painting the fridge interior

[mfsykes]

We have an Adler Barbour cold plate fridge on board. The interior has soft sides that are painted. The paint is flaking and we want to repaint- but can't find anyone that can tell us what kind of paint to use. Don't want the food smelling like paint. Any ideas?

Melissa
s/v Cheechako

[skipmac]

Hi Melissa,

When I rebuilt my fridge box my research came down to two options, epoxy or Awlgrip. There is another commercial product mentioned by a member that is designed for painting the inside of water tanks and such but I never found a source for it in small lots.

I picked the two options based on safety and smell. Although paint manufacturers won't recommend either due to legal issues and fear of lawsuits both of these coatings chemically react when they cure and should not leach into food. Of course I will keep food items in containers as well but don't think toxicity is a concern.

I decided on epoxy mainly because it was a lot less complicated and more forgiving to apply. It has cured well and I have no odor at all in my fridge.

[smaarch]

is it possible to line it w/ sheet materia? i.e. vinyl, etc.

[Cheechako]

The intereior of the fridge is soft? hmmm.....

BTW: what kind of boat is Cheechako?

[mfsykes]

Thanks - thinking epoxy might work.

Yes, the inside is a soft insulation material - not real squishy, but flexible.

Cheechako (it was her name when we got her) is a 39' Landfall Vagabond pilothouse.

[skipmac]

Any idea what this squishy stuff is? Is it soft enough to puncture or dent with something hard like the corner of a box?

If so maybe smaarch's idea to line it might be good. There are several options of sheets of stuff you can buy at Home Depot that might work, including

-PVC. tricky to get it to stick to other things and the solvent used to glue PVC may dissolve other materials.

- Fiberglass sheets. Does have a fiberglass smell but not strong and it fades. This is easy to epoxy to most other surfaces and the epoxy won't dissolve insulation.

[smaarch]

I've used (designed) frp panels (fiberglass reinforced panels) in a couple of commercial kitchens, mostly for wall surfaces. they seem to have worked well.
marlite is one such manufacturer
FRP (Fiber-Reinforced Plastic) Wall Panels: Marlite FRP wall systems decorative sanitary surfaces.

for what it's worth i believe frp meets NSF requirements (food safety) and there are companies which fabricate insulated frp panels for commercial walk in refrig.