Make Your Own Danfoss Compressor Fridge/Freezer For Cheap! 

now i'll give you a pro tip on those danfoss systems, the gas capacity is really small inside, 2 grams more or less make it go out of his efficiency point, it works but wil consume alot more power. So after you determined the right rpm of the compressor (as i said below with a resistor on the thermostat) you forget about pressure and weight and only use a thermometer on the evaporator on the point the thermostat stay (the hottest point), start charging the gas with small bursts untill see the temperature drop, give it 2 min to stabilise between bursts, at one point after pushing gas the temperature will go up instead of going down, you stop and just discharge a small amount. That is the sweet point and the right amount of gas of that system...

If you can't find a true 12vDC Compressor for the fridge, convert the existing control circuit to run from the 12vDC battery and use the controllers compressor relay (or wire a new one) to turn on the Inverter instead of the compressor and wire the compressor directly to the inverter's 110vAC output. That way the inverter is only running when the fridge is cooling. And don't use a model that has self defrosting.. total waste of power. For what it's worth, for off-grid or solar, I'd recommend using a small chest freezer @ fridge temps rather than an upright. You don't lose your cool when the door opens.

Man, this is the best video ever about fridges/compressor/soldering pipes and everything! Literally, this single video answered all the questions I had and gave me all the advice I needed to run my own rv fridge system! Subscribed on the fly!

Here in the states at O Rileys and some other car parts stores they loan out evacuation pumps. It also may be a good idea to add a filter dryer to protect the compressor.

Hi, please remember when converting a previously AC fridge to DC, the thermostat may arc/weld itself in on position. You should attach a properly spec'd capacitor across the thermostat switch. Or build a DC solid state thermostat, or purchase a DC thermostat. Also some fridges have AC condenser cooling and / or internal AC motor driven fans that must be changed over to DC fans.

I thought you done a good job making this video , save a lot of money doing what you done . Thanks for sharing .

Very informative, im planning on doing this. I've been told that they should be charged to about 2psi on the load side which is adequate.

This was an excellent video, I'm looking at the same conversion into a 240v fridge from the from my leaky 24v Chinese fridge, we had it re gassed and it only lasted 2 weeks. I got the 210litre fridge for $50 au , so wist me Lucy, the only problem is it has a fan in the freezer and I'll have to put a 24v on in.

Great job making the video. This has helped me a lot understanding the workings. We think a lot a like bud. Keep moving forward!

6:30 Thank you so much for mentioning stop leak. I made this mistake once. Stop leak should be called stop compressor.

What a great video man. This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

Great how-to vid! Very valuable info :D

I was hoping to hear you fire it up. Excellent tutorial. Danfoss compressors new on ebay around $200 USD. This is right up my alley.

Dude, This was very educational, even if you feel it was messy. I am doing different (a water chiller system), yet this gave me a lot of insight of how to handle compressors.

Very informative, I thought this was possible, now I’m going to put it to use. Thank You

Thank u for taking the time to explain the steps & theory of making ur own compressor fridge/freezer. I learned it's possible to make one yourself. If u had showed in the video step by step how u did each process, that would help me better. Especially since I know nothing about fridg/freezer. Also the video volume is to low. I had to turn my TV way up to hear u.

Excellent!!! Thank you very, very much!!!! You made a huge difference in our life!!!

Very good explanation. Thanks!

Good for sharing! I have a Domestic CFX 28 and circuit board has failed. I can salvo all parts and do what you did to put back in service

Exact Project that I’ve been contemplating ! Thanks !

Well done, thanks for the video.

Thank you for making this video, and thanks to you others for all the comments. Just what I need for my off grid projects & others I hope to help here.

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🙂Excellent. Plus excellent & calm voice for videos. 🙏🏻

Good job man!

