Electric cooler repaired
Feb. 26th, 2011 10:41 amThe Peltier cooler module in the electric cooler failed unrepairably on the last outing, and the cooler module on the older cooler failed but was repairable about 12 years ago. But that repair wasn't that good (I bypassed one row of junctions, leaving it operable but not as efficient).
Back when the original one failed, new modules were something like $38 plus shipping, so I hacked the module as best I could to get it at least doing something again. But now I got two for $10, shipped, from China. These ones seem better than OEM too, they are sealed with high temperature silicon instead of just being open, so I suspect they'll last a lot longer, since my bet for the cause of failure of the other one is condensed water running down inside the junction area.
I got them in the mail last night, and took the opportunity to also lubricate the fan motor, clean the dirt out of the fan that was unbalancing it, replace the rotted rubber isolation gaskets on the motor mount (made new ones from an old bicycle inner tube) and re-glue the seal strip that has been falling out for the last year. It's working quite well now and is much quieter than it has been for a while.
I should fix the old one too while I'm at it, and before I lose the other replacement module or step on it and break it.
Back when the original one failed, new modules were something like $38 plus shipping, so I hacked the module as best I could to get it at least doing something again. But now I got two for $10, shipped, from China. These ones seem better than OEM too, they are sealed with high temperature silicon instead of just being open, so I suspect they'll last a lot longer, since my bet for the cause of failure of the other one is condensed water running down inside the junction area.
I got them in the mail last night, and took the opportunity to also lubricate the fan motor, clean the dirt out of the fan that was unbalancing it, replace the rotted rubber isolation gaskets on the motor mount (made new ones from an old bicycle inner tube) and re-glue the seal strip that has been falling out for the last year. It's working quite well now and is much quieter than it has been for a while.
I should fix the old one too while I'm at it, and before I lose the other replacement module or step on it and break it.