Replacing an evaporator coil with a cold plate

Johann replaces an evaporator coil with a cold plate.

[@intermediatenoodler6408]

good stuff

[@beanwellnkhata8092]

Thanks Johann

[@vanheemskerk1]

And again an inventive solution Johannes! Are those two identical evaporator plates new ones? Most of the time the capillary is built into the evaporator plate, with this I don't see? I mean pre-installed in the evaporator plate ..

[@JDNelRefrigeration]

They are new. No the capillary wasn't built in. The one copper end on the new evaporator plate was narrowed to accept a capillary but I cut that off and used that end to link to the second cold plate.

[@wechselrichterschaltungen]

Hallo Johann, super reparatur! gute idee.....man muss nicht immer gleich alles entsorgen.......meist ist eine einfache lösung machbar.

[@JDNelRefrigeration]

Thank you, new appliances became very expensive in South Africa and the availability of original spare parts is almost non existent. So we have to compromise.

[@tiborilles1289]

what do you do if the door won't close?

[@JDNelRefrigeration]

First try & pinpoint what is stopping the door from closing. Most of the time it is due to the door dropping from wear on your hinges. By adding an extra washer on your hinge to lift the door up, can fix the problem.

[@alexisaacs699]

Helo Johann....You should've just used a longer evaporator plate and fooled the system. Connect the Arenco thermostat to the plate and bridge out the live wire from the fridge to the thermostat and straight to the compressor. In so doing you don't have a fan running 24/7. Only 1 live wire is used and the system fooled...

[@JDNelRefrigeration]

The reason why I used 2 cold plates is because I could not find one long thin one that would fit there. You do need the fan to run to circulate the air underneath all the covers.

[@johnnyriser8519]

Another refrigeration unit saved!! Great job! I have been looking online for cold plates similar to the ones you used in this video. Have not had any luck. Is there another name for the cold plates? The size that you used in the video (the single ones) looks about the right size that I need. Can you recommend a source for the cold plates? Thanks, and keep up the good work! I always enjoy and am intrigued by your videos!!

[@JDNelRefrigeration]

The importers that we use call them evaporators, some call them evaporator plates. I call them cold plates.

[@johnnyriser8519]

Thanks. I'll search under evaporator plates. The ones that I'm finding are the type that you freeze, remove from the freezer, and then place with the items you wish to cool down. Have a good day.

[@carloslopes3155]

I want to know if is possible to convert a sidy by sidy refrigerator for defrost system, for exemple if is possible make it with a coper pipe evaporator ?

[@JDNelRefrigeration]

Are you referring to a hot gas defrost?

[@nilsfrahm1323]

Hi Johann, love your videos! Have a question, we have a static combi fridge with refrigerator at the top (large compartment) and freezer on bottom. It freezes well in freezer, even -21C, but in fridge its not cooling, it stays at 14C. Do you know if evaporator at top has a capillary tube, or just the evaporator in the freezer? In freezee I can see pipes for capillary and steel pipes on shelves.

[@nilsfrahm1323]

It has only one compressor and we recently refilled gas and tech removed pipe used for heating around door gasket (or so they said). It worked for a few weeks in fridge, it got frost on back side, but wasn't cooling as before, wasn't making a vacuum after closing door, even though it was summer. I'm suspecting either top capillary clogged, or slow gas leak from top area, or compressor losing its ability to compress and it just works for freezer.

[@nilsfrahm1323]

I made two holes in the top of freezer and mounted a big fan (duct fan) to pull air from freezer and two small pc fans over the other hole, to push air in freezer, this allows it to cool. It reaches 3-5C on first shelf from bottom and around 6-8C on second shelf (top). Thermostat doesn't do much anymore, so I put a digital timer plug, to give fridge 15min breaks every 2.5hours. Now there's more snowy frost in the freezer and we need to defrost freezer more often, but at least it works.

[@JDNelRefrigeration]

@@nilsfrahm1323 Before you modify a refrigeration system from the original design, you have to be sure that your modification will be successful because once you have cut pipes off & made holes in it, it is very difficult to get it back to original again.

[@nilsfrahm1323]

@@JDNelRefrigeration Thank you for quick reply. I didn't alter any functional elements (pipes, wires). I only made two holes in plastic and foam between fridge compartment and freezer compartment. Now, some cold air from freezer is circulated in the fridge. It had static design initially, now it's similar to fridges with active cooler. If I need to undo the change, I only fill the holes with some foam and remove the fans.

[@JDNelRefrigeration]

@@nilsfrahm1323 Put it back as per factory specs, then find the original fault and then if you feel you can improve on the factories design then alter on the design.