Do you turn your fridge off?

[Nostrodamus]

It used to be that whenever the engine went off and the sails went up the fridge went off.

Now that solar panels, better charging and wind turbines are more prevalent there is less need to turn it off as much.

Do you still turn your fridge off every time you sail or are at anchor or do you find you now have sufficient power to keep it on all the time?

 

[Seven Spades]

I have a Frigoboat with a keel cooler and power consumption is almost nothing so we never turn it off. Installing this system in our fridge was one of the best things we did to our boat.

 

[michael_w]

I have a Frigaboat with a keel cooler and power consumption is almost nothing so we never turn it off. Installing this system in our fridge was one of the best things we did to our boat.

+1 add the Frigoboat ECOnomy control for even better efficiency.

 

[BrianH]

My small (48W) Isotherm refrigerator never gets turned off. In the marina I have shore power; at sea I am either sailing or under power - the former always turns my 400W Air-X to generate enough or the engine alternator does the same. At anchor the 100W solar panel on the pilot-house roof - or, less frequently, the Air-X (it is, after all, the Med.)- keep the 240A/h batteries up.

 

[jordanbasset]

We never did when we had the boat, plenty of solar panels, big battery bank and a keel cooled fridge. It was a priority that we had cold beer

 

[wazza]

Isotherm never gets turned off....
Damn your eyes man, can't be having warm beer or no ice in my G&T's..

 

[DJE]

No need to turn it off. There's a low voltage cut-out to do that for me!

Managed up to three days at anchor with the fridge on and no problems without any solar panels or wind generator. Good fridge insulation and good house batteries must be the secret.

 

[vyv_cox]

Turn it on in April and off in October. It's a Waeco 65 litre fridge with a water cooled heat exchanger, a Jabsco Par Max 1 pumps seawater through when the thermostat starts the fridge. 125 watts of solar panel keeps it running all summer but would struggle in winter.

 

[temptress]

It used to be that whenever the engine went off and the sails went up the fridge went off.

Now that solar panels, better charging and wind turbines are more prevalent there is less need to turn it off as much.

Do you still turn your fridge off every time you sail or are at anchor or do you find you now have sufficient power to keep it on all the time?

Since upgrading the batteries and charging system a few years ago we only turn the Fridge off if we are leaving the boat for an extended period and then we make sure it is empty and left open.

 

[ctva]

I do get the feeling that there is a lot of unneccesary worrying about using a fridge. We have a 215ah set of batteries, no solar or wind charging and only use shore power over the winter. The fridge is a standard Jeanneau fit with nothing fancy. During the summer months we switch the fridge on when we arrive on board and it goes off when we leave. I've only ever had to use the generator to recharge the batteries on occasions when we haven't moved for a few days. Otherwise the engine running for start and end of the day in and out of port or whatever seems enough along with motoring on windless days. Things that help are keeping the fridge full to be more efficient and adjusting the thermostat to the conditions.

Like others have said, coold beer and ice for the G&T are as essential as an anchor or sails!!

 

[[70521]]

I like my beer warm.

 

[RupertW]

we've inherited an engine run fridge so have little choice. The main pain is when we are in our base marina so we bought an AC compact icemaker to start it cooling. Once we've been cruising for a few days everything starts freezing down as the engine run compressor is very powerful so switch it off a lot even when under engine.

 

[nigelmercier]

No need to turn it off. There's a low voltage cut-out to do that for me! ...

You may be concerned to know the default cut-out voltage, with Danfoss it is 10.4V

You can fix it with a single resistor.

http://www.danfoss.com/Products/Lit...nit &IncludeCurrent=True&IncludeArchived=True

 

[Bosun Higgs]

well I dont know how you lot do it. My fridge, as installed by the boatbuilder, uses 5 amps when running and it runs maybe 60% of the time. Thats 36 amp hours per day which together with other smaller loads means that our 200aH domestic bank with an effective capacity or 100aH manages somewhere between 2 and 3 days max when we are aboard on our mooring. The best I have ever seen out of my 35 watt solar panel is 2 amps and that at mid day - maybe10aH per 24 hours. No room for a bigger one.

Am trying a wind genny this year but I am not confident about it.

 

[michael_w]

BH, you could do with a bigger battery bank and a smart alternator controller. Water and keel cooled fridges are vastly more efficient than air cooled ones. Also, the box insulation is often very poor, ie: 2" or so; squirty foam is very handy.

 

[vyv_cox]

well I dont know how you lot do it. My fridge, as installed by the boatbuilder, uses 5 amps when running and it runs maybe 60% of the time.

5 amps seems a lot for a Danfoss 35C compressor. Mine uses 4 amps when it first cuts in but this reduces to 3 amps shortly before it cuts out, both include the very small consumption of the water pump, less than 0.3 amp when I last checked. Could perhaps be over-gassed?

60% is a very high figure in UK. We are currently on the hard in Greece, it is well up to summer heat and the fridge is circulating water from a bucket hanging on the transom. Its running period is about 25% at present, which will increase to about 30% at height of summer. If your fridge is air cooled I suggest you look at the path for circulating air over the exchanger. My original arrangement was very poor, almost impossible for air to move from bilge, over exchanger and on upwards. You could also consider directing air onto the exchanger using a computer fan, which many have found very effective.

 

[jimbaerselman]

well I dont know how you lot do it. My fridge, as installed by the boatbuilder, uses 5 amps when running and it runs maybe 60% of the time. Thats 36 amp hours per day which together with other smaller loads means that our 200aH domestic bank with an effective capacity or 100aH manages somewhere between 2 and 3 days max when we are aboard on our mooring. The best I have ever seen out of my 35 watt solar panel is 2 amps and that at mid day - maybe10aH per 24 hours. No room for a bigger one.

"As installed by the boatbuilder" says a lot!

1. Add insulation
2. As Vyv says, improve heat exchanger performance (go watercooled; or improve cool air intake)

All too often I've seen air cooled fridges boxed in to a cubby hole with just a few 1" diameter holes for ventilation. We modded ours to suck air from the bilge via a 5" flexible pipe, and cut an even larger gap in the back of the cupboard to allow the air to escape. Vyv's internal water cooling would have been much better, but that was beyond my pay grade until he educated me at a Cruising Association Seminar!

 

[john_morris_uk]

I have a Frigoboat with a keel cooler and power consumption is almost nothing so we never turn it off. Installing this system in our fridge was one of the best things we did to our boat.

+2 from me. We don't usually turn our fridge off, in fact we have to keep an eye on the regulator as the whole fridge turns into a freezer if we are not careful.

 

[sighmoon]

Well I'll go against the grain and say I turn the fridge off whenever the engine's off, or we're not plugged in to shore power. Our fridge is pretty inefficient, but if we put some capri sun type juices against the element when it is on, they freeze, and keep the fridge cool for about 3 days.

 

[Martin999]

My boat has an isotherm ASU (auto start up) compressor and a holding plate that freezes a liquid inside - when the compressor senses voltage above 12.5 V eg when the engine is running, its runs the compressor at full power and freezes the holding plate that can keep (a well insulated box) at below 4deg for 12 to 24 hours - when voltage drops below 12.5 it goes into eco mode which runs the compressor just enough to keep the holding plate frozen but will switch off if voltage goes too low - works very well for me as I have limited battery capacity