How to connect fridge compressor to AC wall outlet

mariobrothers8 · Oct 4, 2020

Hi guys, I am looking to convert my old fridge compressor to a vacuum pump. I have removed the fridge compressor which has an inverter attached. I want to connect the compressor to an AC wall adapter using my fridge's old AC wall outlet plug. However, there are two sets of electrical wires coming from the inverter (see attached photo), which one do I use? Do I need to use both of them, and how would I do that? Also I am assuming the green wire connected to the compressor is the ground wire, please correct me if I'm wrong

- I am an electrical newb!

Lucien Nunes · Oct 4, 2020

The larger wires will be the power feed, the others are for the thermistor / temperature control. You might need to rig up some external resistors to simulate a valid input status, before it will run. A schematic of the fridge would help identify what is needed.

mariobrothers8 · Oct 21, 2020

Hi Lucien thank you very much for the reply! I wired the larger wires to the AC outlet plug, but I'm not sure how to rig up some external resistors to simulate a valid input, what do you mean by that exactly? Do you connect the external resistors to the wires between the AC wall adapter and inverter or between the inverter and the compressor. Unfortunately my wife purchased the fridge used and it didn't come with any instruction guide, is there a schematic located somewhere on the fridge itself?

Thanks again for your help it's greatly appreciated!

Marvo · Oct 22, 2020

What make and model number was the donor fridge?

You could remove the original sensor(s) and any other auxillary components from the fridge and just plug them into the inverter as they were intended.

The other option is more complicated, you'd need to open the inverter and see if the main control IC has an ID number on it. Then you'd need to go online and find a pdf data sheet which should tell you what inputs are necessary to achieve different outputs.