I have the same one and it developed the same problem. I replaced the capacitors and it worked for another few months. I gave up repairing the power supply and bought an external 12V power brick from Amazon that can supply up to 4 amps. I connected that to the 12V car adapter and it's been working better than new since.
Technology Connections did an excellent video about these Peltier effect coolers, worth a watch. They have the convenience of small size but are significantly less energy efficient than larger fridges with a compressor.
The efficiency can be substantially improved by adding a second Peltier on top of the existing one and running both at reduced power. Did that with an old portable electric cooler and got the power usage from about 50W to 20W.
@@xraytonybLikewise, he is a very engaging presenter and really explains the science in a very honest and accessible way (not unlike yourself 😊). The video came out about 3 months ago and is called something like "Thermoelectric cooling, its not great".
I guess for a college dorm they see these as less of a problem for electrical load but they are really inefficient and they don't generally maintain safe food temperatures 100% of the time. As a chiller for canned unopened beverages they are fine. I know the 2 colleges I attended, provided a stacked fridge/freezer and microwave combo in every dorm room along with a communal food prep and recreation area in each dorm. They didn't like people to have any other appliances but almost everyone had a george foreman grill and a full sized coffee pot or kettle. They allowed people to have a box fan or window fan but no AC units. Personally I would love to see the peltier units all get replaced by mini compressor units to save electricity but it's probably a moot point for most people since the heat pump units are usually 2-3 times the cost and are often less user serviceable, though I have repaired several over the years. The TEC units are probably less energy to produce as well even though they will more than make up for that if they last a reasonable amount of time. I bet that little unit consumes nearly as much energy at 35-50 watts continuous as my full size kitchen fridge from the early 2000's consumes. The one nice thing about the TEC units is that they have no moving parts except the fan so not much to break other than a PSU and a fan.
I repaired a wine fridge a couple years back. It was less than 5 years old & one cap had gone open & one of the VR's was open. An expensive unit with cheap components.
Is that 48 Watts continuous? My full sized fridge/freezer peaks at 70W (not counting the defrost cycle every 5 days) and averages at 28W. School dorms would be better off allowing real fridges.
I’ll bet your daughter really appreciates her dad’s talents. Hope you and your family had a great Christmas 🎅🎁🎄
A great chill out video. Thank you.
I have the same one and it developed the same problem. I replaced the capacitors and it worked for another few months. I gave up repairing the power supply and bought an external 12V power brick from Amazon that can supply up to 4 amps. I connected that to the 12V car adapter and it's been working better than new since.
Good for keeping drinks cold but not safe for food storage. I think the inside temp only gets to about 5 or 7 deg C
It's about as energy efficient as our delivery truck at work, too!
Tony, I have a set of 1970 Craftsman nut drivers that smell just like your driver. That smell will out live me.
Great little video.
I need a little unit like that to store my broken dreams of Tony restoring my Fisher 800C receiver in.... :)
I was expecting a DC offset adjustment, some scope trace, THD analysis, etc. ;-)
Happy New Year Tony!
Technology Connections did an excellent video about these Peltier effect coolers, worth a watch. They have the convenience of small size but are significantly less energy efficient than larger fridges with a compressor.
The efficiency can be substantially improved by adding a second Peltier on top of the existing one and running both at reduced power. Did that with an old portable electric cooler and got the power usage from about 50W to 20W.
I really like his channel and rarely miss a video (when I have time to watch) ☺
@@xraytonybLikewise, he is a very engaging presenter and really explains the science in a very honest and accessible way (not unlike yourself 😊). The video came out about 3 months ago and is called something like "Thermoelectric cooling, its not great".
I hooked one up to a royal 5305 it worked pretty good.
Happy Christmas Mr. Fixit!
Great video,Tony. Happy New year to you and yours!
I guess for a college dorm they see these as less of a problem for electrical load but they are really inefficient and they don't generally maintain safe food temperatures 100% of the time. As a chiller for canned unopened beverages they are fine. I know the 2 colleges I attended, provided a stacked fridge/freezer and microwave combo in every dorm room along with a communal food prep and recreation area in each dorm. They didn't like people to have any other appliances but almost everyone had a george foreman grill and a full sized coffee pot or kettle. They allowed people to have a box fan or window fan but no AC units.
Personally I would love to see the peltier units all get replaced by mini compressor units to save electricity but it's probably a moot point for most people since the heat pump units are usually 2-3 times the cost and are often less user serviceable, though I have repaired several over the years. The TEC units are probably less energy to produce as well even though they will more than make up for that if they last a reasonable amount of time. I bet that little unit consumes nearly as much energy at 35-50 watts continuous as my full size kitchen fridge from the early 2000's consumes. The one nice thing about the TEC units is that they have no moving parts except the fan so not much to break other than a PSU and a fan.
I repaired a wine fridge a couple years back. It was less than 5 years old & one cap had gone open & one of the VR's was open. An expensive unit with cheap components.
Is there a reason why the heat sink fins were not vertical?
Very nice work! keep it up with your repairing work.! Happy New Year . Cheers
Looks like Nosferatu is also living in the back of that fridge!
Oh man, you put that handle next to the camera and my nose hairs curled! 😆 🤣
Is that 48 Watts continuous? My full sized fridge/freezer peaks at 70W (not counting the defrost cycle every 5 days) and averages at 28W. School dorms would be better off allowing real fridges.
Yep, TECs are super inefficient.
Exactly - you'd think a University might have thought that through! Technology Connections channel did a really good video about these coolers.
Merry Christmas
Had a few cheap caps go short circuit recently.
A bit disappointed you didn't measure THD on this one, Tony. 😉
Would be wrong to call this a refrigerator lol
How many of those get tossed every day for lack of a little knowledge and a few dollars in parts.
These things are so inefficient, drawing almost 40W to keep 2 cans semi cold .
Better off getting a small bar fridge that consumes less
The rules ARE made by the university. It's part of the green new deal :)
Put a mini compressor on it!
Tony did Santa bring you a new piece of test equipment?
We'll see.... ☺