Ice box/refrigerator

[Gerry]

We have onboard a very efficient cold box which is run from the boats engine. There are one or two drawbacks-We have to run the engine for at least an hour a day. When arriving at the boat it takes a day to get the unit down in temperature.
Now my question is will it be ok to put a large piece of ice in the base of the unit to start things off? There is a drain at the lowest point into the bilges. The whole unit is divided by teak racks and the ice could be isolated easily. Any thoughts?
It means that I can provision immediately we arrive and therefore more sailing time!

 

[ccscott49]

No problem with doing that, thats the way the old cold boxes worked, you put the cold in! In fact its a very effecirnt way of doing it, probaly cheaper aswell!

 

[tome]

Cold air sinks so you should really block off the drain at the bottom except for cleaning. Put the ice in a bag to stop it melting everywhere.

 

[maris]

I use the blue packs for cool boxes. This way I can keep things cool from home to boat without having ice melting in the boot.

 

[Paulka]

I use to keep 2 plastic bottles (Coke, etc.) filled to 80% with water, in the deep freezer. At home of course.
Leaving home for the boat, we put the beer, and the frozen water into the ice box, and then, from the ice box into the boat's fridge.
During the navigation, or on the evening, we drink the beer, and give the still cold water to the fishes.
Works perfectly well.
Warning!
Put the bottles lying in the freezer to avoid them to be broken by the pressure of the ice.

Cheers.

Paul

 

[Boatman]

Perfect, I do it all the time, as some of the messages below say frozen water in bottles works very well and gives lovely cold drinking water. Let's hope the weather is not as cold.

 

[ruthhobson]

We did this in the BVI's and it worked brilliantly - chilling lots of beer during the 2 weeks.

Ruth

 

[VMALLOWS]

I just wish I had room in the freezer for the water bottles...........too full of fruit this season (a big chest one!).

Seriously, even more efficient is to freeze 2l/4pint bottles of milk at home (skimmed works best, though semi also OK). Best to take a little out first to allow for expansion. You then have a good cold reservoir that'l last several days, and then nice really cold fresh milk.

 

[ccscott49]

Now thats a good idea, how long will the milk stay OK? Indefinitely, I never knew you could freeze milk, solves my hatred of longlife milk in my tea, freeze lotys of small amounts in my freezer, then I'll always (almost) have fresh milk! Brilliant!

 

[VMALLOWS]

Assuming its nice and fresh (usually its dated 7 days out from when you buy it) it'll keep months in a -18c freezer. Once in a 'slushy' state it'll then keep a good 4-5 days if the cool-box fridge stays below 0c.

 

[sailbadthesinner]

We also used to fill a bucket with crushed ice and stow it in a draining locker and put the beer in there
it mean't the food lay undisturbed for longer too.


...It was like that when i found it!

 

[Gerry]

Excellent! Now have to arrange to find some ice near to the boat......! Thank you all.

 

[peterb]

You can keep both the drain hole and the cold air. All you need to do is to attach some pvc tubing to the drain hole, then bend it into an S bend shape so that some water is trapped in the bend. Then water can flow down the tube, but the trapped water blocks off the cold air.