Both of the original 1991 Adler Barbour Cold Machines have been faithful to our needs over the years. The freezer unit continues on, but the fridge decided it had enough. So today I finished replacing it with a CU-100 Adler Barbour unit with a vertical box type evaporator. For some reason they do not make a cold plate with a 90 degree bend like the original of this model.

Had to cut the old machine and evaporator out. For some reason Hunter ran the copper refrigerant tubes between the fridge box bulkhead and the main engine room bulkhead. Would not budge at all, so I ended up snipping the copper tubes at these bulkheads.

Cut a new 1.5 inch hole through the fridge box and into the main engine room in order to create a new path for the refrigerant tubes. All went pretty well. Took about three hours to remove the old unit and four to install the new.

Altogether the new system cost $1,450 in material. The cold plate alone would have cost almost $1,500. Perhaps a pipe fitter could have placed a 90 degree bend in the cold plate, but settled for the box evaporator. It is a tight fit, but should meet our needs nicely.

The installation instructions say to apply a liberal amount of R134 refrigerant oil to the coupling threads before connecting. None was supplied. Mixed opinions from local professionals. One says vaseline, another says silicon dielectric grease, another says no need for anything. I posed the question to Maine Sail.

So, the system sits ready to go waiting for the final connections to begin its life of meeting our cold beer desires.

As an update, last Friday, June 12, 2015, applied a couple drops of 3-IN-ONE light machine oil recommended by Dometic technical support to the two couplings. Made the connection and fired up the system,. By the next day the beer was ice cold and very refreshing after four hours of washing the boat deck in the sun.