Cool Blue Refrigerator?

[mestrezat]

I came back from the Seattle boat show with literature on a refrigerator system called "Cool Blue" by Technautics Inc. I'm working on refitting my 1982 Liberty 458 which came with and still has the original Adler Barbour system on her. Previous owner had virtually no problems with her other than a broken thermo switch. Figure newer systems would be more energy efficient. Cool Blue looked like a good system as it requires less energy to keep everything cold, but then again, it was a boat show and we know we should not believe everything we see at them. Any one have any experience with "Cool Blue". Anyone have suggestions as to a "good" system for refrigeration? Will be doing extensive off shore cruising by the end of the year and want to be prepared. A 26 year old system should probably be replaced.

[scotte]

Our freezer has a Coastal 12 system from Technautics that a previous owner installed in 1999. It works well, keeping food frozen at around 5 degrees Fahrenheit. It draws ~5.5 amps for a lot of hours per day, though I have yet to work out the AH/day energy cost to run it (having just recently solved a voltage drop issue due to corroded wiring connectors). Ours is an air-cooled unit with a Danfoss compressor. It's also got a fancy electronic programmable thermostat from Dixell, which works nicely. Not sure that really helps, but hope it does.

[winethief]

I too just got back from the Strictly Sail show in Oakland and saw the same system. I own a Passport 40 and my system is an old Glacier Bay which is slowly failing. I liked the Cool Blue but was concerned on having only one plate since I have both freezer and refrigeration boxes. I am not enchanted with punching a hole in the bottom of the box so cold air flows into the refrigeration side. It seems quite ineffective.

I think I will be going over to a two plate system but would like to avoid a water cooled system if possible.

[Quijote]

Hi,
I have used the 12V Cool Blue for a few years now including a pass through the tropics. I'm well satisfied with the cooling unit. We have a spillover setup with about 3 Cu.ft. in the freezer and 6 cu.ft. in the refrigerator. Both sections work fine. However, especially in the tropics, it runs a lot of the time to keep the freezer frozen. It is more a comment on the efficiency of the box itself than the efficiency of the Cool Blue. My box is large and leaky - there just isn't enough insulation and I'm not willing to tear the whole corner out of the galley to rebuild it. I have a DC genset, so just run it more often in the tropics. I'd say the Cool Blue is eating about 8 amp-hours on average with the inefficient box I'm using. It is quiet and reliable and we didn't really suffer with running the genset twice a day.
Spending time on re-insulating the box is the best way to get satisfactory results from any refrigeration system.
Sailing Flamenco

S.V. Saeta
Quijote

[CSY Man]

Have used a Coll Blue for the last 7 years or so.
Very happy with the system, 8700 hours on the compressor so far and not a hick-up...

Easy to measure efficiency with an hourmeter and a battery monitor and it is quite good: I modified the system somehow and added insulation to the boxes, hence I the good results.

I have written extensively about my experience both on this board and on Kollman's: kollmann-marine.com :: View topic - How efficient is the box? Temp drop over 24 hours power OFF

kollmann-marine.com :: View topic - Lowest temp for a small 12 V system?

kollmann-marine.com :: View topic - Enough 12v power for Sea FRost

Some more stuff on that board about Coll Blue, just surf around or try a search..

[SV Someday Came]

Originally Posted by winethief

...

I think I will be going over to a two plate system but would like to avoid a water cooled system if possible.

I would like to know why you want to avoid a water cooled system. I am thinking about the Isotherm ASU SP -- I saw a unit here at the Oakland show and it sounds like a great way to go. I missed seeing the cool blue system though. Wished I had seen that while I was here.