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Old 28-03-2008, 16:02   #1
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Using a small 115v fridge...vs...

OK, so after my last cruise and a few years I have moved on from 47 foot monohull and then 42 foot catamaran now to a little double ended trawler. Definitely not a teak palace! I need refrigeration for about 3-4 months a year we will be on the boat. There is no icebox so I'm thinking maybe just a small box style refridge/freezer like you might have in an office. The marine versions are 12v/120volt and run $900-1300. The office version is 120 volt and run $150-200. Other than that they look the same. The 12v versions have one compressor so that means they must have a mini invertor in them right? So why not just run the 120 volt version for $200 on my Heart invertor? The 120 volt fridge says it takes 1.6 amps.... Do the 12v compressors really draw that much less? if so they must be a lot more whimpy compressors right?
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Old 28-03-2008, 17:08   #2
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The marine unit on my brother's boat has a primative inverter and actually runs better off of 120 AC.

If you already have an inverter, why not use it.

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Old 28-03-2008, 18:02   #3
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That would be 1.6 amps at 120 volts, about 16 amps at 12 volts plus whatever conversion loss in your Inverter. What is the duty cycle? These units don't have great insulation. You are probably going to want a pretty good battery bank or an auto-start generator to go this way. By the way, this is going to be the same for the small 120/12 volt units as well. You may be better off going built-in marine unit in the first place. However, if you do go with the 120 volt unit, let us know how it works out.

There has been several discussions on this subject. Try a search of the data base.
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Old 28-03-2008, 19:37   #4
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What about an Engel?

We use one as our freezer. As far as I can tell its power draw is nearly negligible. We had the same unit in our land rover and it would sit all week, keeping ice cream frozen, and the rover would start without problem on one battery (despite the standard rover power leak).

It's hard to find a place to put it, but as far as I know you can't beat them for efficiency. For boat equipment they are not that expensive at $500-600.
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Old 28-03-2008, 21:33   #5
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The ratings on most AC stuff I've seen are for MAX current. In this case, 1.6 amps is probably the startup current. Continuous is more likely a lot less, like 0.5 or so.
Just a guess, but an educated one. As long as the inverter would start it, I'd go that route.

One more thing, most fridges and freezers are now insulated with solid poured in place foam so they're pretty efficient.

Steve B.
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Old 29-03-2008, 10:12   #6
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Good thoughts all..

I'll check out the Engel to see what it is. The boat has a mini galley but no ice box at all, so putting in a 12v danfauss unit etc would be a little labor intensive. Great point about the 16 amps... I forgot to use P=IV! It wouod be nice to know if the 1.6 amps at 115v is start up or daily average. In the carribean my sailboats probably averaged....100 amps per day to run the fridge. That's roughly 4 amps an hour at 12V or 48 watts an hour. Thanks all...
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Old 29-03-2008, 14:55   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by senormechanico View Post
The ratings on most AC stuff I've seen are for MAX current. In this case, 1.6 amps is probably the startup current. Continuous is more likely a lot less, like 0.5 or so.
Just a guess, but an educated one. As long as the inverter would start it, I'd go that route...
Most appliances specs will tell you "watts" or "running current" (or Full Load Amps); and 1.6 A @ 120V seems a reasonable running current for a fridge.
Starting current may be about 6 times higher.
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