Hey thanks so much for the vid! I looking to move my DC Compressor a few feet from its current location for sound proofing. Wondering if it's as simple as cutting the piping and adding 2 quick release valves and a few extra feet of piping?

the danfoss bd35f and bd50f are the most efficient small compressors you might find. A modern marvel, inside that small box you have an atomic power plant :) In order to get it efficient working they wound the brushelss dc motor (keep in mind that they where designed 25years ago), the dc motor work between 60 and 96v depending on the rpm you make it work, somme of them have a small board on the compressor to change the rpm, with no resistor between the C and T terminals of the thermostat will run at 2500rpm...

That label on the fridge that says what kind of refrigerant to use also tells you how much it needs, usually in grams or ounces. Simply weight your refrigerant bottle before and during the fill up and when it loses that much weight you know you have enough.

Nice vid!!!

Cool video !

Refrigeration compressors also need oil. I am not sure how you check the oil level, perhaps some one who knows can chime in.

Wow, that is a fantastic effort! My only suggestion is to find a fridge that doesn't have it's condenser coils embedded in the fridge case. It doesn't make for an ideal refrigerator to put inside of a cabinet because of that. So, if you can find one with an external condenser coil....that would be an even better fridge to start with.

Hello good video, I have a compresor Secop BDF35-HD, and my frigde is 87 L two door, my question is what capilare do I use for my frigde, thank you for your information.

Quality content as always!

You are a very smart young man. Well done video.

great video im starting a mobile food business this will help out tremendously

hello :) you look very knowledgable with fridges :) i have the same compressor in my vitrifrigo i90 fridge, i have it new since 3 years( so no warrenty anymore ) since that long it took to make my van ready :s. i have it plugged in, and fridge is cooling just fine, but it keeps on . so it turns the compressor on it becomes warm, the fridge inside is the right cool temp. the compressor turns off.. but within a minute of 4, it turns back on for a minute or 5, than back of, and so on.. even after one night it keeps on turning on.. the seals are brandnew, the fridge is brandnew :) do you have maybe any idea what it could be ? it's on a 12v battery. Thanks in advance

Very nice sir

Excellent! But I wish you film the conversion & soldering process as well. And afaik you should weight the agent while filling up.

Yep so all of the car wrecks that happen out there in the streets won’t matter, and I had an Astro van about a 84 model, it had the r12 in it, all I did was vacuum out the system and recharge it with r134, and it worked perfectly, and had no problems, in a matter of fact it cooled much better!

Could you mount the fridge horizontally like a chest freezer and mount the danfoss vertically to work?

Nice job , how's it working? does in draw less watts than the 110v ?

Could you add a link to where you buy. Or even a description of the product link.

Last year I built my own fridge cabinet in my van. I bought a working donor fridge for $20, i took out the evaporator and installed it in the cabinet that i built. I located the compressor and condenser under the van. I have the compressor hooked up onto an inverter, not very efficient like you mentioned.. im considering switching to 12v compressor from china.

I just use butane lighter grade has to be filtered and I recharge just using the vapour they don't need much I pull a vacuum first it's a very good refrigerant and cheap to. Have you ever tried it. I use LPG gas in my car aircon it works the best I only put about 400 grams in the car one it's super cold. But always pull a vacuum first.

Thanks for this video. But how many Btu/hr can the compressor handle and how do I size it condenser because I want to experiment what you have done.

Hi i am looking foward to do the same protect as you did in this video. I got one question and is how much time can the fridge run on the battery you have there without charging it. My protect is for a boat that has a 12v fridge, but I want to upgrade to a bigger one but the prices are really high so I want to buy a 110v bigger fridge and adapt a 12v compressor. I always have my battery charger turned on but when I am navigating it's off so that's why I am asking how long can it last without charging it thanks!

Excellent video, one small problem, that's not silver solder, it may have some silver in it but it's not the same as silver solder.

Brilliant video. One of my pipes broke. Now I know how to fix it. I can only find r134a with leak repair in the EU. Is it really that bad? Also could you share a link of the quick connect? Not sure what to order. Many thanks again

You are obviously very knowedgeable and I most def learned from this video but I would have learned more if you actually recorded you doing every step instead of only explaining it though. Anyway thanks for the share!

