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Fridge rebuild


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23 hours ago, ynot said:

Ya ball peen looks like it done a few miles and needs a new handle. 

 

Nice job 

 

Haha, true Dat! Had that hammer for nearly 50 years! Hinges and handles now on - but I buggered up one of the lids trying to get the right clearances, so progress was slower over the weekend than I would have liked. Waiting for the formica to arrive.... 

20250720_164422.jpg

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It will be interesting to know the improvement in hold down time , the one in our Hood 38 is about the same vintage but even worse it's stuffed in a corner , biblical man-hours required so might leave it for the next owner LOL

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So I should add to this. The heat exchanger did not work great. Following some further testing and fabrication, I replaced the SS heat exchanger with one made of aluminum. Turns out aluminum is a MUCH better conductor of heat than SS. Like more than 10x better! The results so far are very encouraging,  the fridge stays at 4-5 deg, with only a box for the alloy heat exchanger. I can add some fins to it easily if I need too in summer or the tropics,  but right now it seems great. So, if your doing this, make your fridge heat transfer system from Aluminum!

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6 hours ago, Frank said:

Interesting Matt  so the original SS Eutectic tank and copper tubing has been replaced  with an aluminium tank and aluminium tubing ?

Nope, the eutectic system has stayed exactly as it was. There was a SS heat exchanger and thermostatically controlled fan that took air from fridge, blew it thru the wall to the freezer side heat exchanger, which is sealed from the freezer air, then returned the cold air to the fridge, lower down. It basically "borrows" some cold from the freezer to run the fridge. Means I can have one compressor system to do both jobs, the original Ozefridge AW480 twin eutectic tanks, with water cooling when needed.  So all I changed was the freezer side heat exchanger - same footprint, just aluminum now... and just a box rather than the channels in the old one to give the air a longer path - that's not needed at this time.

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