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I just arrived home from a weekend at Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw SC for one of the race series I participate in. I took the two Acutemp units with me to server as food storage. Both units performed well. I had one set in FREEZE mode and one set of COOL. The one issue I had was with the one set for COOL. The unit has a compressor lockout when the cooling coil gets below 1 deg C. I understand why since the cargo its normally intended to carry can be very temperature sensitive. BUT for use as a food storage device this is a problem. If I put something that is a little warm inside it will go into alarm and the compressor will short cycle which removes heat from the load very slowly. To counter this I would flip it to FREEZE mode for 15 or so minutes and that would pull the chamber down to temp nicely.
What I am considering is putting a very slight amount of insulation between the cooling coil and the coil temperature sensor to allow it to run the coil a little colder when in COOL mode.
Beyond that they performed well. It was great to reach in and grab a fudgesicle and know its going to be firm. They attracted a significant amount of attention from the other race teams in the PIT.
Oh.. One last thing.. The batteries in my units are EOL. For the trip down to the track I powered them from the DC input. I realized if the batteries are totally shot the unit will NOT run on the DC input. Battery power is required. The batteries in one unit was good enough to work but one unit the batteries were toast. I ended up rigging a 12ah gel cell in place of the normal batteries. In a pinch you can use most any gel/AGM battery that will fit in the space. A future project I have for these are to upgrade the batteries to Lithium.
I'll post an update when I modify the coil temperature sensor.
What I am considering is putting a very slight amount of insulation between the cooling coil and the coil temperature sensor to allow it to run the coil a little colder when in COOL mode.
Beyond that they performed well. It was great to reach in and grab a fudgesicle and know its going to be firm. They attracted a significant amount of attention from the other race teams in the PIT.
Oh.. One last thing.. The batteries in my units are EOL. For the trip down to the track I powered them from the DC input. I realized if the batteries are totally shot the unit will NOT run on the DC input. Battery power is required. The batteries in one unit was good enough to work but one unit the batteries were toast. I ended up rigging a 12ah gel cell in place of the normal batteries. In a pinch you can use most any gel/AGM battery that will fit in the space. A future project I have for these are to upgrade the batteries to Lithium.
I'll post an update when I modify the coil temperature sensor.
