Coolbox/freezer

richlear

richlear

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Hi,

My HP27 has a small coolbox under one of the cabin seats. I was looking into installing some sort of refridgeration but the kits available seem quite expensive and I am not sure how much work would be involved to install it. One other option might be to use a small camping type freezer to freeze ice packs and then put them in the cool box. Does anyone have any other brilliant ideas on how to keep my wine cool?

Thanks
 
richlear said:
Hi,

My HP27 has a small coolbox under one of the cabin seats. I was looking into installing some sort of refridgeration but the kits available seem quite expensive and I am not sure how much work would be involved to install it. One other option might be to use a small camping type freezer to freeze ice packs and then put them in the cool box. Does anyone have any other brilliant ideas on how to keep my wine cool?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Hang it over the side - summer or winter.
 
richlear said:
Hi,

My HP27 has a small coolbox under one of the cabin seats. I was looking into installing some sort of refridgeration but the kits available seem quite expensive and I am not sure how much work would be involved to install it. One other option might be to use a small camping type freezer to freeze ice packs and then put them in the cool box. Does anyone have any other brilliant ideas on how to keep my wine cool?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Portable 12v coolbox with chiller. I have one from one of those german supermarkets which works on 12v or 240v. They are heavy on juice drawing about 4amps but once on shore power it's not a problem. I still use a couple of ice packs to help it out but it works well and chills to 18 degrees below surrounding temp. Once on 240v it has a adjustment for how fast the fan goes and hence how much cooling you get. You don't need to run it continually but having a few cans of beer in it all the time means it stays cold for a while after turning off. No substitute for an inbuilt fridge but it's a simple solution. Mine lives under the chart table.
 
richlear said:
Hi,

My HP27 has a small coolbox under one of the cabin seats. I was looking into installing some sort of refridgeration but the kits available seem quite expensive and I am not sure how much work would be involved to install it. One other option might be to use a small camping type freezer to freeze ice packs and then put them in the cool box. Does anyone have any other brilliant ideas on how to keep my wine cool?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Compressor cool-boxes are the dog's doodahs for refrigeration on small boats. They use minimal power compared to thermoelectric ones. My 18 litre one uses about 10 Amp-hours in a 24 hour period in the UK climate. My 30 Watt solar panel keeps up. Waeco/Dometic and Webasto are the only manufacturer that I'm aware of. The only downside - you need to be sitting down when you find out the cost.
 
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AngusMcDoon said:
Compressor cool-boxes are the dog's doodahs for refrigeration on small boats. They use minimal power compared to thermoelectric ones. My 18 litre one uses about 10 Amp-hours in a 24 hour period in the UK climate. My 30 Watt solar panel keeps up. Waeco/Dometic and Webasto are the only manufacturer that I'm aware of. The only downside - you need to be sitting down when you find out the cost.
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That's the only way I would go on a small boat. I once fitted a peltier-effect cooler to the cool-box of a Sadler 29, but never really got much use from it. We were never on shore power in those days, and the cool-box was the other side of a bulkhead from the diesel tank, and so when motoring it inevitably became a warm-box. Ad-hoc methods of cooling can be sufficient, though you tend to end up living on a diet of frozen peas with no fresh meat.
 
johnalison said:
That's the only way I would go on a small boat. I once fitted a peltier-effect cooler to the cool-box of a Sadler 29, but never really got much use from it. We were never on shore power in those days, and the cool-box was the other side of a bulkhead from the diesel tank, and so when motoring it inevitably became a warm-box. Ad-hoc methods of cooling can be sufficient, though you tend to end up living on a diet of frozen peas with no fresh meat.
Click to expand...
And tipsy!
 
You can get a secondhand mains ice cube maker for around £30 to £40 on Ebay. They draw 200 watts so a 20 quid inverter will do the job. You'll get a bucket of ice in about 30 minutes so even with the engine off and no shorepower it's still practical. If you make ice while under way on engine even less of a problem.
 
I think the most practical idea for short term is to freeze milk bottles etc in home freezer and put into cool box. If you want longer term use then buy a small compressor freezer Waeco or Engel. (Do not consider a peltier cooler type totally useless.)
With a small freezer you can make ice to put into the cool box and this gives you a small frozen food capability plus large cool box capability. You can also use the small freezer at home then in the car and carried on to the boat so frozen stuff stays frozen. When defrosting the frozen food you use it to cool the cool box. I have used this arrangement with a small Engel in the car while camping in pretty hot outback conditions in Oz and works well. Portable freezers seem to be about half the price of a freezer kit for a cooler box. Perhaps less efficient due to less insulation though. My present small Waeco can be improved with insulation underneath.
In the end most people around here use the bottled ice or ice block method in cool box as best bet so you should try it. olewill
 
I have a supercool unit which is basically the gubbins from the 12 volt cool boxes. It has converted the cool box well into a 'sort of' fridge which works really well and doesn't seem to drain my batteries although we rarely anchor for anything more than overnight and tend to marina hop and plug in battery chargers.
The UK dealers used to be.............and they might still be able to help

Vitesse Marine Ltd. E4 Fort Wallington, Fareham, Hants.PO16 8TT.
Tel: 01329 232360
Email: mail@vitessemarine.co.uk
Web: http://www.vitessemarine.co.uk
 
Add insulation to the coolbox, if it's small already add it to the outside if there is space. It will make a big difference to how long the frozen beer, orange juice and milk bottles of frozen water keep the box cool. The best insulation is the stuff widely sold in builders merchants under trade names such as Cellotex or Kingspan. Buy 25mm sheet, about £14-16 cut it with a bread knife to get it into your car. Add as much as possible by gluing sheets together to make 50mm, 75mm etc. Best glue is Grippfill ( but not the solvent free one, which in my experience isn't such a good glue) available at same builderws merchants for about £3 a tube.
 
Would echo some of the above.
I had a Waeco Cf18 on my boat with only one 100Ah hybrid battery for everything.
With 2 solar panels adding up to 40w and of course use of the engine it was a close run thing keeping it going.
But it's the only really feasible solution on a small boat with not much energy available.
(a compressor fridge is the only thing that works at say roughly about 0.4Ahr mean consumption over a 24hr period)
 
I fitted the top from an Aldi 12/240v coolbox onto my existing one. If initially cooled with an ice pack it works well for a couple weeks of marina hopping. Not much good on 12v as the current draw is high.
 
+1 for a Waeco compressor fridge. I picked one up for about £150 second hand from a fellow forumite and it totally revolutionised my sailing on my old boat. Minimal power draw, chilled food, cold beer, ice in G&T.

TBH even at new prices, I think they probably pay for themselves in a few years. I ate much more on board instead of the pub...ditto drinking, and I tended to anchor more instead of marinas simply because of being able to have fresh milk for days on end. Superb bits of kit...my new boat has a fridge but I'm keeping the Waeco for camping use.
 
I had a similar issue, I took advice from here and added insulation to the inside (no access to outer) with sheets of Celotex and then glassing over that with woven cloth to make it waterproof.
That worked really well, I then purchased a compressor kit (with a lot of haggling to get a decent price) and retrofitted it, to be completely honest its worth every penny and hour spent on it.

Its one of those things that you don't miss until you don't have it, then you realise just how useful it is - from being able to eat on the boat more (as in with fresher meat) to chilling the Prosecco, not much joy with ice cubes though - but experience shows that a bag of ice lasts quite a few days when stuffed down next to the plate.
 
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