Compact Refrigerator

Overview

A compact refrigerator is a small single-door fridge sized to slide under a counter or sit in a dorm, office, or hotel room. It uses the same sealed cooling loop as a full-size fridge, scaled down: one compressor, a static condenser, and a cold-wall evaporator that doubles as the back interior surface. There is no fan and no auto-defrost, so the cabinet is quiet and cheap, at the cost of occasional manual defrosting.

The body is an insulated Cabinet, a painted steel shell over a thermoformed inner liner with polyurethane foam injected between them. A foam-filled Door Assembly seals against a magnetic gasket and carries shelf bins for bottles. Inside, the Interior holds wire shelves, an LED light, and a small Chiller Box tucked against the coldest part of the back wall for short-term chilling of a few items.

Cooling and its control are handled by the Refrigeration System loop and a thermostat board.

How it works

The Refrigeration System system is a vapor-compression cycle charged with R600a. The Hermetic Compressor, a hermetic unit built around sealed Stator Assembly and Rotor Assembly windings inside a welded Motor Housing, draws in low-pressure vapor and compresses it hot. That gas sheds its heat in the Condenser Coil mounted on the cabinet back and condenses to liquid.

The liquid passes through the Capillary Tube, a fixed-bore restrictor that drops its pressure, and enters the Evaporator Coil bonded behind the rear interior wall. There the refrigerant boils, chilling the wall so the whole cabinet runs cold; the vapor returns to the compressor and the loop repeats. Because the evaporator is the back wall, frost collects there and is cleared by switching the fridge off periodically.

The Thermostat & Control Board thermostat senses cabinet temperature and switches the compressor through a relay to hold the setpoint chosen on the knob. Adjustable leveling feet keep the cabinet square so the door self-closes and the gasket seals.