Do you turn your fridge off?

[dje67]

When holidaying for a couple of weeks, it never gets turned off. I do tend to turn it up (colder!) when on shorepower or engine, and turn it down a bit when sailing. So the fridge gets as cold as possible when without the batteries taking the strain. Our sailing pattern nearly always involves having shorepower available at least every couple of nights, though, so it works for us.

 

[prv]

My boat has an isotherm ASU (auto start up) compressor and a holding plate that freezes a liquid inside [...] - works very well for me

Glad to hear it, as I have just inherited the same. Not currently working (see other thread) but seems like it will be a good system once it is. Kind of a hybrid between a standard battery fridge and the American-style engine-driven ones, with the additional benefit of also doing the freezing cycle when plugged in.

Pete

 

[RAI]

Wiring the fridge power through the solar panel controller's load connection provides a protective low voltage cut-off for the battery. I leave mine on all the time.

 

[Sgeir]

What is this thing of which you speak?

 

[TQA]

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?

Stays on all the time except for monthly defrosts. 400 watts of tiltable solar does the biz.

 

[Robin]

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?

THe reality is that if you have to turn off your refrigerator you no not really have one, you just have at best a cool box or someextra storage space.

 

[BelleSerene]

Things that help are keeping the fridge full to be more efficient and adjusting the thermostat to the conditions.

Yep. Mine's like the squelch on the VHF. I turn it up until the beer bottles crack, and then back it off a bit.

 

[SeamanStaines]

There is an on/off switch for the fridge?

 

[Bosun Higgs]

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.

Bowman installed the fridge in the peninsular locker bit by the galley. They then installed the compressor in the cupboard underneath the fridge box with nothing but natural ventialtion. So the compressor sucks the heat out of the fridge and then wafts it all around the outside of the fridge. OK I've added a PC fan to help ventialtion but there is nothing much else I can do short of rebuilding the galley.

I would be surprised if Bowman was the only boat builder to do this sort of thing.

I did have a keel cooler on a previous boat but TBH I didnt find it that much better unless the boat was moving when I managed to freeze the tonic for SWMBO's G&T. She wasnt amused.

 

[Martin999]

Glad to hear it, as I have just inherited the same. Not currently working (see other thread) but seems like it will be a good system once it is. Kind of a hybrid between a standard battery fridge and the American-style engine-driven ones, with the additional benefit of also doing the freezing cycle when plugged in.

Pete

I've just had a look at your other thread. I am not a technical expert (quite the opposite in fact) but I do know that whether the unit is in auto or manual mode the green light is always on - even if the compressor isn't running (I know this because my wife complains its too bright at night if we leave our cabin door open) the only time it is off is when the switch is in the central 'off' position. So if you have no green light there is no power being supplied to the compressor. This probably won't help much, but good luck with getting it sorted, cold beer beckons