Where is a decent place to have these compressers shipped to Canada? Might do Aliexpress and buy a few. Convert a few. We are running freezer and fridge off our 3000 watt pure sine.

Don... Great job. How about a building a complete new system separated from freezer/frig for homemade boxes made to fit in RV's or boats?

KundaliniKid, How about an update on your DIY Danfoss swap. Is it still working after a year? Have you been using it every day? Been watching Craigslist, but haven't found a used Danfoss yet.

@4:11 you show the hold compressor witch seems to be meant to run with R600, then at 8:24 the back of the fridge show R134a. We now often find fridge with R600. Can they be converted with the BD35 danfoss comlpressor ? What about the refrigerant to be used ?

Thanks for the info I got a nice fridge inside my camper but it's a 110. I'm totally off the grid with only Soler and don't have the money to get my power pole in right now and being in Florida my cooler keeps ice maby for 2days if I'm lucky. And all the little cooler with temperature control cost around 300 and up. I can just change out the comperser to 12volt and have I nice fridge. To hold more for the money. Please keep me updated on how it's working out. And grate in the video 😎😎😎😎😎

As you implied the new compressor is most likely AC and it only has an efficient inverter coming along. My question is why didn't you try to use only the inverter in new compressor and incorporate it with your fridge's existing compressor?

How do I size the correct compressor bd35 or bd 50 for a 4.4 cu Sanyo Sr-433S fridge ?

What connection did you use on the process tube to connect the guage to charge the compressor ?

I have fridge with r600 gas inside,could I put bd35 danffos and r134 in?

Do you get enough wind to make a vertical wind turbine worthwhile for you?

My fridge says r600a gas to be used? Is this what it needs or the gas you have used? I have the Danfoss bd35f

Can you provide a set of model #'s of Danfoss compressors that will work for this purpose? I wish to build a 10-20 cu ft. chest freezer. Thanks!

Just wondering if you have any idea of an ETA when you'll be making the step-by-step video you mentioned in another post.

Thank you for the video. Question about the Electronic Controller: did you say that it was an inverter? Since its input is 12 volt dc, what is its output voltage? I'm asking because in case it's output is 110 v AC, perhaps instead of replacing the compressor, all is needed would be to add this Electronic Controller, between the 12v battery and the AC compressor. What do you think?

A “perfect vacuum” is 0 µm. You will not be able to pull a vacuum or charge the system with the fitting that you have. It does not depressed to Schrader valve.

Did you add any compressor oil?

Moisture freezing in the system is not the problem. The oil in compressors is hydrophobic and absorbs the moisture which in turn creates an acid that will destroy the compressor from within. That's why a good vacuum has to be pulled on the system. In a vacuum, any moisture will boil, turn to steam and be sucked out by the pump.

In Canada stuff on the shelf is hydrocarbon like you said. It's funny when we agrue with the "professionals" they don't believe be it's propane lol

could it be connected to a direct PV panel with a Buck converter only.. without a battery??

Hi, Full of Knowledge Video I want to buy large quantity of Fridge compressors for export. Suggest me please where i cant find at good price.

I'm way late to this party, but that isn't the "silver solder" that hvac folks refer to. At a minimimum you're going to want something like stay brite, which is like 5% or so silver and still works with a weak torch, but many techs will insist on 45% higher requiring mapp or even acetylene to braze it on. The stuff you have just has enough smidge of silver to use the word and dupe people. Can you use it? Sure, obviously. But you aren't getting the benefits of silver, namely higher strength and vibration / fatigue resistance. Otherwise, fantastic vid!

couple things, 1 Chest fridges/freezers are way more efficient then standups. Cold air falls to the lowest point, open a standup and all the cold is just pouring out onto the floor. This is why people get Chest style ones. If you are looking to make the MOST efficient fridge to run off solar/12v. Installing a DC Danfoss compressor is only 1/2 of the equation. Like I explained earlier Chest are better. Also between Fridges and Freezers, Freezers are better at holding in the cold. They have thicker walls to hold the cold inside. So, if you take your DC Danfoss compressor AND a Chest Freezer, and connect the power supply through a temperature gauge, one that can be set to Fridge levels, you now have the absolute best of all world. A LARGE DC, Efficient Fridge.

can you test the lines by filling them with something cheaper (that shows leaks well) ?

