Sailorchic34's new Fridge

[sailorchic34]

OK, after 10 years of daily use my old magic chef fridge was making noise and pulling more amps when running. Being as I'm more then half deaf, the noise thingy was a concern.

So I saved up my dollars and finally purchased it's replacement. A Edgestar 3.1 cf fridge/freeze. Still a 120V fridge. But only 72 watts (verified by me) when running compared to 190 watts for the old one. Old one was 160 watts when new.

I'm hoping to save 20-30 ah a day compared to the old fridge. it is very close to a 12V fridge in watts. At about $1000 less then a 12V fridge, at $214 (shipping included) it fits with my low cost frugal (or is it cheap $500/month) lifestyle. If it lasts another 10 years, I'll call it good.

Plus the new fridge has a separate zero degree freezer compartment. BIG plus. The problem with the small evaporator freezes is food tends to freeze/thaw over time which causes freezer burn after about 8 days.

The new freezer is more then twice the capacity of the old magic chef. I see ice cream in my future this summer

Of course the big test will be running it in the delta with it's 95 degree F days this summer.

You can also see my Atwood RV range, Also $1000 less then a Marine stove. And my magnetic spice jars are in the photo too.

Life is good.

[boatman61]

Neat..

[Cheechako]

Very cool! A couple of my boats have had RV stoves in them also. Magic Chef in one of them.

[CaptTom]

Nice!

I'm always telling folks how I went the other way, ripped out an inefficient, cheap-o dorm fridge to replace it with a new version of the original Norcold. It even fit the original screw holes. I was very happy with the result. It's efficient on the hook but it'll make ice and keep ice cream hard.

That said, your solution works too. It looks much better than my cheap-o and is a LOT more efficient.

And I like the magnetic spice jars. You done good!

[Stu Jackson]

Congratulations, and thanks for the update.

We've had record breaking rain and snow almost ever since I got here. It's all my fault. Until you put the new one in, I was going to offer to send you some snow.

[Don C L]

And, most importantly, it looks cool!

[a64pilot]

I'm glad for you, it really pulls 1/3 the power? Are it's cycle times longer?

[travellerw]

Wow.. 20-30Ah is huge... Like really huge..

Thats a big enough difference that you "could" install a cheap 120V inverter and still be WAY ahead.. I like it..

P.S. I really hate my Isotherm fridge.. Sure its efficient.. but its a piece of ****.. Falling apart in under 1 year of cruising. The front "stainless" panel already fell off (no matter it corroded so bad it looked worse than the plastic). The latch broke.. Cheap crap they are trying to sell for $1500USD!

[newhaul]

Good deal SC and it looks.awesome .
You will of course have to start a thread with weekly energy usage spreadsheets.
Btw what is the actual startup draw?

[Sea Dreaming]

Niiiccceee! So shiny!

[sailorchic34]

On ac is draws 0.6 amps (ac). Actially saw it drop to below 0.5 amp after a while. One drawback, it does not like my cheap 7 year old MSW inverter. On inverter it ran at 1.0 amp and after minute, jumped to 1.2 amps. I suspect this is a variable speed compressor. I don't think the speed controller likes MSW inverters. Drat.

So I will be buying a pure sine wave inverter.

I picked the edgestar for it very low power usage.

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Btw what is the actual startup draw?

Probably 10 amps for 1/2 second. My 700 watt msw inverter started it fine. but ran at 1.0 amps in the msw inverter. But only 0.6 amps on shore power.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

Probably 10 amps for 1/2 second. My 700 watt msw inverter started it fine. but ran at 1.0 amps in the msw inverter. But only 0.6 amps on shore power.

SC, I wonder if that differential in measured current could be due to different response of the Ammeter to sine vs the funny wave shape of the MSW? Rather than an actual power difference, that is...

Jim

[sailorchic34]

In my case it's an old sperry snap 6, snap on analog amp meter (my dad's old one). I will note that the old fridge pulled the same amps on shore power and inverter. That the amp load varies a bit both on shore and inverter, makes me suspect that the compressor is a smart variable speed type. I saw it do a 0.2 amp jump in draw after a minute or so. I suspect the MSW messes with the speed control.

In any event, I spent even more money on a PSW inverter today, that will be in next week. Poor once again.....

[Kitfox4]

That looks bigger than a 3.1. It sounds like a good deal anyway.