refer in the tropics, which type system do you have

[iseadreamer]

"Solar only: means no engine alernator amps required for refrigeration off marina.......as long as no more than 4 cloudy days.

SV Seadream

[Minggat]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

As in an off the shelf house type?

Not house type at all. But it can run on 110VAV, 12 or 24 VDC.

Built for rough service, for military and medical etc.

There are other stand alone units out there. Engle being one of them. Fridgefreeze isn’t the cheapest. I don’t regret my choice.

I do regret all the money I threw at my cruising refrigeration learning curve.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by Minggat

Not house type at all. But it can run on 110VAV, 12 or 24 VDC.

Built for rough service, for military and medical etc.

There are other stand alone units out there. Engle being one of them. Fridgefreeze isn’t the cheapest. I don’t regret my choice.

We just use off the shelf house type.
Cheap and trouble free and there are tropical rated models as well.

. I do regret all the money I threw at my cruising refrigeration learning curve.

Its why I won't go down the 12v refrigeration path.
For the price one pays for a tiny box I can get a "real" fridge/freezer and the extra batts and solar to run it.

[Neptune's Gear]

Ozepete is ahead of me this time. I have one of his units, and as a result of using it around the equator for 3 years in northern Ausy, SE Asia and eventually back to NZ i'm now the NZ agent for Ozefridge.
IMO these are the best you can get. My one runs the freezer and the fridge from the one unit (AW480 twin plate) and keeps icecream on the equator.
I cant recommend these strongly enough, and Pete has awesome tech support!
If your cabinet has half decent insulation, you cant do better than one of Pete's systems.

[Minggat]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

Its why I won't go down the 12v refrigeration path.
For the price one pays for a tiny box I can get a "real" fridge/freezer and the extra batts and solar to run it.

I would like to hear what your nightly amp draw is.

The weight and cost of batteries might be justifiable to you.

Met a cruiser in Mexico who was so proud that he could watch movies all night because he had 2 Honda 2000 gensets and lots of batteries aboard. I’m happy enough to only watch 2 movies (if that was my priority) and still have more than enough amp hours left.

The fact that my industrial strength “toy” (apparently not a real) 12 volt stand alone fridge leaves my insulated, refrigerated box in the dust (and therefore now unused) makes my lesser demand for batteries a choice that I still recommend.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by Minggat

I would like to hear what your nightly amp draw is.




.

We run about 850 litres/30 CFT of fridge freezer across 4 units of differing sizes so not sure what they individually use but from 4pm to 6am we use around 150ah in total including all other usage. about 30% of available capacity.

. The weight and cost of batteries might be justifiable to you.

Considering the huuuuuge expense of 30 cft of 12v fridge freezer, $3500 in batteries is cheap and you are right, weight is a non issue for us

. Met a cruiser in Mexico who was so proud that he could watch movies all night because he had 2 Honda 2000 gensets and lots of batteries aboard. I’m happy enough to only watch 2 movies (if that was my priority) and still have more than enough amp hours left.

Something not right there.
We don't even notice the draw on a 40inch screen

The fact that my industrial strength “toy” (apparently not a real) 12 volt stand alone fridge leaves my insulated, refrigerated box in the dust (and therefore now unused) makes my lesser demand for batteries a choice that I still recommend

Given that a tiny Engel would still cost $1000 or more in Australia, if only after one I reckon a $150 bar fridge at twice the size, batteries and inverter would be my first choice.
If fridge causes problems $150 change out is cheaper than getting someone to look at the 12v one.

[sailcrazy]

following

[Richard Kollmann]

I to have been following and surprised with the lack of response to important decisions boaters have made in the past regarding their boats refrigeration systems. With over 1.000 hits on these questions you would think more boaters would be willing to share their experiences before this subject is completely sidetrack to a sales pitch.

