Beverage Center

Overview

A beverage center is a dedicated drinks refrigerator built to slide under a counter. Unlike a wine cooler it uses a vapor-compression circuit rather than a thermoelectric module, so it can hold a colder setpoint and pull down a full load of warm cans quickly. The Insulated Cabinet is a painted steel wrap over a thermoformed ABS liner, with polyurethane foam injected between them; the box is sized to the standard under-counter opening and sits on adjustable feet.

The front is a glass Glass Door, double-pane low-emissivity glass in a frame, on a reversible hinge, sealed by a magnetic perimeter gasket that pulls it tight against the cabinet. Behind it the Shelf Set gives four adjustable shelves on molded liner rails, sized for cans and bottles, and a low-heat Interior LED strip lights the contents without warming them. The user sets temperature on the Control Board panel, a capacitive touch surface with a digital readout.

How it works

Cooling is a sealed loop. The Refrigeration Loop circuit runs a hermetic Hermetic Compressor, the same stator, rotor, winding, and welded shell used in any small refrigeration compressor, to raise refrigerant pressure and push it through the back-mounted condenser coil, where a fan rejects the heat to the room and the gas condenses to liquid. A filter-drier and a fixed-bore capillary tube then meter that liquid into the evaporator coil inside the cabinet, where it boils, absorbing heat from the interior and chilling the air.

Because cold air is dense and would otherwise pool at the bottom, the Evaporator Fan circulates cabinet air across the evaporator so the whole interior holds an even temperature top to bottom. The Control Board board runs the cycle: its microcontroller reads an NTC thermistor in the cabinet, and when the interior drifts above setpoint it energizes the compressor and condenser fan through relays, then cuts them when the setpoint is met. The R-600a charge is a hydrocarbon refrigerant chosen for low global-warming impact, which is why the sealed system is kept small and leak-tight.