Portable Freezer

[thunder]

Anyone have experience with the engle or dometic freezers, I am looking for one of the larger ones, but am concerned about the power draw. The engle size I want is only metal, am wondering how fast it will rust. The dometic although it's cheeper and plastic, but the power draw seems twice as much.

[callmecrazy]

I've never heard anyone complain about an Engel.

[Dulcesuenos]

We purchased a 63 quart edgestar. Very similar to engle / dometic, does flash freeze, works as a freezer or fridge. Its metal but seems power coated or epoxy coated, it has held up just under a year in salt environment and no rust. Works awesome, very very low power draw and cost half of the engles.

[mbianka]

I've been using an Engel M25? for several years in freezer mode:
THE BIANKA LOG BLOG: IS THIS A COOL WORLD OR WHAT!
It just keeps working. Very happy with it! Draws a little under 3 amps two 75 watt solar panels take care of the power needs most days.

[markprice]

I've got the Engel MT60F-C and just love it. Keeps stuff frozen and will freeze stuff in the refrig side if I turn it down too much. Can get a 24 pack in one side and still have the have plenty of room to put the weeks supplies in the other. On a sunny day can run it off my solar pannels and still recharge the batteries a bit. I can get about 3 days on the hook before I need to start the engine and get the batteries toped off if it is cloudy a lot. I did not want to give up my icebox (I use that for canned goods and other dry food storage now) so I have the Engel next to the starboard settee where the huge harvest table used to be (Hunter 37C). You can get a set of turnbuckles to hold it in place and it has handels on the side if you need to carry it anywhere (2 person job). Well worth the money, It is a quality piece IMHO. It has a temp gauge so you can see how cold the feezer is (slushy beers)

Mark

[rebel heart]

I have an Engel. Thing is a tank and sips amperage regardless of the exterior temperature. Would never go back to the in-hull style of fridge. Figuring out where to store it is the only real problem.

[xymotic]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

I have an Engel. Thing is a tank and sips amperage regardless of the exterior temperature. Would never go back to the in-hull style of fridge. Figuring out where to store it is the only real problem.

OK, I have a similar, but different problem:

The PO of my boat stripped it for a refit. He bought a teeny tiny but very nice isotherm fridge. I also have a decent sized Engle, that fits nicely in a spot on the boat already

So my question is what the hell do I do with the built in fridge in a not-too easy to get to back corner of the boat? Remodel it to hold the engle? build a proper fridge or ??

[thunder]

Thanks I think the engle is the way to go, going to do the 60,

[reiner]

Originally Posted by thunder

Anyone have experience with the engle or dometic freezers, I am looking for one of the larger ones, but am concerned about the power draw. The engle size I want is only metal, am wondering how fast it will rust. The dometic although it's cheeper and plastic, but the power draw seems twice as much.

The old story, you get what you pay for. We used all sort of 12 volt fridges and freezers when we did commercial dirt bike tours. We found the Engel is the one to have. I still carry one in my Kombi and it works beautiful. Power consumption is about half of the same size fridge in the boat.
Never had a problem with rust either.

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by xymotic

OK, I have a similar, but different problem:

The PO of my boat stripped it for a refit. He bought a teeny tiny but very nice isotherm fridge. I also have a decent sized Engle, that fits nicely in a spot on the boat already

So my question is what the hell do I do with the built in fridge in a not-too easy to get to back corner of the boat? Remodel it to hold the engle? build a proper fridge or ??

I have a similar problem. The existing fridge space is completely unused at this point; just a sealed up chamber. I yanked the old fridge components (nevermind getting blasted in the face by compressed refrigerant).

I've thought up a couple of ideas for the space. As you said, it's a pain in the ass location to work with. I'm not too worried. Between water makers, spare water for passages, and random provisions we'll just it into a big storage space.

I mean really, it's usable (albeit not overly convenient) space on the boat. You know it will get used.