A freezer on board - the liveaborard point of view?

Koeketiene

Koeketiene

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Le Roussillon (South of France)
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We're currently refitting a boat with the view of embarking on a RTW cruise in about 3 years time.
One of the items on this winters 'to-do' list is replacing the 30 years old power-hungry and inefficient fridge.
The other half, in charge of all things to do with victualing, mentioned that she would like to have a freezer too.

Is this practical/useful/essential/... or just 'nice-to-have'?
Are these things not extremely power-hungry?
Is keel-cooled really worth the extra expense?
Any first hand recommendations/experiences when it comes to makes and suppliers?

Many thanks.
 
We have the usual small freezer section in a pretty large top loading fridge and it is on all the time (mostly using power from solar panels). However, we are cruising an area that's not usually higher than 30C during the day and cool at night. Power consumption is probably about 40 Ah/day for most of the summer. In a recent hot spell (38C in day & also high overnight temps) consumption shot up to 80-100Ah/day. I haven't modified the system as it easily copes with normal conditions (with freezer at -8C and fridge at 5C).

1) I'm pretty certain that others will suggest good insulation as a starting point. If you are cruising to places where temps. are above ~30C most of the time then your compressor will have a high duty cycle. The best thing you can do to reduce power consumption is the insulate the freezer to a MUCH higher standard than production boats.

2) Next would be to get rid of the heat pulled from the freezer and that's where you are into fans/ducting vs. keel cooling. I'll leave that one for others to comment on as I don't have keel cooling.

Of course you don't actually need a freezer and can modify your lifestyle to avoid one. I just find it easier to keep my wife happy and use a freezer pretty much as we would when living ashore. Only difference is that we don't plan to keep anything in the freezer for more than a few weeks. Not much of a problem as it is small and you plan much more carefully than with the comparatively gigantic system in a house.

I'd not consider anything larger than our freezer compartment because of the high power use and the fact that we mange well with the size we have.
 
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1. We only have a freezer compartment inside the fridge, which we find extremely useful. If I had the space and inclination I would certainly consider having a separate freezer.
2. Assuming plenty of insulation, the power consumed by a Danfoss 35C unit is going to be about the same as for a fridge, 3-4 amps, running for about 30% of the time
3. Water cooled is far more efficient than air. Mine is a Danfoss unit with a water-cooled heat exchanger, with seawater pumped through. The pump consumes about 0.5 amp
4. For a freezer you are probably best having a top-loading unit built into the boat. Tek-tanks will make the container, you then only need to add insulation and buy the compressor and evaporator. Or you could convert an existing coolbox by adding them to that. Don't skimp on insulation - there are some modern ones, expensive but very effective. there has been an article in PBO very recently.
 
GrahamM376 said:
We have a 170L built in top loader and the insulation is poor so very heavy on battery power. Standard BD50F compressor unit which I moved from underneath the fridge box, to cockpit locker.

These evaporators http://www.isotherm-parts.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=15_23 can be had with or without door and for our use keeps enough food frozen.
Click to expand...


I have a Groenland fridge with 3 star freezer compartment. It's a free standing camping fridge mains/ gas/ battery.

Still working well after 23 years use! If fact the fridge is too cold on the top setting, but the freezer compartment is very small.

My opinion: a gas operated fridge/ freezer is the only option. A standard gas cylinder lasts about 5-6 weeks, now that would be a lot of battery power!!

Ps: temp inside boat today is 24 deg, proof if proof is needed:

View attachment 35068
 
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I have an Adler Barbour Supercold machine. It has a small freezer compartment in a large well insulated top loading fridge compartment. In typical Caribbean temps it keeps 3 to 5 lbs of frozen goods frozen, makes ice and the fridge section is really cold.

It has the option of being water cooled but is air cooled at the moment. I know of people with the watercooled version and they have the water pump fail about every year.

Brill bit of kit.
 
In the tropics keel or water cooling makes a big difference to power consumption. As you are doing the whole thing from scratch you'd be bonkers not to go down this route. Kept the beer frosty cold even when the sea temperature was 32c. Insulation is the key. That and the WBF (warm beer factor).
 
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?312207-Spill-over-freezer-fridge-system/page2

Have you seen this thread? I am replacing my fridge next year and am probably going to adopt a spill over system. Have't finished my research completely but am considering an adjustable divider so that the freezer compartment capacity can be adjusted according to the proposed cruising plans. Think it can be achieved by way of over sizing the compresser / evaporator and adjusting the spillover fan thermostat accordingly.
 
rustybarge said:
I have a Groenland fridge with 3 star freezer compartment. It's a free standing camping fridge mains/ gas/ battery.

Still working well after 23 years use! If fact the fridge is too cold on the top setting, but the freezer compartment is very small.

My opinion: a gas operated fridge/ freezer is the only option. A standard gas cylinder lasts about 5-6 weeks, now that would be a lot of battery power!!

Ps: temp inside boat today is 24 deg, proof if proof is needed:
Click to expand...

