wheels 543 Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 I have one of these things too. It draws 17A on 12V. Ouch! One day I am going to rip the current cooling unit out of iut and fit a compressor type unit to it. There is nothing wrong with the cabinet, just the power hungry cooling unit it has. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 I have one of these things too. It draws 17A on 12V. Ouch! One day I am going to rip the current cooling unit out of iut and fit a compressor type unit to it. There is nothing wrong with the cabinet, just the power hungry cooling unit it has. DAM!!!, never thought of doing that!! Good on ya wheels... after I just spent bucks on a new one! Would there be enough room in the cabinet or are you thinking external? Link to post Share on other sites
Clipper 343 Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 I have concerns about running a gas fridge on a boat, due to the safety issues with gas down below etc. But there seemed to be a few smaller boats runnng them happily and without conern over christmas. Assuming they have a device to stop the gas if the flame goes out, what are the dangers running a gas fridge of the chilly bin type? They are relatively affordable, and remove the power consumption issues that small boats have? How uis it any more dangerous than cooking down below with an LPG cooker? Link to post Share on other sites
Island Time 1,230 Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Ok, slightly different, but this might be usefull to someone; While in Ausy, (Tropical area) our engine driven fridge and Freezer had large temp variations. It needed to be run too often and was really not up to the task. It is a large freezer about 190 ltrs, with a fridge the same size beside it sharing one of the two coolant tanks. I had thought about putting in an electrical compressor, but had been told by fridge techs here that the space was too large and it would be no good. I decided to make some more enquiries, and ended up purchasing a OZEFRIDGE from www.ozefridge.com.au. It is their largest unit, and is a bit unusual as it is water cooled from the fresh water supply, which is then returned to the tank. It used two completely seperate coolant tanks, so is entirely independent of the engine driven system. They back each other up. This is a fantastic system! it draws about 4.5amps, and runs about 30% of the time in a tropical environment, while maintaining the freezer temp at between -16 and -21 c . Icecream!! Cost was about $1800 Kiwi. Link to post Share on other sites
wheels 543 Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 190ltrs is a big freezer, which is awesome, but yeah it must take some cooling. A trick you can do is to have some foam or Polystyrene blocks that you can fit in on top of the food as the food level drops, to take up that empty space of air. That space of air has to keep being cooled down each time you make more space. Of course, trying to store blocks of insulation is not all that easy either. Slightly side tracking for a mo...Before loading the boat freezer, try and pre freeze everything at home first. If the freezer is not goiung to be filled right up, freezer icecream containers of Saltwater. Fresh water only freezes to 0degC. Saltwater freezes waaay below that. So it means that the Block of saltwater can now have extra...umm....Cold, to help keep the freezer temp down. Clipper, the Gas fridge is quite safe. They have a flame out safety device that cuts the gas as soon as the flame goes out. It would probably be the safest Gas appliance to operate of a boat. WD, yeah the fridge has a small area at the bottom rear of the cabinet that will take the compressor and I will just feed the pipes through and have the evaporator inside the fridge. I will then have a small computer fan behind the evaporator to ensure the cold air is circulated around. The only draw back is that a front opening fridge or freezer wastes a huge amount of energy evertime you opent he door. All the cold falls out and the new warm air has to be cooled again. A top opening fridge or freezer is always the best on boats. We have two fridges and the Freezer on our boat. The other fridge is a top loading unit. The compressor is down in the bilge area below the fridge box, but high enough that water should never reach it if the bilge ever floods. It happens to be a bilge area that is normally a dry space area and would only flood if something bad happened anyway. It is cool down there and keeping the compressor, or more importantly the heat radiator cool is a real key to keeping the fridge/freezer cool in the summer. This is where the units like IT has used come into there own. Especially if you get up into the tropics. Water cooling is almost essential, although the water in the Islands is so warm, even then the units struggle. Link to post Share on other sites
