Refrigeration- Making it Better

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Having the best insulation is definitely a great goal. I think one has to keep in mind what the overall gain for $ spent will be. Here's a good example. My Passport 47 had two cold spaces; a large freezer cooled by 1/2 hp motor and cold plates and a small, probably less than two cubic feet refrigerator in the middle of the salon table. All we ever used was the smal refrig (it had the little freezer evaporator in it also). I reinsulated that small space with the rigid metal vacuum panels so highly touted at the time. What a bitch it was to do that. In the end, we seemed to run the engine the same amount of time to recharge every day as we did before. Was there a gain? Very little if any. Maybe the gain was the food stayed colder longer... not sure...

Dug a little deeper on the Nanopore website and found the following about VIPs. "VIP lifetimes can be from several months to over 20 years."

That does concern me a bit. An early failure could be a huge headache.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by skipmac

One thing I did that so far seems to be working was to install the compressor unit under the floor forward of the mast step. A dead spot with no other use but dry, low in the boat so cool and enough air flow to avoid heat buildup.

Yup...Installed mine down low too.

[WebWench]

Thought I would update as to what we have done so far on the fridge repair.

First found that the PO had in fact used the nano pore with foil vac sealed insulation panels. So that was good. Unfortunately several of the panels had lost the vacuum seal. They were held in place on the inside of the fiberglass end original cooler box ( that according to the manufacturer has polyurethane insulation all around it.) with stick on Velcro.

We used a food saver and food saver bags to re vacuum seal the panels. This worked really well. So far we have put these back in the box. There were several large spaces between the panels.....contemplated spray foam but settled on the bubble wrap stuffed in and alum tape to seal it all together. Before there was nothing in those spaces but we had really good freezer and refrigerator temps. Kept ice cream in the freezer.

Next we have put that foiled bubble wrap lining the whole thing. Also taped in place.

The plan is to cut fiberglass boards and epoxy those in to make a fully sealed unit.

Soon as I get time I will post a link to some pictures.

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by Rubikoop

As cheap as that stuff is do you think the results would be different if you had used 2 layers of FRP?

That's the same stuff I used.
One layer is sufficient.

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by skipmac

I could bail on the job but wife wants to get her 30 years in with the state to qualify for the full pension so I'll hang in another year and a half until she's ready to go.

I hope you aren't in one of these states:

32 States Now Officially Bankrupt: $37.8 Billion Borrowed From Treasury To Fund Unemployment; CA, MI, NY Worst | Zero Hedge

Sorry for the thread drift.