Freezer capacity - Mr Vs Mrs

[KimB]

Without giving who's who away, one of us thinks 35l (ish) the other 20l (ish) is the way to go..
We are in the UK.
We already have a large capacity fridge, working well,
Now planning transatlantic and fancy a freezer. Only 2 of us will be onboard for the crossing.
Freezer unit that is "portable" and will plug into 12v circuit, so a Alpicool, Subcold etc variety is what we're thinking.
Idea is to travel with said freezer stocked with meat and other essentials for (lets say) 4 week crossing and then sail with bits and bobs inside (including lots of ice cubes) for the next 12 months plus when we mooch around in the Caribbean.
Yes, we need your thoughts/experiences re. power usage, noise, condensation.
Finding a space for it isn't a big issue (corner of rear cabin)..
Any thoughts?

 

[Yngmar]

20L should be plenty, given that many cruisers have not needed one at all

Also, if it's mostly for ice cubes, consider a 12V ice maker instead. Even if not, 20L is a lot of ice cubes even if you're a serious cocktail devourer.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

The bigger the better you can always put less in a big one but you can't put more in a little one.

 

[Tintin]

The bigger the better you can always put less in a big one but you can't put more in a little one.

And fill empty space with closed empty uppercase or boxes, which apparently helps the efficiency.

 

[LittleSister]

Each to his own, but I would be more inclined to adjust my eating habits to the journey than try to maintain my domestic habits throughout the adventure. There's a balance to be struck on getting away from it all vs. taking it all with you.

Hard tack and pemmican, anyone?

 

[KimB]

20L should be plenty, given that many cruisers have not needed one at all

Also, if it's mostly for ice cubes, consider a 12V ice maker instead. Even if not, 20L is a lot of ice cubes even if you're a serious cocktail devourer.

True, previous owners survived without one. Will look into ice maker, thanks.

 

[KimB]

Each to his own, but I would be more inclined to adjust my eating habits to the journey than try to maintain my domestic habits throughout the adventure. There's a balance to be struck on getting away from it all vs. taking it all with you.

Hard tack and pemmican, anyone?

Never heard of pemmican (looked up on google) , big fan of corned beef though!

 

[Sandy]

My thoughts: you don't need a freezer.

I have had friends who lived aboard for three years and sailed as far north to Norway (60°N) and south to South Georgia (54°S) without a fridge let alone a freezer.

Onboard I have a fridge compartment that is used to store food, I like my beer at ambient temperature.

 

[geem]

For us crossing the pond and cruising the Caribbean, a freezer is essential. With just two of us onboard, we manage easily with a 10 litre freezer section within our fridge. All meat is packed into ziplock bags before it goes in the freezer. The use of the freezer section is then a lot more efficient. We can easily store 3 weeks worth of meat in the tiny freezer, assuming a meal a day from the stash. Once full, there is no air space at all. It makes the freezer more efficient. I suspect a portable freezer will be a power hog in the Caribbean climate and on the Atlantic crossing. Insulation is normally very poor. We use such a portable 42L compressor fridge as our fruit and veg fridge. With this use, it doesn't need to be so cold. In addition, we made an insulated jacket for it to help with the efficiency. We also have an icemaker that uses 100w whilst making ice. It works pretty well but it's heavy and larger than a breadmaker.

 

[dunedin]

Key data is missing - what is the power consumption of the two alternatives.
Plug in freezers may be very power hungry? In which case the other key question is how much solar and hydro power generation do you have?

 

[geem]

The bigger the better you can always put less in a big one but you can't put more in a little one.

The running costs of a large empty freezer can be horrendous, especially in a hot climate such as the Caribbean. In addition, the Atlantic crossing can see cabin temperatures at circa 35degC at times as you can't open the hatches. All bad for running efficiency of a fridge and especially a freezer.
A friend here with 900w of solar and a large fridge and freezer on his catamaran struggles to keep up with consumption on cloudy days. They are really heavy on power

 

[john_morris_uk]

All the above plus

Four weeks for a transatlantic?

Last crossing I made we had fresh for a week

Freezer food for the next week

Then onto tins and dried but three days into week three we were there.

Bilge still has LOADS of tinned food in it a year or more later.

 

[john_morris_uk]

The running costs of a large empty freezer can be horrendous, especially in a hot climate such as the Caribbean. In addition, the Atlantic crossing can see cabin temperatures at circa 35degC at times as you can't open the hatches. All bad for running efficiency of a fridge and especially a freezer.
A friend here with 900w of solar and a large fridge and freezer on his catamaran struggles to keep up with consumption on cloudy days. They are really heavy on power

Agreed. And the key factor is efficiency of the fridge or freezer. I rebuilt ours with LOTS of insulation and installed a water cooled system. It’s very efficient in contrast to the previous originally installed one.

