Reefer insulation

[Warby12]

Hi skipmac We sold the boat but had it for about 6 years after the icebox was done and there was no decrease in performance. I did do a very thorough job though of the outer and inner skins to ensure no water got in. It's just too much work to do it over.

Having said all that our current boat needs new insulation around the fridge and I am not keen to do the job as I know it's huge. If I did I would use blueboard or equivalent and take big care to ensure no water access to the foam from inside or outside.

I have a pact with my wife that a key priority with any boat projects is minimum disruption to our floating home. It adds another interesting design constraint

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Warby12

Having said all that our current boat needs new insulation around the fridge and I am not keen to do the job as I know it's huge. If I did I would use blueboard or equivalent and take big care to ensure no water access to the foam from inside or outside.

I know my fridge rebuild was huge. So far the biggest, most time consuming job I've done and I'm doing a complete overhaul. Talked to another Pearson owner and his was really big. In general a proper fridge redo seems to be major.

Originally Posted by Warby12

I have a pact with my wife that a key priority with any boat projects is minimum disruption to our floating home. It adds another interesting design constraint

Oh. That do make it tough. Have you thought about renting a little cottage for a couple of months when it's time to do a project?

[Warby12]

I try to think of it as a challenge. We've just rented our house out so it's on board full time now, plus I have a job (Darn it!).

First project is to build a holding tank into the head cupboard space and replace the toilet with minimum disruption! I have a massive locker which I can actually sit in and build the tank panels in. love a challenge

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Stevens 47

Hi Skipmac, My brother in law wanted to help on the boat project, this was the first thing he helped me with totally whore him out. Was not sure he would come back after this project. It took the 2 of us as the best part of a day to wrap the boxes 5 sf for the freezer and 6 sf for the fridge. It was a lot like gift wrapping xmas packages. One person holding the stuff in place, from memory the hardest part was cutting the stuff. It really powdery we manage to keep it tight then stretched the visqueen and used duct tape to seal it all up. Never did take pictures of the process but here are two installing the marble tops to the boxes. I had built the front of the box enclosure leaving the end next to the stove of. Slid it in place closed the end in suspended the package and filled under and around the package. I did wrap sides and top and bottom. Jack

Let's see, two people with all four hands totally full and neither one of you took pictures. How lame.

What a nice looking galley. Hope mine looks like that when I'm done. My technique was similar but I was able to get the front of the cabinet off without damage and was able to slide my insulated box in from the front. Also only had one box instead of two.

So how thick is the marble. Guess you had to have it custom cut to fit. For now I just put on new Formica but long term am debating an upgrade, maybe stone. However, the granite counter tops we have at home we have to be very careful about chipping so not sure about stone on a boat. Thought about Corian or something similar but just don't like the look as much as stone.

[Stevens 47]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Let's see, two people with all four hands totally full and neither one of you took pictures. How lame.

What a nice looking galley. Hope mine looks like that when I'm done. My technique was similar but I was able to get the front of the cabinet off without damage and was able to slide my insulated box in from the front. Also only had one box instead of two.

So how thick is the marble. Guess you had to have it custom cut to fit. For now I just put on new Formica but long term am debating an upgrade, maybe stone. However, the granite counter tops we have at home we have to be very careful about chipping so not sure about stone on a boat. Thought about Corian or something similar but just don't like the look as much as stone.

The marble is 10mm. Made slabs out of 18"x24" tiles. Glued them together with a very tight tinted epoxy joint face down, then laminated some biax cloth to the back side. Took them into the water jet cutter, really freaked the guy out when he saw me unloading them he was certain that being so thin they would break. My wife was working for a stone importer at the time so had a good source of material. If I was doing it again I would use granite, marble takes more care. Its holding up well, about the same weight as Corian.

[Cheechako]

Regarding the condensation on the bulkhead.... wouldn't it be a good idea to put in a layer of plastic sheet.. visqueen or whatever to cut down on that? regardless of insulation....

[Tia Bu]

I used Owens Corning pink foam board from Home Depot. Filled in the cracks between the boards with spray-in foam (not much). Added six inches of insulation against hull, and as much as I had room for on all other surfaces. Then covered that with 4x8 White FRP Wallboard from Home Depot. Used West System epoxy and fiberglass to tape off the seams of that.

We didn't put in a refrigeration system. We use the resulting box as an icebox. We're just back from a two-month summer trip to the Bahamas, and the box would hold ice for over a week, so it seems to be a resounding success. We prefer the icebox because it's so much easier and simpler to manage the electrical system/battery load.

This was not too difficult a project, I thought, for what it's worth. This was on a Pearson 35, and the improvement over the original icebox was phenomenal.

[crazyoldboatguy]

Cheechako,

The issue with condensation is that it is moisture coming from the air which comes into contact with the inadequate insulation and condenses. Wrapping the unit in plastic will not reduce that. The moisture will go somewhere - following gravity - until it finds a resting place. If that place is made of wood, you will be starting a chain of events that will lead to big trouble if that wood is part of the structure under the reefer.

The proven way to eliminate condensation forming on the reefer is to insulate properly. If you use standard pink board that means 4" for the fridge. 6" for the freezer. Anything less has serious ramifications.