How’s it holding up 4 years later?

Where to buy a 12V Danfoss compressor in Europe?

Hi great video thank you I live in Langley how would you like to come to Langley and install one for me seriously

I tried this conversion using a 12v Danfoss compressor and a pretty much identical fridge/freezer to the one used here in the video. The "donor" unit was fully working on 240v AC before I chopped out the original compressor so I know it was fine before starting the conversion. So far I've not been able to get it fully working, the fridge holds gas properly and the compressor will run correctly but it's not cooling well at all, the freezer works great but the fridge isn't cooling plus the compressor gets really hot, it has never reached temperature and cut out on the thermostat as it should do so far. Anyone know what I might have done wrong? Too much gas, too little gas? Maybe the wrong gas? Maybe the compressor isn't working properly, it runs and makes pressure, I tested it before installation? Maybe the compressor isn't powerful enough for a fridge/freezer, it was originally out of an under counter marine fridge with small ice box? The fridge should use R600a but the compressor uses R134a, I used R134a to charge the fridge, should I try R600a instead?

Good video and I hope you don't take my comment as a detraction. R134 compressors have oil inside. The name of the oil is POE for short. This oil absorbs water from the air very easy. When moisture mixes with POE oil it turns to a very strong acid that will eventually cause the windings inside of the compressor to fail. So, you never want to let a system that uses R134 open to the air for more than 5 -6 minutes. In other words, you must cut and solder on each compressor line very fast to avoid moisture getting into the system, then you have to vacuum the system out with a good two stage vacuum pump for at least 10 hours. It is preferable to vacuum it out for 24 hours, those pumps are designed to run that long. This way the very low vacuum will cause all the moisture to boil out of the system preventing premature failure. If you want to make it really efficient, use cupronickel brake line to make a heat exchanger and put it in a ten gallon water tank instead of using the condenser.

the old 3 ways are inefficient...when i got my 1st danfoss , IT CHANGED MY LIFE , so yeah...way to go....i now have 2 , + a compressor from one i trashed trying to do what you did here....hoping to build a compact freezer , and use a home built super-insulated box for veg.,eggs , etc. freeze water/milk/meat and cycle frozen food into cooler as needed i don't know refer tech. , so THANKS !!!

The Danfoss is also manufacturend in China afaik.

how does the r12 or r22 get high in the sky to deplete the o3 ? r12 and r22 both are heavier then air as witnessed by the warnings of using in enclosed spaces ( displaces the oxyger/air in the confined areas) Or do they just...............FALL UP THERE?

could it be used in a small deep freezer?

Do you want to make a video how to dispose of refrigerant safely .There is a lot of free fridge donation. I would have liked to have dismantled a compressor from the refrigerator but for safety reasons I do not do it because I do not know how to evacuate the refrigerant in a safe way.

What about oil?

Ok, you totally skpped the part about changing the interior and exterior fans to 12 volts