I was under the impression that gas operated fridges on boats were frowned on these days, for several reasons:

1) They don't operate when tilted beyond a few degrees - incompatible with a sailing boat making passages (might be OK on a Cat, I guess)
2) Safety issues related to flame-out and gas leakage, though a good flame-out device and gas installation should make it safe enough.
3) There is a continual naked flame providing a source of ignition for any other inflammable leakage or spillage aboard.

Of course, if these issues could be handled in a bullet-proof way, then a gas fridge would indeed be a better bet than an electrical one.

I very much doubt if a boat with a gas fridge could pass any of the usual safety certifications, though of course, these are optional for boats not used for commercial purposes.
 
We have a small Waeco freezer (35lt) and it's great if you are going to spend a lot of time on the hook. Ventilation is key when you are in the Med or Carib. We had a Engel one before which because of lack of ventilation and badly thought-out installation (not by us) caught fire; thankfully we were on board and it was day time, god knows what the outcome would have been if we were asleep or away from the boat.

2cqnolg.jpg


PS: If anyone wants to know the company who fitted this death trap pm me.
 
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Gas fridges will be absorption fridges which if three way will be horribly power hungry on 12v, something like 8A constant. Taking into account the safety issues they are ok on gas but not very economical and only as good as the amount of gas you can carry and availability of the correct cylinders. Not much good on a RTW. Only way to go in my view is unpumped keel cooled and possibly spillover (as my previous post) with lots of solar.
If you have the room and can handle the extra power load of another compressor. I once looked at a 40 footer that had a chest freezer underneath the saloon table. It was top loading through a lid in the table and had about 150mm of insulation around it with its own compressor.
 
OR,with due respect(which probably means I'm going to be rude)why do people,including yourself,pose a perfectly reasonable question without mentioning the type and size of your yacht?This encourages every Tom Dick and Harry to jump on the thread and and bang on about what they have which is probably not relevant to you at all.Glad I got that off my chest!PS I have a standard domestic fridge and a freezer of the same size(240v).Under the galley sole we also have a cold box (from memory 3'x2'x18") powered by a 24v Waco unit.So guess the length of my ship???PPS,We recenly added one of those countertop ice makers for £150 which is a Godsend in the Med.
 
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Mad Pad said:
OR,with due respect(which probably means I'm going to be rude)why do people,including yourself,pose a perfectly reasonable question without mentioning the type and size of your yacht?This encourages every Tom Dick and Harry to jump on the thread and and bang on about what they have which is probably not relevant to you at all.Glad I got that off my chest!PS I have a standard domestic fridge and a freezer of the same size(240v).Under the galley sole we also have a cold box (from memory 3'x2'x18") powered by a 24v Waco unit.So guess the length of my ship???PPS,We recenly added one of those countertop ice makers for £150 which is a Godsend in the Med.
Click to expand...

With all due respect (I can be rude too): why do some people have to be spoon-fed?
If they could be bother to click on the link in my signature they would learn all they need to know - and more - about what type of boat we sail.
There, got that of my chest too. :p

As for your little quiz: I would guess a 40'-something mobo.
 
OR,not very good on all this link stuff but see she's a fibreglass yacht about 40' from the photos(can't seem to find her builder and spec)?Mine's a 58' Silver Ormidale built in Rosneath 1955.Over to you!Builder.....Length.....Year of Build...?
 
Huge chest style fridge one side, freezer the other. Inside dimensions both sides precisely right for 2 slabs of beer, obviously designed by a man....(no compartments, finding anything is a nightmare)!

Freezer only works well when full, **** design.
 
We have a deep chest fridge in the galley port side and a smaller chest freezer on the starboard side. Each can be used as a fridge or a freezer the additional equipment and switching is not complicated if you are starting from scratch. In all fairness in 10 years we have never needed a freezer in the trip from the UK to Turkey over the past ten years. We use the freezer occasionally as a second fridge for drinks if there are additional people on board. I guess having a freezer might be useful on ocean passages. Either units make ice using ise bags on the cooler plate, great for the G&T.
 
I started again from scratch and designed a smaller fridge than the original 180 ltr uninsulated bit of rubbish. By reducing the size you give enough space for the insulation - which ideally should be 4 inches all round. By making it into a cuboid you can use all the available space - (110ltrs) using wire baskets.

The fridge in the picture below is a freezer on the left and fridge on the right. We generally run them both as fridges when supplies are plentiful, but on the delivery trip to Greece through the canals of france we ran the freezer at -25C. The right hand fridge takes air from the freezer side with a thermostatically controlled fan. (Liner from Tek Tanks)

The compressor from Penguin is a Waeco - and quite powerful - it draws 8 amps when running. However the fridge is so efficient with a keel cooler, that it only draws some 30amp a day - easily run by the 2 x 85w panels. Do go the route of the keel cooler, though you might want a heat exchanger as well if you will live aboard ashore for any length of time.

http://s70.photobucket.com/user/chrisrobb/media/P9120022.jpg.html

Any thing I would do different? Yes - the central divider between the two compartments need to be slightly more insulated when running at -25C - made the fridge a little too cold. 10mm extra would suffice.



Other than that - no changes - I don't even notice the consumption and the need for deep cycle batteries is gone - not seen my battery volts below 12.6V in 2 years.
 
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