boat fridge

[tamarind]

My fridge has packed up. Apparently the compressor has stopped working and cannot get a new one. Replacement fridges 12v/240v are ridiculas prices £500. Does anyone know where to get a reasonable priced fridge, its a mid sized fridge in a Fairline Targa 33

 

[Geoffs]

Marine Super Store at Port Solent always have a good selection of refridgeration stuff.

Can't remember prices, but if you can go to the store, they sometimes have special offers. I know somwone who bought a 12v chest freezer for £150 as a special.

 

[Sixpence]

Depends what you're after , don't forget there's top loaders as well as cabinet types , and the dimensions are important too , wouldn't want one that's too big for the space would you /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[rich]

Why not fit one of these Waeco compresors to your old cabinet, they are easy to fit, no special tools needed.

 

[michael_w]

Talk to the guys at Penguin Refrigeration. First class advice and service. FWIW go for a "keel cooled" system. Kept the beer cold in Florida when the water was up to 34 degrees centigrade.

 

[oldgit]

If your invertor is up to it .B&Q were doing a 240v small fridge about 24"W x 30L" for around £80.00 a few weeks ago.

 

[carlton]

Problem with a domestic fridge is they can't stand the bouncy bits. We had one on our boat and it packed up after just one year. Mind you, it only cost £65 and we did hit 38 knots, so no surprise really. If you crank them up on full power for a couple of hours before venturing out, and then give them an hour for the gas to settle on your return to port before switching back on they work fine.

 

[Frontier]

Try searching for caravan fridges like this...

web page

Might be a bit cheaper

 

[cliff]

[ QUOTE ]
Problem with a domestic fridge is they can't stand the bouncy bits. We had one on our boat and it packed up after just one year. Mind you, it only cost £65 and we did hit 38 knots, so no surprise really. If you crank them up on full power for a couple of hours before venturing out, and then give them an hour for the gas to settle on your return to port before switching back on they work fine.

[/ QUOTE ]Don't know about that (38knts) but I have a small "domestic" fridge / freezer on my boat and it has not given any problems in the last 7 years - mind you I do not hit 38 knots but I do tend to heel over a lot more than a Mobo.

Cost about £60 out of Comet or maybe Tesco's - cant remember which. The only concession I give the unit is switch it off if it gets rough and let it rest a while before switching it on once the bouncy bit has passed.

Seems to keep working even under way but if more than F4~5 I switch it off.

The other thing I did was fit a large 6" 12vDC brushless fan in the bottom of cupboard to draw in fresh air from below the cupboard base and force the warm air out the louvres in the top of the cupboard door - certainly cuts down the duty cycle of the compressor.

The ice maker gives more problems, it has to be practically horizontal to work properly.
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"Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity"
sailroom <span style="color:red">The place to auction your previously loved boatie bits</span>

 

[carlton]

[ QUOTE ]
The ice maker gives more problems, it has to be practically horizontal to work properly.


[/ QUOTE ]

Useful info Cliff - we're currently investigating purchase of same. Ta.

 

[muckypup]

We are thinking of doing the same as well. Do you know how many amps at 240v a small fridge draws? What size inverter are you using?

I would probably fit a fan to extract the warm air as well, but fix it up to one of those LCD modules from Maplin. You can set those up to turn on outputs when temperature reaches a certain level.

Steve

 

[Geoffs]

Personally I don't think running a fridge from an inverter is a good idea. No doubt there are some who say they do it and it's ok.

I've tried it, and it don't work too well. The trouble is a 'fridge compressor draws many times it's running current when it starts. This means you need a much bigger inverter than you'd think. Probably 1000VA for modest fridge.

This in turn means that the quiescent current is higher, making effiency lower and the fridge thirsty on power.

