or Waeco unit. West Marine sells nice ones that will fit in the space a normal 3 way fridge fits in

X2 on this.

Use some modern technology. Ammonia absorption is 19th century technology (1850-1870 first commercial use.)

The Danfoss compressor or clones, with super efficient digital motors are the way to go.

If there's budget for an expensive ammonia refit, there's budget for a modern low amp draw compressor unit.