Household fridge for marine use

[The Old Man]

What are the drawbacks of using home type 140 lt. 400 W and 220 V in a boat except easily rusting. The boat is equipped with proper battery bank,inverter and genset. Your views please.

 

[coopec]

The household fridge has minimal insulation and depends on the compressor cycling in often. Either your gen set will have to run often or you will need a large battery bank. Since electric motors require about three times the current to start up that they do in normal operation the inverter will need to be able to handle over 1000W on a temporary basis. We certainly wouldn't install a household fridge in a yacht in Australia - maybe a launch with a gen set (not something I would do).

 

[Giblets]

Judging by the condition of a small domestic fridge that we have had sited in the garden shed for "overflow" use for the past three years I don't think one would last too long in a marine environment.

 

[coopec]

View attachment 41083

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?191256-240-v-domestic-fridge-on-a-boat

 

[BruceDanforth]

One problem would be that the little light inside would ruin your night vision.

 

[The Old Man]

Thanks a lot for your valuable views. Very helpfull.

 

[vyv_cox]

I am no electrician but as I understand it your 400 watts is drawn regardless of the voltage supplied. This makes the current drawn from your batteries to be getting on for 40 amps. Seems a great deal compared with a Danfoss unit as used in most boat fridges, which draws somewhere between 3 and 5 amps.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Domestic fridges usually need to be levelled before use; I presume that they don't like being operated when not level. This would seem to suggest that they wouldn't be well suited to marine use.