Store It Cold - Home of the CoolBot!
Why Wouldn't CoolBot Work For Me?
CoolBot has been tested on pretty much every air conditioner we could get our hands on, and they all work fine, but 80% of our customers use: LG (Home Depot sells them), Samsung (sold at Lowes) or Frigidaire. See our section on which brand a/c to buy, but all these are proven to work well with the CoolBot. LG and Samsung take about 5 minutes to configure to work with the CoolBot... The Frigidaire takes about 20 minutes to configure.
- Portable Air Conditioners: We've had several people try to use "Portable Air Conditioners". These are units that are on wheels... they don't sitck out a window, they just sit on the floor and they use a flexible piece of pipe (looks like Dryer vent) that fits out even the smallest window. It seems like it should be a good idea, but MOSTLY people aren't happy with them. They are extremely inefficient at low temperatures because they are exhausting the cold room air out to the outside world and constantly sucking fresh HOT air into your cold room! If you are just trying to cool a SMALL room to 50 degrees, it's probably fine, so... cheese makers seem happy enough... but if you are trying to go lower than that, then you'll be pretty unhappy. Make sure to buy the highest btu-model you can find. Also, remember that these units tend to be more expensive to purchase initially AND they use far more electricity to operate, so... we don't really recommend them even when they do work!
- Room is too big/air conditioner is too small for the room size: CoolBot can't change the laws of physics! You can't expect a 5,000 BTU air conditioner to cool a 10' x 15' room. Follow our recommendations and you'll be pleasantly surprised to see that it runs less than 25% of the time if you've insulated the room well, saving wear and tear on the A/C unit and you'll have enough cooling power to more quickly cool products that are field hot and need to be cooled quickly.
- Rooms that are not well insulated enough: Won't get cold enough! The industry standard for walk-in coolers is 4 inches of styrofoam. If you have a fiberglass insulated room, add 1-2 layers of solid styrofoam insulation around the inside of the room. 2 layers, overlapped are best! Make sure to spray-foam every joint.
- There are air gaps into the room: As you make the room colder and colder, even very small gaps start to matter - it's like turning up the pressure on a garden hose! Fill visible holes with spray foam and you should be fine.
- Air conditioner is dysfunctional: CoolBot can't magically make a broken air conditioner work again! If you have an A/C unit that doesn't really put out much cool air, then CoolBot isn't going to change that! Think of the CoolBot as a “brain” that shows your air conditioner how to safely, effectively, and constantly utilize it's cooling capacity in a different way than it could before, all without voiding the warranty! Working with so many customers, we have been rather impressed to see that quality control on the name brand a/c units is really good. They also usually come with 5 year warranties.
- Air Conditioners with Metal Temperature Sensors: If you have an old air conditioner with a metal temperature sensor, CoolBot probably won't work for you. "Name brand" a/c units like LG, Samsung and Frigidaire/Kenmore all have plastic temp sensors no matter what power they are rated for. The "cheap" brands... including GoldStar, use metal temperature sensors, and CoolBot doesn't fuction well or sometimes at all with them! Cheap air conditioners are also a lot less energy efficient, so even though you may pay a little more money up front, you'll save lots over the years that you'll be using the CoolBot. Check out the EER rating on the air conditioner - it's gives you a clue as to how many kilowatts it takes to produce cooling power. The higher the number, the more efficient! We urge people to buy Energy Star a/c units when you have the choice. The extra $50 you spend pays off quickly AND they tend to be better built.
There are other problems with using a CoolBot, too. The fact that you are saving over 60% on operating costs and 90% in up-front costs means there HAS to be trade offs... You just have to decide if those are acceptable for what you will be using the CoolBot for.
Slower Cooling: CoolBot cools the rooms and products you put in down to 45 degrees VERY quickly... but then it's slower getting down to 40... and even slower still getting down to 35. To be more specific, if you load your cooler up with a 1/2 ton of 85 degree field-hot broccoli, cabbage and lettuce, you'll see it drop down to 50 degrees super fast (minutes)... and then down to 45 - still great. But it will take 1-2 hours to drop that 1000lbs of hot stuff down to 40 degrees and maybe another 3-4 hours to cool on down to 35.
For mixed veggie and flower growers, this doesn't matter a lot. You'll reach the temperature that you want, and by 45 you've you've slowed the breakdown of the veggies enough that it doesn't matter so much, BUT if you are trying to cool 50 cases of warm beer down fast at your convenience store you'd better plan ahead if you'll be using the CoolBot to do it!
Another concern for northern growers, deli owners and restaurant owners thinking of using the CoolBot is that when outside temperatures drop below 40-45 degrees, MANY brands of Air Conditioner temporarily stop functioning! For mixed flower and veggies growers it doesn't matter SO much... 40 degrees is cold enough for your veggies over night anyway and obviously the cooler isn't going to heat up more than the outside air temperature.
LG Brand a/c units keep running even when it's cold out, and some A/C's just start working again in the morning when the temperatures rise. For people with Frigidaire/Kenmore, you actually have to unplug and replug in the a/c to get it to start cooling again, so that's one more thing to remember to do in the morning. .
For restaurant owners and caterers in northern climates this problem can be more serious because they need to keep prepared food UNDER 40 degrees... and what if you forget to re-set your air conditioner in the morning!!
While there are possible solutions (you can mount the A/C inside a building... you can cover/insulate it so that the exhaust heat keeps it warmer, you can use engine block heaters stuck up into the body of the a/c) and we have customers doing things like this BUT we haven't checked these solutions out for ourselves, so at this time, our recommendation is that if you need your cooler to stay below 45 degrees in the fall/winter in Northern climates just buy an LG brand of a/c unit (or possibly a Samsung) or... don't travel so you can reset the other units every morning when you wake up.
We're happy to speak to you in more detail about what we've learned from all the people now using the CoolBot. We realize the CoolBot system is NOT for everyone, but we think it's the best solution possible for MANY people that require a medium scale cold-storage option. MOST people use the CoolBot at 40-42 degrees, but many people need it cooler and it's been consistently tested down to 33 degrees with no trouble.
The CoolBot is not only inexpensive to set up, it will save you hundreds of dollars a year in operating costs, keeping your produce cold, while helping to curb global warming!
