help trouble shooting Adler Barbour Cold Machine

[Joyride]

Gang.

My AB Cold Machine has been working fine for a couple years and turned it off a couple weeks ago because I was going away from the boat and wanted to defrost.  Now it wont come back on.  The unit I have is fan cooled and has the LED indicator lights and there is no blinking light and I've checked that I've getting power there already.  My unit is mounted behind the aft water tank on my 91 C34 so it's a major pain to get to.  Any thoughts on this?  Could the temp sender not be sending anything or could the panel be shot?  The 5 and 15 A fuses were intact. 

[Dave Spencer]

Mine gave up on me near the end of our summer cruise a few years ago.  I went through all the tests you have likely done and researched the problem online (incl this site). I concluded I needed a new controller for the Adler Barbour and ordered it from HMP in Toronto.  Unfortunately, no joy.  I rechecked everything.  All the fuses and breakers checked out fine.   I had 12.5+V at the power input but, as the unit tried to cycle on, the voltage dropped to almost nothing.  It turned out to be a bad switch at the power distribution panel.  The rocker switch had enough continuity to deliver 12.5V under no load but opened as soon as a load was applied.  I made a jumper cable to bypass the refrigeration switch on the panel and all was well.   I then exchanged the bad refrigeration switch with a little used switch on our boat (shower sump pump) to see us through the rest of the season.  I now have a spare controller if mine ever does fail.
I ordered new switches online (I'll see if I can find the specifics).

It's worth a try to jumper your switch at the power panel before ordering the now obsolete and fairly hard to find control panel.

[Stu Jackson]

rParts

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,9065.msg65780.html#msg65780

and

Fridges 101 (Adler Barbour Repairs & Troubleshooting from Richard Kollmann)

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,6956.0.html

Fridge Follies 101 - to prove that Richard is right and that 99% of fridge issues are electrical

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,3044.0.html

[sailaway]

Ever spring I have to jumper out the thermostat at the compressor unit then it works fine all season. Also take a screwdriver an tight  all conn.      Charlie

[Joyride]

Hey guys so I was able to get it running and cooling by bypassing the thermostat with the jumper cable.  Next question, what's the long term fix for this or do you just turn it on and off and let it run all the time or off all the time?

[Joyride]

Well I think I got it.  I tested continuity of the thermostat with dial in both coldest and 0 settings and got nothing.   Then I just connected the 2 thermostat wires together at the tstat and it kicked on.  So I'm thermostat shopping.

[Craig Illman]

Nothing facilitates troubleshooting like collecting data. 

[Hugh17]

Excellent thread. Stu mentioned a few weeks ago that the vast majority of refrigeration issues are electrical. This is just another example of his wise advice. In my case it was a loose ground wire.

[scgunner]

     Some guys on this thread having problems with their Adler Barbour have traced the problem to the switch on the main panel. I'm just curious, behind your main panel are you having corrosion issues or does it appear clean behind the panel? I pulled my main panel and it looked clean. My AB runs it's just not getting very cold, I'm following Stu's advice and looking for electrical connection problems first.

[mark_53]

     Some guys on this thread having problems with their Adler Barbour have traced the problem to the switch on the main panel. I'm just curious, behind your main panel are you having corrosion issues or does it appear clean behind the panel? I pulled my main panel and it looked clean. My AB runs it's just not getting very cold, I'm following Stu's advice and looking for electrical connection problems first.

If it runs but not getting cold sounds more like a refrigerant leak than an electrical issue. 

[Hugh17]

I had this same problem a month ago and the refrigeration repairman determined I had good voltage when the compressor wasn't running. But under load the voltage dropped to 9 volts. He checked the wire size from the electrical panel and determined it was proper size. But he found that the ground wire was loose on the ground bus bar. He tightened the screw and the compressor started running and the evaporator started freezing over. $180 for a loose screw!

[scgunner]

    Well, unfortunately I think I've exhausted all my electrical options, I've got 12+ volts from power thru switch, thru fuse all the way to the main compressor unit where it shows 12.5 on the voltmeter. It's possible it could be a Freon leak as suggested by Mark, examination of the fittings and lines show some noticeable corrosion, that being the case and the fact it takes Freon 12 I don't know that a recharge would be worthwhile or even possible.
    Looks like this cheapo Adler Barbour unit crapped out after only 31 years, I guess they just don't make'm like they used to. Looks like my next option is to replace it with a new unit. Has anyone here done this?

[Hugh17]

I did not have to replace my unit but did some research onoptions.

CAILEIGH ANNA REFRIGERATION

The icebox is 3.8 cubic feet per owner's manual info.

Existing unit
Adler Barber by Dometic CU-100 air cooled condenser (15 cubic feet max capacity) with VD-150 Evaporator (9 Cu. Ft. Max capacity) Icebox.

CU-100 Condenser
Width - 10" x High - 7.5" x Depth 11.1"
West Marine - Retail $799.99
Defender $729.99

VD-150 Evaporator
West Marine - Retail $479.99
Defender $424.99
Amazon $470.99

[scgunner]

    Hugh,

     Thanks for the info., it's helpful. I think I'm going to stick with the AB C-100 unit for the sake of simplicity, hopefully it will be a straight out and in replacement.

[Stu Jackson]

    Well, unfortunately I think I've exhausted all my electrical options, I've got 12+ volts from power thru switch, thru fuse all the way to the main compressor unit where it shows 12.5 on the voltmeter. It's possible it could be a Freon leak as suggested by Mark, examination of the fittings and lines show some noticeable corrosion, that being the case and the fact it takes Freon 12 I don't know that a recharge would be worthwhile or even possible.
    Looks like this cheapo Adler Barbour unit crapped out after only 31 years, I guess they just don't make'm like they used to. Looks like my next option is to replace it with a new unit. Has anyone here done this?

Power --- what's the voltage "sag" when then unit starts up?  Measuring no load voltage tells you and us nothing.  BTDT.  I traced my problem to the module.

R12 Refrigerant --- is still available.  But if your problem is electrical, your refrigerant may be just fine.  The older units didn't have Schrader valves, and I think that mine, at least, is still OK because of the lack of those valves, i.e., two less possible places for it to leak.  Once I replaced the module last year it's still doin' fine.

Yup, 31 years, what could we possibly expect?    Good one.