Quarterback 1 Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 San fran Please ph me John Bennett sparloft 095793923 We have made a lot of ss units over the past 30yrs most of the Raven 31's and some Farr 1020 & 1104, I may have done yours for Noel Smith when he had the boat at Panmure. He was a mate of our frdgee Trev Wichman There's a fridgee that writes on crew (Clint d) or ocean air there good too (he's in Pakuranga) Sloop JB like to hear from you to Link to post Share on other sites
SanFran 12 Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 will do! Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 I'm with Clipper re running a gas fridge down below - the gas is on all the time as opposed to "Turn off gas at bottle" after every use which is far better practice and eliminates problems like leaks and porous tubing slowly filling up the hull. No thanks. EE Link to post Share on other sites
Island Time 1,230 Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 But do you actually turn it off every time? (some do, and thats OK). I have a gas calafont that stays on, as does the gas detector! Most of the gas plumbing is copper, but that can have it's problems as well... Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 Yup - every time Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 The flame will consume the O2 in the air though, so if the cabin is not getting plenty of fresh air you could run out of air. Unlikely, but not impossible. This is the reason the inspectors seem to be going off the califont hot water systems. The califonts have a 20 minute maximum runtime cutoff for this reason. As the fridge runs 24/7 it is more risky than a califont in this scenario. Link to post Share on other sites
Island Time 1,230 Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 my calefont has on o2 sensor. If it depletes the o2 to a set level, it turns off, same if the flame goes out.... Link to post Share on other sites
Clipper 343 Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 I'm slowly realising that a gas fridge is probably the only feasible cooling option, given my lack of power generation available. I have plenty of fresh air down below, don't cook down below, so I hope the risks are reduced again somewhat. And given I'm a bit of a worrywart sometimes, it should be OK.... (famous last words?) Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 Just a thought.... how UPRIGHT do gas fridges have to be to run properly? I have run that Electrolux on gas only in port (12v when sailing). The pilot flame could end up heating the flue to dangerous levels at a lean? Link to post Share on other sites
darkside 61 Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 I understand they are better upright or nearly so. We had an Electrolux on the cat for our circumnavigation and left it on all the time at sea for the first 18 months or so. I think it went out once. I was never happy with having a flame going the whole time and when it died in Thailand we put a Danfoss in the carcass. That worked fairly well but as observed in this thread they also suck a lot of power in the tropics if air cooled. I like the idea of cooling them from the fresh water tanks. To me the Rolls Royce is twin system, engine compressor and danfoss (or similar ) The cruisers that had only engine compressor needed someone to start the engine when they were away land travelling usually every day. Link to post Share on other sites
smithy09 50 Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 We had an electrolux in our 29ft Dufour in the mid 80s. We left it on all the time (even though they say max angle 5 degrees or something similar) and had it running when sailing. Never had a problem or a gas leak. Auto flame out worked every time. Dunno if I would have another one as I am a bit more paranoid now I'm older, but I have to say it worked very well. Link to post Share on other sites
Atom Ant 0 Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 If you want high efficiency refrigeration, then look no further than this! It uses the surrounding water to create the temperature difference needed to refrigerate. http://www.fridgetech.co.nz/page/4/ Link to post Share on other sites
grant 40 Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 simple solution....if you want to keep something cold just put it in a cold box here are a few boxes that would keep things cold for a while Link to post Share on other sites
grant 40 Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 and if you need to get something out you ask the nice man with his steam water blaster to get it for you Link to post Share on other sites
drbob 0 Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Because I only need a fridge maybe 2 weeks of the year I use a Waeco coolfreeze 32up - it's a compressor model with built-in 18ah battery. Runs about 30% of the day to stay at 4 degrees. Capacity is about 30 liters which is enough for me. I've only got an outboard and an 80ah battery so I put a 80w solar panel on for cruising. This is enough to keep house battery and fridge battery topped up. Fridge runs about 2 days on its own battery. Solar panel was $539 from Jaycar. Made in NZ too. Link to post Share on other sites
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