[mechanic]

So I added some piercing valves and topped up the refridgerant a bit. The compressor runs slightly cooler, enough to keep it from kicking out, and the evaporator gets way colder. With the fan and everything running it stabilizes at 360 watts. I found a timer setting of 1.5 hrs on/ .5 hrs off seemed to work well to keep the evaporator defrosted. Made up a batch of 6 lb of bison jerky and gave it a try, worked very well! Let it run for 24hrs, kill o watt said it used $0.73 of power total. Not too bad, cost less to process it than the spices! Made 12 medium ziplock bags, although I put it in the oven for a bit to get it up to safe temp the drying was complete.