Waeco refridgeration kit good or bad ??

[ribrage]

I have to replace the water cooled freezer kit on the (T)rusty old ketch and have been shopping around for kit and have found an alarming disparity in costs and charges, ranging from supplied and fitted at £2700 (no im not kidding) second quote of £1500 (still ouch)

so looking around on the web I can buy a Waeco compressor for as little as £89 and evaporator plates etc not much more the compartment is 210 liters and well insulated , the previous unit is water cooled- not keel cooled - and Im replacing like for like.

what have you fitted ?

advice/opinions (on this subject) please

thanks in advance

Ian

 

[Caladh]

Lasy year I fitted and had fitted a Frigoboat keel cooled setup from Penguin marine in Havant. The company were pretty good although PLEASE make sure your box is actually 120 litres......I sized mine incorrectly and paid the price.
I fitted the keel cooler (actually a hull cooler) and had the compressor and evaporator professionally done although could have done it myself. Cost IRO less than £1k

Have a look at Kollmans web site http://www.kollmann-marine.com for more info. He is Mr Boat Fridge. As an aside I was led to believe Waeco kit was ok for land based activities but not so good for marine environments. I'll wait for the back lash.......

 

[vyv_cox]

My water cooled fridge is a Waeco 65 litre unit with a Danfoss 35 compressor and water cooled heat exchanger. It has been running constantly for half of the year since 2004. No problems.

 

[ribrage]

Lasy year I fitted and had fitted a Frigoboat keel cooled setup from Penguin marine in Havant. The company were pretty good although PLEASE make sure your box is actually 120 litres......I sized mine incorrectly and paid the price.
I fitted the keel cooler (actually a hull cooler) and had the compressor and evaporator professionally done although could have done it myself. Cost IRO less than £1k

Have a look at Kollmans web site http://www.kollmann-marine.com for more info. He is Mr Boat Fridge. As an aside I was led to believe Waeco kit was ok for land based activities but not so good for marine environments. I'll wait for the back lash.......

I had a quote from Penguin (they measured the box)for £2738.23 (ex VAT) ...which scared the life out of me and Im sure theyre equipment is all good but thats a LOT of money just to freeze some stuff, so I shopped around on the web and found a waeco water cooled compressor at mail speed for around £90 listed as upto 170 liters there must be something a bit larger for the right money ??........... is it a simple case of you get what you pay for ??

 

[ribrage]

My water cooled fridge is a Waeco 65 litre unit with a Danfoss 35 compressor and water cooled heat exchanger. It has been running constantly for half of the year since 2004. No problems.

Thats what I was hoping to hear, i can fit a LOT of waeco parts for the cost I was quoted OR I could buy a 240 fixed gen set and a house hold unit !

 

[ribrage]

Waeco ColdMachine cooling units have power-regulated compressors. Powerful, economical, silent in operation and ready for connection to 12/24v, each series comes with matched evaporators.

Waeco ColdMachine Series 80 Fridge Kits are designed for medium capacities (up to approx 250 litres) in warmer waters. select the compressor base that suits the space available, then the evaporator to give the cooling capacity required.

UPTO 250 LTRS .... £89.99 inc vat plus obviously i need the evaporator plate and a water pump, ETC, has any one else got a similar set up ???????

 

[Tradewinds]

I think the compressors are a little more than that more like £280+. The price of c£90 refers to the evaporator plate.

 

[charles_reed]

Waeco, Isotherm, little to choose though the latter tends to be slightly less pricey and offer more sophisticated power-saving (the both use exactly the same Danfoss compressor and inverter).
Penguin charge a lot for the expertise they offer (about x3 the hardware cost) but if you don't know what you're doing you must grin and pay up. They too have to make a living. Their work is excellent.
Small pre-charged unit like the one you want would cost about €540, complete, from Isotherm in Italy.

 

[bateau57]

Fridge Freezer Setup

I got all my kit from Penguin and they were very helpful people. Price wise I could not have done better anywhere in EU. I have a Danfros BD50 (the larger one) with an upgraded controller, a keel cooler and the the largest evaporator plate they make as my rebuilt fridge freezer uses the spillover design. Penguin bent that up for my freezer. So I have a freezer thermostat and a small thermostat driven fan to move cold are from the freezer to the fridge. The compressor is also fan cooled so I can run it on the hard with the fan or on the water with the keel cooler or both if I need.

As you can see a fair bit of kit. Insulation is the name of the game for efficient fridge freezer / running. The compressor I have has the ability to scale its speed to the requirements and runs full time rather than switching off and on which is now believed to be the most efficient model.

Mr Kollmann's web site as someone had mentioned contains a plethora of information which is useful for scaling, getting the best efficiency and understanding how it all works. As I did all the work myself I just needed parts and Penguin were brilliant. All for under £1200 last year. I am happy with the result. Sub 50Ah per day in the Eastern Med for 100L fridge and 30 litre freezer.