Why no Residential Fridges?

[Tingum]

As posted previously, they will work just fine on an inverter, you must disconnect the defrost heating coils! Those are the power suckers. Size and shape are the big consideration for a sailboat!

[zeehag]

we found in gom when sailing with a friend for near year that the domestic fridges donot function using the standard invertors. took 3 months to kill each of two we tried to use unsuccessfuklly.
now, if you choose to dock queen, anything goes. then a domestic fridge is a benefit, as you will need to hold the booze your friends suck down. you will also be using 120 v service, which it is designed to use.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by FSMike

Historically, residential refrigerators do not like to operate at large angles of heel. Unless that has changed.

Your right, but I think they are talking about a large Cat, I was going to bring up how it sucks every time you open the door and everything spills out, RV fridges have wire rails to prevent this, but then realized they are talking about a Cat, again.
Gotta think that seeing as how it seems you can put a rather large Solar farm on a big Cat, that a house fridge may well be a viable option? Not in my 38' mono, but why not on a big Cat?

[StuM]

Originally Posted by ranger42c

I've never seen one of these in a boat.

Understand what you're saying, but I wonder at the "generally" part of that. Maybe more commonly a sailboat thing?

-Chris

Yes, I was talking from a sailboat point of view.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by denverd0n

Yes. As mentioned, sailboats tend to be much more conservative in their energy use, mainly because they tend to run the engine much, much less frequently (sails, after all).

Even at anchor, the powerboaters that I know seem to think it is quite acceptable to run the engines for several hours every day. Whereas a lot of sailboaters try to have enough alternative energy sources that they never have to run the engine at all, just for power generation.

I'm one of those sailboaters.

[wayne.b]

Originally Posted by ranger42c

It's not actually uncommon to see residential fridges in larger powerboats. These are AC-only units, and powered either by generator or inverter when away from the dock.

(Genset make noise, but that's not necessarily an issue with big twin diesels running at the same time.)

There are also many more efficient DC/AC "marine" units available these days, especially since using a DC compressor became more common. (I think that includes newer Norcold models, too, but not sure.) These usually run on DC all the time, even when on shorepower; when fed AC, the incoming current is immediately converted to DC, much like computer power supplies, etc.

Some of these latter units are smaller for marine or RV format, but some are also (at least approaching) standard household sizes.

-Chris

===

We have been using a household freezer on our trawler for several years. It was purchased for about $300 and is quite efficient, running easily from an inverter. It holds over 10 cubic feet and is cold enough to keep ice cream solid even in hot weather. The downside for a sailboat is that it is rather bulky.

[autumnbreeze27]

I'd put a residential fridge/freezer in our boat in a heartbeat.

I rebuilt our built in freezer and it was a nightmare project. If I could go back in time I'd figure out another way to do it, and then wonder what I would do with all that extra time and money.

Our technautics freezer and our isotherm fridge both struggle to keep things cold all the time.

[Scaramanga F25]

I am very happy with the performance of my 12 volt/24v./120 v. Engle Freezer/refrigerator on my small 25 ft boat.
On the 44 footer, 2 Engles, one as a freezer and the second, a bit bigger, as a refrigerator.
Low electric consumption due to their swing motors compressors.

Drop in installation.
All are top loaders.

[skipgundlach]

From a couple of comments without the caution, I note, with emphasis:

If you have water cooling in other than pristine water, you will spend a lot of time cleaning the intake and immediate line. Once to all copper, you have the same benefit as ablative paint, but getting it in there will generate growth.

If you have one of the typical small containers, spa tablets (chlorine/bromine/whichever) fit right in them. We do one once in a while to keep the plastic hose feed line clean (we have to disassemble, sometimes completely, the intake, to deal with the junk accumulating in the Indian River mooring field in Vero Beach. In the Bahamas, it's mostly tiny grass, which doesn't shut down your intake to less than a pencil diameter, but can still clog you up.

If there is ANY way you can, if you're starting from scratch, avoid raw water cooling. Even in benign waters, it's one less thing to have to mess with. If it weren't for the impossibility (I built the box around it) of getting an evaporator into the freezer part, I'd have gone back with my Frigoboat keel-cooled setup. Instead, even with a BD80 (vs the BD50 on the FB), and a ducted, boxed, air cooled setup, it couldn't handle our cooling without water. At that, it eats 10A average all day and all night, compared with about half that for the FrigoBoat in the same space and conditions...

[robwilk37]

im planning my galley around one of these...


EdgeStar 12V DC Portable Fridge / Freezer - 43 Qt. - FP430

[skipgundlach]

From a couple of comments without the caution, I note, with emphasis:

If you have water cooling in other than pristine water, you will spend a lot of time cleaning the intake and immediate line. Once to all copper, you have the same benefit as ablative paint, but getting it in there will generate growth.

If you have one of the typical small filter containers, spa tablets (chlorine/bromine/whichever) fit right in them. We do one once in a while to keep the plastic hose feed line clean (we have to disassemble, sometimes completely, the intake, to deal with the junk accumulating in the Indian River mooring field in Vero Beach). In the Bahamas, it's mostly tiny grass, which doesn't shut down your intake to less than a pencil diameter, but can still clog you up.

If there is ANY way you can, if you're starting from scratch, avoid raw water cooling. Even in benign waters, it's one less thing to have to mess with. If it weren't for the impossibility (I built the box around it) of getting an evaporator into the freezer part, I'd have gone back with my Frigoboat keel-cooled setup. Instead, even with a BD80 (vs the BD50 on the FB), and a ducted, boxed, air cooled setup, it couldn't handle our cooling without water. At that, it eats 10A average all day and all night, compared with about half that for the FrigoBoat in the same space and conditions...

[frozenhawaiian]

only boats I've ever been on that used residential style reefer systems were superyachts that always had a generator running so power consumption wasn't an issue.

[oldragbaggers]

Originally Posted by Scaramanga F25

I am very happy with the performance of my 12 volt/24v./120 v. Engle Freezer/refrigerator on my small 25 ft boat.
On the 44 footer, 2 Engles, one as a freezer and the second, a bit bigger, as a refrigerator.
Low electric consumption due to their swing motors compressors.

Drop in installation.
All are top loaders.

Which Engel unit do you have on your 25-footer?

[Scaramanga F25]

Originally Posted by robwilk37

im planning my galley around one of these...


EdgeStar 12V DC Portable Fridge / Freezer - 43 Qt. - FP430

Only if it has a swing motor compressor.
This Edge Star unit seems to take much more amp/hrs: 5.4 amps @12 volts.

[Dave22q]

induction cooking is great but a single burner propane stove is very nice to have offshore or if you want to fry an egg. I have had great success with dirm sized refrigerators and (separate) freezers. for less then $200/unit, it almost pays to carry a spare. my ac freezers, dc coolers and ac refrigerators units have proved reliable but dual powered units not so much. I suspect they are more vulnerable to shore power fluctuations. remember a full freezer is good for a few days without power but a refrigerator will give you a day at most. that's why I carry a backup ac cooler chest.