Should I go with a larger evaporator?

[Roy Peterson]

We are currently living in Crete and our refrig system needs to be replaced. After my retirement next April we intend on cruising the Greek isles then the coast of Turkey and slowly make our way home by way of the Canaries, Barbados the I will be installing the Alder Barbour SuperCold with water cooling. My question is for my 6.5 cu.ft. box should I go for the larger evaporator (rated to 15 cu.ft) or do I opt for the one rated to 9 cu.ft? Is there a gain in energy efficiency by going to the larger evaporator?

 

[Phil Williams]

Large vs. Small

You should use the small evaporator. Placing an oversized evaporator in your box, if it is being used as a refrigerator, will not perform as well as the correctly sized evaporator. The Adler/Barbour bin evaporator is designed to act as a freezer inside and refrigerate the rest of the box. If the evaporator is too large the condensing unit will short cycle meaning it will come on for a few minutes to bring the box temperature down and then shut off. The refrigerator temperature will be fine but the freezer bin section will not get cold enough to keep your food frozen.