That's my experience, anyway. Now someone can say, utter rubbish /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[kcrane]

Second the advice to try Penguin... they put me in touch with a local fitter a couple of weeks ago. He came out and fixed my bust fridge within a few days, cost of £100. Downside was we had huge orange ice lollies instead of fresh juice <g>

PM if you want name and number

 

[Medskipper]

Has the fridge been idle for a long period of time? if you have not used the fridge for a long period, an old trick is to remove the fridge from its position and turn it upside down for a while! this may sound faintly strange but the refrigerent tends to settle low in the system and stays there. By turning the fridge upside down the refridgerent will circulate back around the system again then all you have to do is turn the fridge on again! of course you do need to turn it back up the correct way again. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Good Luck

Barry

 

[cliff]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The ice maker gives more problems, it has to be practically horizontal to work properly.

[/ QUOTE ]

Useful info Cliff - we're currently investigating purchase of same. Ta.

[/ QUOTE ]Don't get me wrong it works reasonaby well but the water tends to spill out of the trays if the unit is not reasonably horizontal which makes a bit of a mess. mind you about 15mins makes enough ice for a couple of large G&T's so no big deal. Tie up / drop the hook switch on the ice maker get "sorted out" and by the time that is done the ice is ready.
--------------------

"Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity"
sailroom <span style="color:red">The place to auction your previously loved boatie bits</span>

 

[cliff]

[ QUOTE ]
We are thinking of doing the same as well. Do you know how many amps at 240v a small fridge draws? What size inverter are you using?

I would probably fit a fan to extract the warm air as well, but fix it up to one of those LCD modules from Maplin. You can set those up to turn on outputs when temperature reaches a certain level.

Steve

[/ QUOTE ] The invertor draws around 1~1½ amps running the fridge (with freezer compartment) duty cycle around 25% once down to temp. Invertor is a 1800W (continous rating 3600W peak/surge) Sterling unit which draws around 0.1 amp when idle, or so my tong tester tells me.

I also have a couple of smaller invertors and while the 600w will start and run the fridge quite happily the 300w will not start the compressor and trips out.

Do you have a link to the LCD switching modules you refer to? might be interested in fitting one.
--------------------

"Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity"
sailroom <span style="color:red">The place to auction your previously loved boatie bits</span>

 

[cliff]

[ QUOTE ]
Personally I don't think running a fridge from an inverter is a good idea. No doubt there are some who say they do it and it's ok.

[/ QUOTE ]I do and it is o.k. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif [ QUOTE ]
I've tried it, and it don't work too well. The trouble is a 'fridge compressor draws many times it's running current when it starts. This means you need a much bigger inverter than you'd think. Probably 1000VA for modest fridge.

This in turn means that the quiescent current is higher, making effiency lower and the fridge thirsty on power.

That's my experience, anyway. Now someone can say, utter rubbish /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

[/ QUOTE ]Well, I would not say "utter rubbish" but my experience is quite different but I suppose it depends on the fridge and the invertor. From what I hear fridges do not like square wave power at all and are not really fond of modified sine wave but will run on it, albeit inefficiently, while they do not have a problem with pure sine power.

 

[muckypup]

Yup...

Maplin

I'm not very good with electronics, but I believe you need a zenner diode to drop the 12v to 1.5v for permanent power from the boat, and PC style case fans run off 12v. One of the pins will go (either high or low) when temperature exceeded, so plumb the output from this into a transister to turn the fan on and off....

I was thinking of using a couple of these for exhaust alarms but it maxes out at 50degC which may or may not be enough.

S.

 

[cliff]

Thanks for the link and explanation how to use.

I just checked the power consumption spread sheed I made for onboard electrical consumption - Invertor actually draws 4~4½ amp when powering the fridge, duty cycle around 25% so around the same as a 12v fridge.
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"Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity"
sailroom <span style="color:red">The place to auction your previously loved boatie bits</span>

 

[burgundyben]

[ QUOTE ]


I just checked the power consumption spread sheed I made for onboard electrical consumption



[/ QUOTE ]

You need to get out more!!