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Cheap walk-in refrigeration using an air conditioner
If you have a conventional cooler in need of repair, a new CoolBot often costs less than the repair bill on a standard walk-in cooler and you will reduce your ongoing electric bill.
The CoolBot is NOT for everyone! Please check out the a/c recommendations on our website - it doesn't work with all air conditioners (most though!). It is also best for Coolers smaller than 12x16. We do have people using CoolBots on bigger rooms (our biggest installation is now 40x60! but that requires multiple a/c units and multiple coolbots.)
CoolBots are best used by small farmers, florists, small grocery stores, convenience stores, pubs... We also have people using CoolBots to store vaccines, a growing number of mortuaries, and on trailers and box trucks for cold deliveries. There are many industrial companies using CoolBots now for storage of items (including adhesives for the defense industry and film products) that need to be kept at a constant and cold temperature. Beer makers and folks making artificial Cheese Caves have also been using CoolBots.
Check out our "Frequently Asked Questions" and more at , but to summarize:
The CoolBot turns any brand of off-the-shelf, window-type air conditioning unit (purchased separately) into a turbo-charged cooling machine. Using the CoolBot you can transform a highly-insulated room into a walk-in cooler, keeping your products fresh and thermostatically controlled cool down to 33 F!
The CoolBot can NOT make your air conditioner function as freezer! You can set it to whatever temperature you want but not less than 33.
CoolBot will not only save you on installation and down-the-line repair costs, it will also help you save electricity, reducing your operating costs when combined with new Energy Star rated air conditioning units engineered to stricter environmental and efficiency standards than standard walk-in cooler compressors.
CoolBot uses new (patent-pending) technology that became available in 2006.
Normal walk-in cooler compressors sell for $2500 + installation which in our area is another $1000, not including electrical. They use a brute-force approach to cooling: using LOTS of coolant (which is bad for the environment), a big motor, lots of surface area and multiple fans (which dry out your vegetables and flowers and end up accounting for up to 60% of the cost of operating electricity.)
Here's the crazy thing: that $2500+ walk-in cooler compressor you see on a small 8' x 8' vegetable cooler may only put out 8,500 BTUs of cooling power! That's less than you get from a $300 window air conditioner from Home Depot!
It's not quite that simple, though. Here's the problem with window air conditioner units. First, they are electronically limited so that you can't go below 60 degrees. With some electrical bravery and skill, you could snip, solder and bypass the electrical controls so you could go lower. It will work better, but still not very well, because while BTU's are BTU's (it's a strict measure of cooling/heating capacity), your ability to actually access that cooling power drops drastically as you approach only 60 F. This is because you don't have the fans and extra surface area built into normal walk-in cooler compressor/condenser/evaporator units which dissipate the cold without freezing up.
CoolBot works great even during the heat of summer and even when people are opening and closing the door all day long. (Check out our guarantee!)
Here's a chart showing the size of A/C unit we ideally recommend to cool a well-insulated room to 38 degrees F quickly and consistently. Your room should be sealed and have at least 4" of styrofoam in walls, ceiling and floor which is the "industry standard" for walk-in coolers. This gives you more than enough power to stay at 38 degrees. Obviously if you put a couple thousand pounds of hot produce (or beer) inside, the temperature is going to go up for a few hours, but it will head back down quickly. It's not bad to get a larger air conditioner, it will just run less time.
Florists and convenience stores with glass display doors need to size up from these recommendations (or your cooler will run about 45 degrees if you follow these specs.)
A/C capacity vs. room size for 38F
Under current promotions, CoolBot costs 99 cents less than $299.99, and you may already have an air conditioner lying around. Even Energy Star units with 5-year warranties are very inexpensive these days. Although most air conditioners with plastic temperature sensors work with the CoolBot check out the with so many people using CoolBots now we've learned a lot more about which ones are best for this purpose. (For example Whirlpool and about 1/2 the GE air conditioners do NOT work with CoolBots while all LG and Samsung and Sharp units work perfectly just out of the box. As of the end of 2008 all Sears Kenmore brands work right out of the box (they are now all made by LG).
A brain-dead monkey can install the CoolBot! Admittedly, we haven't tested this, but installation is easy enough that it sure seems possible. You can see summary of installation instructions on our website. You get more instructions (with a picture) when you order and if you are nervous, it's fast enough that we'll hang out on the phone with you while you install it if you'd like!
Save money in operating costs and electricity
CoolBot allows you to use more efficient Energy Star-compliant air conditioning units with more efficient motors and fans. They also use a fraction of the coolant AND it's the new ozone-friendly coolant! Use the money you save to add an extra layer of insulation to your walk-in cooler, reducing your electrical costs even more! Use the environmental good karma you gain to drive your SUV guilt free!
One study suggests that CoolBot can save you close to 50% on your electricity costs as compared to a normal walk-in cooler compressor, because up to 60% of a conventional cooler's electric costs are due to constantly running the multiple condenser fans. We run 1 fan (instead of 5) and it turns on and off. New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (www.nyserda.org), is doing an independent analysis of just how much electricity the CoolBot may actually save over a standard walk-in cooler. In Feb 2009 we got the draft results (Which we hope will be officially approved and released soon) and... they say we are actually NOT 50% more efficient (but we still came out really great and although we can't comment on an unapproved govt study, we do hope the results will be publicly released by June 2009?) NYSERDA is a state agency that we are not affiliated with in any way. Even if we are not quite 50% more efficient, when you consider up-front costs, the fact that you can install it yourself and the lack of expensive repair bills the CoolBot is a GREAT bargain.
Improve the quality of your produce and flowers.
Obviously, using CoolBot is an advantage over having no cooler, but even if you have a cooler, you know that the multiple fans can dry produce out quickly. That happens much less with the single fan in an A/C unit mated to the CoolBot.
Build a second cooler and expand your markets!
CoolBot is cheap enough that you can use it for a second part-time walk-in cooler!
Already have a conventional compressor? Switch to CoolBot and SAVE!
CoolBot pays for itself in saved electricity and fresh looking, less dried-out produce. It pays for itself again when you don't have to pay your next repair bill. In situations where your cooler CAN'T go down (the vaccine storage folks are a good example but we have a grocery store chain that does it as well) it is cheaper to install two coolbots with two a/c units for redundancy than it is to purchase one walk-in cooler that *will* eventually go down.
For more information checkout or email ****@storeitcold.com
or call our toll-free number at (***)-871-5723!
