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Eutectic plates with LFP


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I am struggling to determine if electric eutectic refrigeration makes sense still with Lithium battery sources. 

It used to be that you'd spend a long time charging your LA battery with the engine and that excess alternator power could be used to run the eutectic plate compressor.  Or the excess solar that couldn't be stuffed into a LA battery could be used for the same. 

With the right setup we can fully charge a lfp battery in 30 minutes from the engine and there is now no such thing as excess solar (on a monohull at least) your lfp can easily gobble up all the solar. This isn't even close to enough time to charge a eutectic plate via an electric compressor with abundant power. 

It seems that the abundant power source, that eutectic plates benefit from, now moves from the alternator/solar to the lfp battery itself. 

Given the price difference between eutectic vs evaporative refrigeration, have powered eutectic plates on monohulls had their day?

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I don’t think so.  A well designed eutectic system can use no battery at all - hold overnight, run when solar or engine going and voltage is high. Thin plate systems can run pretty much all the time, battery full or low.
the advantage lifepo4 gives, is that if you do need to run the system on battery, it won’t take long to put the charge back into the batts.

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Slight drift here but in coming months I will be faced with dealing with an out of service compressor driven system. What I mean by that is that as a consequence of a lack of use, I think my system has de-gassed itself, and I guess - this has caused a vacuum effect which has deformed the s/s fridge/freezer box. No cold beersies for me atm :(

So - I need to take stock of the bits I have, determine if they are salvageable, determine what the cost of returning to service would be, and then compare that to the cost of changing to a more 'efficient' system. IT - I recall you saying you are a reseller or agent for ozefridge? Can you offer some assistance in all this, or refer me to someone who knows?

 

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1 hour ago, Romany said:

Slight drift here but in coming months I will be faced with dealing with an out of service compressor driven system. What I mean by that is that as a consequence of a lack of use, I think my system has de-gassed itself, and I guess - this has caused a vacuum effect which has deformed the s/s fridge/freezer box. No cold beersies for me atm :(

So - I need to take stock of the bits I have, determine if they are salvageable, determine what the cost of returning to service would be, and then compare that to the cost of changing to a more 'efficient' system. IT - I recall you saying you are a reseller or agent for ozefridge? Can you offer some assistance in all this, or refer me to someone who knows?

 

This generally means that the internal piping inside the holdover plate, which holds the refrigerant, has developed a leak.

This results in the refrigerant escaping into the eutectic solution compartment of the holding tank and causes the plate to deform. 

You could pressure test the tank yourself or get a specialist to do it for you. If you find that the tank has a leak, then, if you can get it out without destroying a significant part of the galley, it will almost certainly be repairable. 

In our case the holding plate is part of the structure of the fridge and doesn't come out without significant destruction of a large part of the boat :( it is a problem I have been repeatedly putting off. In the meantime we have an Engel Fridge Freezer combo taking up an aft bunk. (Which I have to say is a mighty efficient unit thanks to its proprietary compressor). 

This is who we used. I found him knowledgeable and helpful. Most of all, he didn't charge me when he delivered the bad news that I needed to tear half the galley apart and spend thousands on cabinetry works... So happy to give him a plug... Good luck. 

395100500_Screenshot_20211229-153109_AdobeAcrobat.jpg.7b728d4c036e0bdfa9d827fd5081d052.jpg

 

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Thanks CD. 

I do like the idea of temp controllable as per the unit u mentioned. Has it got seperate compartments?

When my system was working it was on or off, and when on, freezing every bloody thing was only a matter of time. 

Hopefully Darrin can help.

 

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56 minutes ago, Romany said:

I do like the idea of temp controllable as per the unit u mentioned. Has it got seperate compartments?

We have one of these.  Got it for a great price on TradeMe with the transit bag.

It is not marine friendly, the power circuit control boards are visible through the vents which will easily attract salt water in the wrong conditions so I cannot recommend it for marine use.

We used an earlier model 4wding around Australia years ago so product experience called be back. If they can handle outback corrugations of the Simpson it can handle a bash to windward.

They are so energy efficient - I considered pulling out the compressor and using it for a built-in, but after lots of reading and investigation I determined the skills required are beyond me and not something I want to learn.

56 minutes ago, Romany said:

When my system was working it was on or off, and when on, freezing every bloody thing was only a matter of time. 

I will probably be going for an OzeFridge with a temperature controlled spillover fridge for this very reason.   It looks like the beez kneez... I am sure IT will concur :)

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