Compressor frig contol upgrade

[booster]

I got an email from Coastal Climate today (advertising) and it led to this unit on their website.

Guardian, compressor speed control and digital thermostat

While a bit on the spendy side, it might be a good upgrade for many of us with compressor frigs, assuming it is reliable.

I have sent an email to Coastal to see if they have an electronic version of the install and user manual for the unit. I hope they do, as it would answer a lot of questions.

It has a compressor speed control (we added a homemade one years ago), digital frig temp thermometer, and diagnostic LED that flashes error codes if there is a problem.

We have had repeated thermostat failures in our frig (3 in 6 years) and the wireless thermometers, while cheap, also need to be replaced fairly often, so could be good for us if it is low power use and has good adjusting range. It would require removal of the frig, it appears, to install, but that would also make it so the temp wire could be run through the current thermostat hole and not over the door gasket.

I had wondered for a long time why something like this wasn't around, and now it is.

[avanti]

Isotherm makes a "Smart Energy Controller" for Danfoss refrigerators.

Indel Webasto:Â*Isotherm Smart Energy Control

I don't know whether it does the same thing.

[booster]

Originally Posted by avanti

Isotherm makes a "Smart Energy Controller" for Danfoss refrigerators.

Indel Webasto:Â*Isotherm Smart Energy Control

I don't know whether it does the same thing.

If it is the same one that they offered when we got our Isotherm frig 5+ years ago, it goes a step beyond the unit mentioned in the first post. Theirs uses continuous variable compressor control, electronic thermostat (but not adjustable, I think), and a cold plate in the frig. Whenever it see charging level voltages (engine, shore, or charger), it kicks the compressor speed up to remove heat from the cold plate. The cold plate then will keep the frig cooler, longer, once the charging voltage is removed, before the compressor needs to run again.

[Anna Sail]

Coastal Climate Controls Guardian works with any BD35 or BD50 compressor. I don't think the same holds true with the Isotherm device.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by Anna Sail

Coastal Climate Controls Guardian works with any BD35 or BD50 compressor. I don't think the same holds true with the Isotherm device.

The installation manual says:

Where it can be installed: In all refrigeration systems, both fridges and freezers with Secop/Danfoss DB35 or DB50 compressor and Danfoss 101N0210/220/230 circuit boards with visible evaporator.

http://www.indelwebastomarine.com/fi...-manual-en.pdf

[booster]

Originally Posted by Anna Sail

Coastal Climate Controls Guardian works with any BD35 or BD50 compressor. I don't think the same holds true with the Isotherm device.

You are likely correct on that. In fact, it might only work if you also have the Isotherm cold plate, too.

I got the manuals for the Coastal unit. All pretty straightforward. Nice feature is that they have a "limp" mode type setting for if the probe fails. Still out of luck if the whole thing dies though. It has enough range to cover use for freezing or frig type use, which is kind of nice for us, as we sometimes like to use the frig as an auxiliary freezer. With the manual control I have to use an Allen wrench to recalibrate the range of the manual thermostat.

In the manual, it said the unit was based on their electronic thermostat, which was really hard to find on their site. Had to do a Google search to find it as the site search didn't work. It is a similar setup, but just without the speed control and fault indicator. It is a bit cheaper but still expensive, but if it worked well and held up, it would be good for us as we already have the speed control.

[booster]

Originally Posted by avanti

The installation manual says:
http://www.indelwebastomarine.com/fi...-manual-en.pdf

That is interesting. It does appear they are using it in a normal frig in the same way as they would if they had a cold plate in the frig.

They must just drop the temp to just above freezing to store "cold" for later release. I wonder how well that works on stuff that can be too cold sensitive like lettuce. One of the complaints about their system, when we were looking at them 5 years ago, was that they had a fixed temp setting of 41* for the frig, and many folks thought that was too high. The listed one looks to be adjustable, which is good.

[Anna Sail]

Originally Posted by booster

In the manual, it said the unit was based on their electronic thermostat, which was really hard to find on their site. Had to do a Google search to find it as the site search didn't work. It is a similar setup, but just without the speed control and fault indicator. It is a bit cheaper but still expensive, but if it worked well and held up, it would be good for us as we already have the speed control.

I was able to find the manuals for the Coastal Digital Thermostat and the Guardian Temperature and Speed Control here CoastalClimateControl.com-Refrigeration-Planning in case others wanted to compare the two with the Isotherm product. The Guardian is simply the Coastal MK II thermostat with added manual speed control.