Refrigeration - Yeah

Now that the newest shelves are installed in the engine room, I was able to connect the Technautics Cool Blue low amp DC refrigeration system.  I mounted the cold plate quite some time ago (came with a 2 and a half inch thick cold plate so it will retain that cold for a while without having to cycle the compressor.

Cool Blue compressor is on top right of shelf

This may be one of the simplest units to install.  Once you have the cold plate mounted and the 2 freon tubes run to the location where the compressor will be, it is just a matter of connecting them and tightening to the specified foot pounds (10 in this case).  We mounted the thermostat in the refrigerator and ran the wires to the engine room where the compressor is located through the same path that the freon tubes were run.


After connecting the freon tubes, it is a matter of just connecting 4 wires, 2 for the thermostat and DC Positive and Negative.  In my case, I had to run the wire for it since we located the compressor in a different location than where the old one was.  This wire was easily run in the existing wire channels in the engine room to the distribution panel where it has it's own 20amp circuit.  The previous owner had the old unit connected directly to the battery and not through the panel or on a fuse or circuit.

The Technautics Cool Blue allows for variable speed compressor settings and has some smart controls that will actually have the compressor run at a lower RPM as the batteries begin to get low.

The good news is that I put a gallon of water in there and had nice ice cold water to drink so it is working good.   :)

As a next step, I will end up building a new top loading door for the refrigerator box so that it matches the rest of the counter tops we installed and allows for access either to the Freezer or Refrigerator without having to open both like it is now.