New fridge - Vitrifrigo or other?

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nmeyrick

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My boat has a free standing, front opening fridge by Isotherm which I believe is an old version of their 85l model. It is probably 10+ years old and looking rather beaten up, but has recently stopped working altogether. The power led is on but nothing happens.

Given its venerable age and as we are heading for the med in the spring I am inclined to replace it rather than try and get it patched up. I am not looking at getting fancy with water cooling I just want something I can swap in which will have adequate performance in the med without excessive current draw. I have a deep bilge and plan to use a fan to draw cooler air from the bilge.

I see that penguin currently have a good deal on a Vitrifrigo unit and tht penguin seem to have a good reputation, but have never heard of Vitrifrigo and cannot find much information on them.

Does anyone have any experience of these they can share? Do they make a good buy or would I be better off with another isotherm?

I notice that the power consumption quoted is 360W/24hrs compared to 380 for The equivalent size Isotherm, but the quoted current draw is 1.4-2.8 amps vs 0.8-4.0 for isotherm. Is this likely to make any diffence to the real world consumption?

Thanks
Neil
 
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Have a look at Shoreline fridges. UK made and seem a little cheaper than the mainstream names. They all the use the latest Danfoss compressors and offer a full range of spares.
I recently bought a shop damaged one on Ebay and was impressed with the simple quality and normal retail price (of which I paid half). (I had never heard of them before seeing this one on Ebay).
www.boatfridge.com
 
Other alternatives I came across were Bukh Indel, Waeco and Novakool.
http://www.novakool.com/products/single_doors/documents/fulllinerefrigerator2011_000.pdf
http://www.marinesuperstore.com/posit/shop/index.php?selectedpartno=99044060

Overall I couldn't see much between them all and those already mentioned above, so was going to ask the same question as I will also be looking to replace our fridge this winter.

I had been considering the Waeco ones with an accumulator to reduce power consumption, but they are very expensive. Anyone had experience of them?

As well as nominal compressor power consumption I wondered if there was any difference in the insulation levels / effectiveness between all these makes. It's hard to tell just looking at the internet! Are power consumption level differences down to compressor efficiencies or insulation effectiveness?:confused:
 
nmeyrick said:
My boat has a free standing, front opening fridge by Isotherm which I believe is an old version of their 85l model. It is probably 10+ years old and looking rather beaten up, but has recently stopped working altogether. The power led is on but nothing happens.

Given its venerable age and as we are heading for the med in the spring I am inclined to replace it rather than try and get it patched up. I am not looking at getting fancy with water cooling I just want something I can swap in which will have adequate performance in the med without excessive current draw. I have a deep bilge and plan to use a fan to draw cooler air from the bilge.

I see that penguin currently have a good deal on a Vitrifrigo unit and tht penguin seem to have a good reputation, but have never heard of Vitrifrigo and cannot find much information on them.

Does anyone have any experience of these they can share? Do they make a good buy or would I be better off with another isotherm?

I notice that the power consumption quoted is 360W/24hrs compared to 380 for The equivalent size Isotherm, but the quoted current draw is 1.4-2.8 amps vs 0.8-4.0 for isotherm. Is this likely to make any diffence to the real world consumption?

Thanks
Neil
Click to expand...

Your fridge will be VERY important to you. You want to make sure that it is as efficient as possible. Otherwise you will fall into the band of people running their engines a significant time just to keep their fridge going.

A front opening fridge is the start of an unhappy domestic relationship between you and your fridge. Do you have a designable alternative place to instal a toploading one? A combination of TekTanks (for the liner) and Penguin will get you a fridge you will not notice!

Do consider before splashing out Also aircooled in the cabin is not a very good idea - it just makes down below unbearable where as it normally is just hot, but bareable.
 
I fitted a Vitrifrigo compressor/evaporator unit to our top-loading fridge. It is based on the universal Danfoss compressor but has a very efficient fan-cooled heat exchanger. You can also vary the compressor speed to optimise power consumption. It takes about 2.5A but only runs about 50% of the time even when it's hot.
The only add-ons I've made is to fit a much quieter fan and to ventilate the locker where the unit is installed. No complaints :)
 
Having had a complete new fridge setup this year I'd recommend a Frigoboat (Penguin) setup including a keel cooler. Chris is correct about hot air down below - you don't want more of it. I'm sure Zeb in Havant can put you on the right track.
 
I had to do similar this year. Looked at 12 volt fridges, and came to the conclusion they are vastly overpriced. Instead I bought a A rated table top fridge, which uses 67 watts, and a 300 watt inverter. The results have been very good, and the insulation on the fridge means that if you switch off overnight, the fridge only gains 3 degrees in 8 hours, with an inside temperature of about 18 C. Total cost was £120 including the inverter
 
Caladh said:
Having had a complete new fridge setup this year I'd recommend a Frigoboat (Penguin) setup including a keel cooler. Chris is correct about hot air down below - you don't want more of it. I'm sure Zeb in Havant can put you on the right track.
Click to expand...

I have researched the issue and arrived at your conclusions.

In the spring, it will be a Frigoboat + a keel KOOLER
 
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