And personally, I don’t think boats need huge freezers until you get to super yacht size.

 

[Minerva]

If it were me and I was going to the hassle and expense of installing a freezer. I'd get the larger one; one for marital harmony and two I'd be willing to bet the "energy cost" increase between a 20 and 35l freezer is negligible compared to the hassle factor for building it in.

 

[Sea Change]

I built a ~45l freezer and now that I have it, I can't imagine life without it.
It uses less power than our 'off the shelf' fridge, because it has far better insulation.

For the crossing, we loaded up with pre-cooked meals. Cottage pie, lasagne, curry, etc. It was brilliant to be able to produce a delicious home cooked dinner with just a few minutes spent down below. Absolute life saver.

Now that we're in the Caribbean, the freezer is also hugely useful because of the price differences between the islands. We load up with meat, cheese, and frozen veg in the French islands, because the same stuff can be either unavailable or 3x the cost elsewhere.

We almost never eat out (less than once a month) and SWMBO is a devout carnivore, so access to good ingredients is a high priority for us.

 

[Daverw]

We were debating the same issue late last year, eventually we went with Totalfreeze 45 Portable Fridge Freezer - Totalcool
its not actually much bigger than the 35l model but perfect for the two of us. Only switch on when needed and cools down very quickly with quite low power consumption compared with others. We also have been using it for chill as it’s easier to get into than our inbuilt unit.

 

[rotrax]

Without giving who's who away, one of us thinks 35l (ish) the other 20l (ish) is the way to go..
We are in the UK.
We already have a large capacity fridge, working well,
Now planning transatlantic and fancy a freezer. Only 2 of us will be onboard for the crossing.
Freezer unit that is "portable" and will plug into 12v circuit, so a Alpicool, Subcold etc variety is what we're thinking.
Idea is to travel with said freezer stocked with meat and other essentials for (lets say) 4 week crossing and then sail with bits and bobs inside (including lots of ice cubes) for the next 12 months plus when we mooch around in the Caribbean.
Yes, we need your thoughts/experiences re. power usage, noise, condensation.
Finding a space for it isn't a big issue (corner of rear cabin)..
Any thoughts?

We have a Dometic 40L. Smart switch, defaults to 12v when 240v disconnected.

Our 400W Solar keeps this and the two large keel cooled OE Fridges working fine.

Cheaper versions available now the Patent on the Danfoss mini compressor has long expired.

I love the 'BrassMonkey' brand......................

 

[KimB]

For us crossing the pond and cruising the Caribbean, a freezer is essential. With just two of us onboard, we manage easily with a 10 litre freezer section within our fridge. All meat is packed into ziplock bags before it goes in the freezer. The use of the freezer section is then a lot more efficient. We can easily store 3 weeks worth of meat in the tiny freezer, assuming a meal a day from the stash. Once full, there is no air space at all. It makes the freezer more efficient. I suspect a portable freezer will be a power hog in the Caribbean climate and on the Atlantic crossing. Insulation is normally very poor. We use such a portable 42L compressor fridge as our fruit and veg fridge. With this use, it doesn't need to be so cold. In addition, we made an insulated jacket for it to help with the efficiency. We also have an icemaker that uses 100w whilst making ice. It works pretty well but it's heavy and larger than a breadmaker.

Thank you, yes I was thinking of packing everything "tight". We haven't space for a built-in freezer but a portable one we could always switch off and do without , just relying on the large fridge was always in the back of our minds if/when power consumption became an issue.

 

[KimB]

We were debating the same issue late last year, eventually we went with Totalfreeze 45 Portable Fridge Freezer - Totalcool
its not actually much bigger than the 35l model but perfect for the two of us. Only switch on when needed and cools down very quickly with quite low power consumption compared with others. We also have been using it for chill as it’s easier to get into than our inbuilt unit.

Thank you. I'm in favour of a 20l, much for the same reasons you have detailed. We haven't space for a built-in freezer but a portable one we could always switch off and do without , just relying on the large fridge was always in the back of our minds if/when power consumption became an issue. Happy cruising to you!

 

[KimB]

We have a Dometic 40L. Smart switch, defaults to 12v when 240v disconnected.

Our 400W Solar keeps this and the two large keel cooled OE Fridges working fine.

Cheaper versions available now the Patent on the Danfoss mini compressor has long expired.

I love the 'BrassMonkey' brand......................

Thank you, we have 400w solar at the moment, need at least to replace 2 of them so an upgrade/better is possible. Thanks for your reply.