Nova Kool in 47 Issues-gctid391845

[mmichellich]

We installed a Nova Kool 9000 series refer/freezer to replace the Nevercool that came with it new a few years ago. We have not been totally satisfied with the Nova Kool performance since new. After having a pair of those Pillsbury pop and fresh dough tubes pop free on our last trip last weekend, because the refer would not get cold enough, as normal, we said enough and got on the phone several times to Nova Kool. Now this refer/freezer has the opposite issue of most refer/freezers as the freezer gets way too cold, so cold any ice cream has to be thawed a bit in the microwave in order to even dish it up, running about 10-15 degrees below zero while the refer is far too warm. Since new we have been in contact with Nova Kool many times and of course they had every excuse in the world as to why we were operating it wrong and the refer was just perfect. With these recent phone calls Nova Kool, finally admitted the issue was a slightly too low charge of coolant when the unit was manufactured but since it was so old, of course they would not pay to fix it. They highly recommended a tech at Boat Electric in Seattle to fix the unit. He came yesterday and fixed it. This morning, I checked the refer/freezer, with the refer set on a setting of 3 of 7, I found the freezer to have gotten warmer all the way up to 20 degrees above zero and the refer to be at 33 degrees. I turned down the refer to it's lowest setting and will check it again tomorrow. Wow is it really working, plus now it cycles on only about a third of the time instead of running almost continuously. The issue was that the low coolant level was keeping the cold plate at the top of the refer from ever getting very cold unless the door to the refer was closed for a couple of days. This morning the cold plate was at 29 degrees and the freezer cold plate at +15 degrees, the refer cold plate has never gone below 45 degrees and then only for a very brief time. In order to put in more charge, the closed system had to be tapped and a valve installed, the whole system purged of existing coolant then refilled. The mistake I made was not insisting more forcefully that the unit was not working properly since new. That is usually not my nature, but accepted their excuses far too long. I guess all is well that ends well. If you have a Nova Kool with this condition (and I have talked to a few other owners with this problem), this is the solution

[Guest]

I THINK WE BOTH INSTALLED THESE AT ABOUT SAME TIME. I had the same problem with mine. Keeping the refer full helped but I wasn't satisfied with the balance either. I did like the under mounted and forward vented compressor. Glad you got a solution. Let us know how it works out.