Looking at Portable Freezer Fridges

[brownoarsman]

The dometic came in this morning and cooled from room temp of 57 degrees to 33 degrees in about ten minutes. I think I'll be happy!

[a64pilot]

Room temp of 57 ? Geez, where are you?

[brownoarsman]

Balmy Maryland, a cold snap after a warm winter! Glad I got the bottom paint on early this year

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by brownoarsman

The dometic came in this morning and cooled from room temp of 57 degrees to 33 degrees in about ten minutes. I think I'll be happy!

Try that at 90 degrees F, with sun coming in the hatches.

Also grab a freezer thermometer and check where the warm spots are, etc.

Then test with beer often.

[PetePetePete]

Yeah. Now load it up with waters and see how long it takes to freeze...

[brownoarsman]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Then test with beer often.

Originally Posted by PetePetePete

Yeah. Now load it up with waters and see how long it takes to freeze...

I would Pete, but I already took Mark's suggestion and filled it up with beers at the 'office' Don't want to freeze those!

[PetePetePete]

I messaged Engel via Facebook today. No reply... yet. I've been reading some of the more recent reviews about Engel, and they don't leave me too warm and fuzzy. Luckily, I bought it from a really good dealer -- but still, I'd like to know that the company plays things straight. Some of the warranty customer service seems a little "not so great".

Hopefully they are slow to reply because to the Palm Beach Boat Show...

[PetePetePete]

Here's a video of the noise my Engel makes... I spoke with factory and they are suggesting that I pop the cover off and see what is loose...

Thoughts?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=996apROJxos

Thanks,
Pete

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by PetePetePete

Here's a video of the noise my Engel makes... I spoke with factory and they are suggesting that I pop the cover off and see what is loose...

Thoughts?


Thanks,
Pete

My thoughts are to pop the cover off and see what is loose.

[brownoarsman]

The dometic is a little loud when the compressor kicks on too. It starts with an annoying gurgle but then once it gets going it quiets down a bit. I would think with the metal case on the Engel, some part of the mechanics might be pressing against the casing and the vibration is rattling the metal casing.

[basssears]

Originally Posted by PetePetePete

Here's a video of the noise my Engel makes... I spoke with factory and they are suggesting that I pop the cover off and see what is loose...

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Pete

The underlying compressor noise sounds basically identical to mine (well, as near as I can tell, your camera's a little closer than I try to get my head! ), but the highest pitch rattle we don't have, so that's the one to try to track down.

-- Bass

[FutureStories]

1. I did not read any of the responses above. So sorry if it was covered above

2. A friend just installed a Flash Freeze portable cooler on his boat. $250 and will freeze liquids from a trucker website. Sure it's not as heavy duty as marine stuff. But for 1/10 the cost. If it lasts 1/3 the time you're still 300% positive! There are a lot of "trucker" websites out there.

[Bulawayo]

We also have one of these baby 25's which we use mainly for our road trips ashore. Our main 'portable unit' is a South African manufactured twin lid, 95 litre National Luna - it replaced our Engel which was too small. The twin lids is the aluminium model (available also in S/S) and is still working perfectly after ten years. It does wear a protective jacket. It can be used as a fridge/fridge, a freezer/fridge or as a freezer/freezer and runs off 110v-240v AC or 12-48v DC. It is heavy when full!

Originally Posted by MarkJ

I have the Dometic CF25
It's a bit cutesy!
I use it as both a freezer and fridge.

It can hold about 2 weeks frozen steak for a hell of a carnivore. At the top of the freezer I put a sheet of foam and have the top as a fridge for enough milk, cheese, butter etc.

I like it because:
It's small
Not built in
Can alter the temp exactly.
Digital readout.
Simple.

[Loraif]

I know maybe 4 or 5 basic designs of "fridge".

A standard compressor-based fridge - basically the same as you have at home. Runs on electric. So you need to tell us how much electricity you have available. You can get boat specific ones that run on 12V, or people do use small efficient home ones on an invertor as they often work out as efficient/inefficient.

A gas / electric fridge like you get in a caravan. Can run on gas as well. Do you have gas on board? The installation will be a PITA, to be frank. Piping, venting etc. Not sure with modern electricity its considered any more efficient.

A good cool box. With not cooler unit and filled with ice packs etc. The number of openings matters. Insulation matters. But in the right hands, 4 days cold is probably possible with the fanciest boxes. But they can cost nearly as much as an electric unit.

A Piezo Electric Unit. You may have seen such in Halfrauds etc. A standard picnic cool box which you can plug in. They are electrically very inefficient. But in a well insulated cool box, it might not be that bad. They can usually only cool to 15C below ambient so depends where you are. Don't normally have a thermostat but nothing to stop you adding one! You can even buy the units and build your own if you had a specific space in mind. No cooling gas required, so installation is easy but very electrically inefficient. If you can spare the Amps then building your own and adding plenty of insulation could be a good option. Adding cool packs might be beneficial, and definitely add a digital thermostat. Home build possible < £100 in a custom space.

Evaporation Fridge - basically a wet box that evaporates the water off leaving a cool surface. Far less effective than an insulated system. But no electricity required. It worked OK as a terracotta pot on my doorstep for milk deliveries that came at 12 am and were taken out at 10 am next morning. But never measured temps etc.
I personally use a Waeco CFX 40 https://bestoutdooritems.com/best-outdoor-refrigerator/ for transporting food in the back of the car on long journeys not particularly cheap but very good, it will even freeze stuff, runs on 12 / 24 or 240 volts.
There are a lot of useful and interesting videos on this topic on Youtube, I will leave one here, I hope someone will help in choosing the future. Good luck!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2_yLx9glAo

[Dymaxion]

And in the totally cheapo category... Alpicool 15l for $200 on Amazon. Compressor fridge, digital display/controls. Runs quietly, my own digital thermometer showed -16C when display showed -20C. Single compartment, idea was to run it as a freezer and swap frozen waterjugs into a plain jane cooler. No long term experience, couple of on land camping trips so for with no issue. Has a settable low voltage cutoff. Company makes them up to 80l but damned if I could find any other than the 15l. 30l and up sizes are dual compartment fridge freezers. The electronic Peltier type fridges are all crap in my mind, have had 3, and they cost same as the Alpicool 15l. My real fridge is an isotherm cruise 65 built in which has worked perfectly for 5 years. I don't live in Florida etc however.