[sailcrazy]

FWIW, ours is a water-cooled, hand-assembled, open-wheel compressor driven by a 3/4hp AC motor. It services a holding plate system in a refer box and a seperate freezer box, each contolled by a Carel digital thermostat linked to a solonoid valve. The Admiral very much prefers to cook on an electric stove (vs propane), so running the genset once to twice a day has been our mode for 16+ years. We've cruised Asia, the Medd, and now the Caribb, so I guess that qualifies as tropical, and have had no issues with our system....although we've never tried to keep ice cream! The whole concept behind our choices was to keep it as simple and serviceable as possible, ie, not hermetically sealed compressor; I wanted something I could take apart and service if/when it needed it. To date, I've never had a compressor issue, and all we've ever done is change the dryer/filter, and add gas. Running 1-2 times a day for about 45 min each keeps both boxes cool and satisfied. The only real complaint is the holding plates take up a lot of our limited box space.

[Minggat]

Originally Posted by Richard Kollmann

I to have been following and surprised with the lack of response to important decisions boaters have made in the past regarding their boats refrigeration systems. With over 1.000 hits on these questions you would think more boaters would be willing to share their experiences before this subject is completely sidetrack to a sales pitch.

That sounds like a scold. So just in case my post are the “sales pitch” being referred to here, let me apologize.

What really drives the question is efficiency.

We move from land where we can open faucets and hot or cold water comes out. We plug in our appliances and they work. Someone else provided water and pipes and power and wires.

We move aboard boats where we have to give those things some consideration. We need to shift from consumerism to self sufficiency.

Back to refrigeration on boats.

That’s the biggest power consumer on board. So it’s fair to say that getting it right is important. But we buy boats with insulated built in boxes that we try to cool efficiently, and in my experience, I found that the boat builder was much more interested in satisfying consumerism than efficiency.

As I was going through my refrigeration learning curve, I decided to get a stand alone to help out while I dealt with my built in box. That basically showed me what a loosing battle the built in box was. But I still wasn’t listening.. I kept hammering (trrowing money and my own labor) at the built in box. I discovered that the problem was conserving power via insulation.

In an effort to save myself keystrokes here, are after all my effort, there is just no way that my built in box can compete with my chest type built for purpose stand alone refrigeration.

Still have the built in. It runs when I ask it to. But it does as much better job of storing dry goods. Meanwhile the stand alone quietly does it’s job. I don’t have to turn it off at night (as some cruisers do to conserve power).

I will add here that after I got my built in running as best it ever will, that I tried to sell off my stand alone. It took an objective perspective of a guest to point out that stand alone was simply more workable in the galley regardless of the power efficiency.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Minggat

In an effort to save myself keystrokes here, are after all my effort, there is just no way that my built in box can compete with my chest type built for purpose stand alone refrigeration.



.

For those of us currently getting ready to build a built in box, are you able to share/clarify the issues you faced? Was it just a matter of limited space for insulation or some other factor(s) we should be aware of?

[Lepke]

I have house style reefer and freezers. I put 2" Styrofoam around them with an air path for the condenser. The freezers are on the top deck and have foam over the lids, too. After the foam, they run half as much.

[Davo1404]

Where has it been "side tracked to a sales pitch"?
The op was wanting information on refrigeration suitable for the tropics & Ozefridge is one company that builds one. So no sales pitch.

Originally Posted by Richard Kollmann

I to have been following and surprised with the lack of response to important decisions boaters have made in the past regarding their boats refrigeration systems. With over 1.000 hits on these questions you would think more boaters would be willing to share their experiences before this subject is completely sidetrack to a sales pitch.

[newhaul]

I have the same issue as Stu
The poll is flawed I have a technautics cool blue holding plate air cooled spillover system.

Personally on a sailboat with plenty of solar I would never have anything but a holding plate type system . While not technically much more efficient it does use a lot less actual battery ah. I run it in the afternoon when batteries are charged . Purely off the solar output.

[Cpt Mark]

Originally Posted by newhaul

I have the same issue as Stu
The poll is flawed I have a technautics cool blue holding plate air cooled spillover system.

Personally on a sailboat with plenty of solar I would never have anything but a holding plate type system . While not technically much more efficient it does use a lot less actual battery ah. I run it in the afternoon when batteries are charged . Purely off the solar output.

yes, thank you for posting. I'd been wondering about that too. Upside, less ah used per day coming from the batteries. Downside, less interior volume available.