The CoolBot transforms any well-insulated room into a walk-in cooler by harnessing the cooling power of a standard air conditioner. An amazing product that will allow you to keep a cool room at the temperature you want ... to store you garden bounty, or for a cheese cave... and many other uses!
Results vary depending on the outside environment, the size of the insulated room and the size of the air conditioning unit, but as a general guide, an 18,000 BTU window A/C unit keeps produce in a 7-foot-by-12-foot insulated room at 38 degrees during the summer with plenty of cooling power to spare.
This is the unit you purchase from us... see the photos above. You have to provide your own wall A/C unit and follow the DIY instructions to get it all up in running. And we provide you with Free Shipping!
Features:
- Allows a standard window air conditioner to cool a room to 34 F!
- Build your own walk-in cooler – trusted by farmers, florists, hunters, brewers, restaurants, convenience stores, mortuaries, and more
- Installs in minutes – no tools or electrical knowledge required
- Recommended by major university extension programs
- Dimensions: 6.5 × 3.5 × 1.5 in
- Made in the USA
- WIFI JUMPER & DATA CABLE NOT INCLUDED!
Who can benefit from this Cool Bot technology -
- Homesteaders, CSAs and Farms can build affordable walk-in cooler used to store inventory at refrigerated temperatures in any climate preserving your fruit or vegetable production much longer.
- Dairies, Creameries and Individual Cheese Makers can create cheese caves with total temperature, humidity and air circulation control.
- Hunters can quickly cool harvested game to a safe storage temperature is critical to avoiding meat spoilage.
- Bars and Breweries can easily build affordable walk-in cooler for your brewery for fermenting, lagering, or just keeping your brews cold fro drinking.
- Restaurants use CoolBot-driven coolers as both their primary walk-in coolers or as back up or secondary storage saving on lower upfront costs and smaller monthly electricity bills compared to traditional compressor systems.
Why not just use an A/C unit? First, they are electronically limited so that they can’t go below 60° F. 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 as your ability to actually utilize that cooling power drops drastically as you approach 60° F. This limitation at 60° F vs. a traditional walk-in cooler refrigeration system is driven by the lack of extra fans and surface area built into traditional walk-in cooler compressor / condenser / evaporator units which dissipate the cold without freezing up the fins of the unit.
The CoolBot’s patented technology intelligently controls your air conditioner – so you can harness its cooling power and keep temperatures in the 30s without freezing up your air conditioner.
How does the CoolBot work?
The CoolBot uses multiple sensors, a heating element and a programmed micro-controller to direct your air conditioner’s compressor to operate in a such a way to cool the room to 36° F without ever freezing up. Additionally, our innovative interface which links the CoolBot controller to your air conditioner allows for 5 minute installations without any training, cutting, soldering or even taping.
CoolBot cannot give you 100% use of the listed BTUs on your air conditioner, so you will need to buy a higher BTU air conditioner than the BTU size you would buy on a traditional cooler compressor. However, the price of a larger air conditioner and a CoolBot is a fraction of the cost of a real walk-in cooler compressor, saving you $1,000s in upfront equipment costs.
Most importantly, when the CoolBot begins to lose efficiency when accessing your BTUs of cooling power (when the air conditioner is close to freezing), it is programmed to shut off the compressor on your A/C unit, so you do not pay for electricity to make BTUs that you can’t use! That saves you money on your monthly electricity bill and helps the environment. As long as you sized your air conditioner correctly and insulate your cooler well, you’ll have no problem keeping your room as cold as you want it to be.
Important Considerations
1. CoolBot Systems Are Not As Effective if the Door is Opened More than 6 Times per Hour
CoolBot systems perform best when walk-in coolers are opened less than six times per hour. If you open your cooler more frequently than that, the CoolBot can have a tough time maintaining the targeted temperature. Accordingly, we are a great solution for smaller restaurants, caterers, and operations that can keep door openings to less than six times per hour. Customers who want to open their cooler door more than six times per hour always oversize their A/Cs beyond our general A/C sizing guidelines and have extremely well insulated coolers.
2. CoolBot Systems Take Longer to Lower the Temperature in the Cooler
The CoolBot can get most walk-in coolers down from ambient temperature to 45°F (7°C) in about 20 minutes. However, it can take longer (about another 30 minutes) to hit 40°F (4.4°C) and will take increasingly longer the farther you go down in temperature.
3. CoolBot Systems Are Not As Efficient Below 36°F (2.2°C)
As mentioned above, the further below 40°F (4.4°C) you need your cooler, the harder the CoolBot system has to work. Luckily, the CoolBot is pretty tough and can get most of our customers to 36°F (2.2°C) without an issue. Below 36°F, you need to be sure that (A) your cooler is very well insulated and built , (B) your A/C is oversized vs. our A/C selection guidelines, (C) you minimize door openings, and/or (D) you are okay with it taking longer to longer to hit your target temperature. The CoolBot and the air conditioners it works with are not designed to freeze. If you need to freeze, buy a freezer!
