Nova Cool Refrigerator Leaking Water, Runing Wood

[jbbmillar]

We have the refrigerator-over-freezer Nova Cool model that came with this 2002 Mainship. A few months ago I noticed water coming from under the refer and some wood damage at the side. When I pulled the unit out I found refrigerant tubing running from the upper unit down along the back and into the freezer unit that looked like a Popsicle. The tubing was insulated and the top and bottom openings into the boxes were sealed with plumbers putty at, but the insulation was totally failed, and the putty turning to goo.

I shut the refer down and returned a few days later to cut the old insulation off and dig out the plumbers putty which sealed the top and bottom openings into the refer and freezer. Then I wrapped an adhesive backed foam tape around the bundle, then put foam pipe insulation over that with an elbow at the top and a tee where the tubing branched to the compressor.

The refer seemed to be working ok before, and was working ok after my "repair", but I was still seeing water. Pulling the unit out again my insulation seems to be working, but there is water under the freezer compartment.

My theory is that the tubing "Popsicle" had been cycling for a long time, running water ran down the tubing, soaking the insulation of the freezer compartment. Now the water soaked insulation freezes and adds any new condensation with each compressor run, partially thawing every time the refer cycles, releasing a little water with each melt cycle.

I'm going to pull it out and run it on the back deck or bring it home and run it to confirm this is what's happening.

Has anyone seen this phenomena? I'm not sure I'll be able to dry our or how I'd replace the insulation.I'm afraid I'm going to have to bite the bullet, break out a boat-unit or so and replace it. Any suggestions?

 

[Comodave]

We just replaced the refer in our boat. We put in a 9.8 cubic foot Isotherm refer. We aren’t really concerned about power consumption so I have not monitored the usage. But I have to say that this refer kicks butt as far as cooling. The settings go from 1 to 8, low to high. We have been turning it down because it keeps freezing stuff in the refer section. We are now using setting 3 and it keeps the refer section cold and still keeps ice cream frozen.

 

[Bmarler]

It should dry out if you leave it out for a while. The insulation will drain, and if you point a fan at it that may speed up the process. Once you pull it out you might find you can pull the sheet metal too.
These fridges are very sensitive to the amount of refrigerant in the system. If there’s a bit too much you can get frosting happening on the tubing outside of the condenser. Too little, and the condenser will only partially frost up. To make it worse, they don’t have service ports on them so you can do a proper fill on them.
Hopefully you have it sorted and it just needs to dry out.

 

[Bmarler]

I should add, I only know enough about refrigeration to be dangerous.
My last nova kool did in fact have a port on the suction side, but not sure if they all do.
Ambient temperature can influence the position of the frost line too. More venting around the fridge may help if you can make that happen.