32 year experienced appliance repair man here. I am looking into several apps, for dan foss comps.. but i gotta set alot of things straight here. 1. r134a is also ozone depleting, and will soon be replaced with a new refrigerant, butane based. coming soon.. sux.. at any rate, purposely blowing out refrigerants is a fineable even in the USA. it violates epa bs regs. 2. most bad units you are talking about here, have evaporator leaks, 10x compared to compressor failures. do not buy a used one, unless you are technically savy enough to know what is wrong.. ie just buy new r134a one, or working used r134a unit.. 3. yes silver solder will work, what you are saying to use is plumbing solder. slv15 is fine for copper to copper, 45percent slv or better is for steel to copper.. brazed... plumbing solder has lower strength, psi strength. no biggy on lowside. easily blown out on high side. see difference between "sweating" and "brazing". 4. yes you can use store bought r134a.. there is a big but here... as many experienced hva techs have a hard time charging refrigerators, as they are used to pounds, where refs use ounces. a small one like you have in video uses 3 ounces or less. full size modern refs only use 5 to 5.5 ozs of r134a. 1/4 oz short, and you got problems. 1/4 oz over and you got problems. 5. many are run by a electronic control now. only convert one that works off of a hydraulic thermostat. 6. BTU's.. If you put a dc comp with a 300 BTU output into a ac unit rated for a 500 or 600 BTU unit.. Yes you can make it cool ... some.. and erratically. same if you put one in that is too big. there is a sweet spot you gotta hit. or you will waste alot of time and money chasing the rabbit. generally what you are saying here is good. experiment try. if you hit it right you are a awesome.. most are going to fail miserably trying to do this, and waste more money than if they had just bought a dc fridge. what you are posting here should not be attempted by anyone with no electrical , mechanical, nor refrigeration experience, generally speaking, unless you are willing to fail alot, while learning.. having said all of that, your theory and post is sound,IF, fundamentals of refrigeration are followed.. otherwise for many it will be a expensive rabbit hole. there are many other technical aspects that i won't bore you with. and please do not take this as a negative post.. this is just for all to be aware there are many variables that will apply here. I do like your over all view. but imo this will be beyond most dyiers without certain technical expertise. or a willingness to learn alot threw failing first. keep trying though.. imo limit it to certain btu units that will work off a certain sized unit. good luck. and always say oops out loud, when you accidentally release refrigerant ;)

What aboit the evap fan surely thats still 240v or 110 v

Link de compra ???

Charge it with duat off with hfc 152a works in R12, R134 and, r22 if done right. Witch is done easy

Good job on the video, but you can buy 12-24 Volt DC compressors on Ebay for $99-$150 all day long...

The Danfrost is just a AC Compressor with a Inverter mounted to it. Where can I find a proper DC Inverter. (Meaning where the motor actually runs on DC voltage and not AC)

you need a R600a compressor to run propane/isobutane refrigerant

Neveras a 12v consumen 3a 4 amper hora motor donfen 12 v consume lo mismo, resumiendo una batería 60 amp 90 amperes no llega al otro día

Freezer works great (-15 celcius), but the fridge has like 13 celcius. What am I doing wrong?

Walmart Canada sells refrigerant but its for cars here, not sure what the number is off the top of my head

4:30 - How did you collect the old refrigerant?... You should mention that the refrigerant is toxic (but low) and it is illegal to release the green house refrigerant at open air with out a proper machine to collect it. 6:10 - you pick the refrigerant based on what danfoss tells you, one can not just simply use a butane refrigerant with an A/C compressor specifically designed for 134A or what not.

You need a vacuum pump to vacuum the sytem before filling!

the compressors sell new on ebay for around 200

Love❤

I will give you my final thought first and that is I like this video very much. thank you. What follows is what I wrote after watching only about one third of the video, but I wanted to keep it in. So..... So what did you do with the old refrigerant? I hope you didn't just release it into the atmosphere. That stuff is killing the planet. You should redo this video, which is a good video, and show how to capture the old refrigerant and store it. If done correctly, it can also be used to refill the new system. It is required by most governments to capture the old stuff and not let it escape. Also, I don't think you did a vacuum of the system, or did you and I missed it? I only know about this stuff because I tried to fix my own truck's AC and none of the auto AC repair places would capture my old refrigerant for less than fifty US dollars. In my humble opinion, ALLL smog check places should be required to do this free of charge and make it so they get to keep the refrigerant and sell it back to the government sort of like the CRV on bottles and cans. Recycling centers are paid by California for the CRV container plus they get to keep the materials and sell it to someone who will reuse it in a new product. So its a win-win-win scenario. And wouldn't you know it. I paused the video so I could write all this, and When I returned you were going over what I just said. My impatience again. Carry On

in my country 220v second hand compressor 1/8 pk around 13-15$ and secondhand mini freezer 50x50x50cm around 33$