Heatcraft’s Smart Defrost Kit.

"In the past it has been difficult to discern when a refrigeration system needed to be defrosted," said Jim Kitchen, senior product manager with HRP. "Our Smart Defrost Kitâ„¢ solves this problem by evaluating the refrigeration system and determining how much frost accumulation is on the evaporator coil.

"If there is not significant accumulation, then the Smart Defrost Kit establishes that the scheduled defrost can be skipped, allowing the system to operate at a truly optimized level. When unnecessary defrosts are eliminated and fluctuating temperatures are reduced, energy costs are lowered and product integrity is increased."

Kitchen noted that in many standard defrost systems, the appropriate number of defrosts and the maximum time allowed for each defrost must be manually set. The settings chosen are usually for a worst-case scenario that the refrigeration system may encounter throughout its weekly operating cycle. Because of the manual setting, the refrigeration system may defrost itself many more times during the week than needed, he said.

"This leads to considerable waste of energy, and in turn, unnecessary large energy bills. It also puts the product at an increased risk of spoilage."

Kitchen said the Smart Defrost Kit is designed to reduce the number of defrosts by 30 percent to 40 percent for a typical refrigeration system. It is compatible with Bohn, Larkin, Climate Control, and Chandler electronic defrost commercial refrigeration systems.

For more information, go to www.heatcraftrpd.com.

Publication date: 02/06/2006