Life Changing Event

[svseachange]

After several months without refrigeration our Engel 22 quart fridge arrived on Monday. It has already changed life aboard Sea Change II.

Wow. It uses a tiny amount of power and keeps everything icy cold even on one of the most conservative settings. It was expensive - $840 from RoadTrucker.com - but seems to be worth every penny.

Cold milk for breakfast, cold water during the day and cold beer for the evening. Hot dog storage for our 3 yo. A nice little luxury!

[mischief]

Warning do not store your 3yo in engel!

[noelex 77]

Thanks for the report.
I have been planning on getting one as backup fridge (redundancy is vital for a crusing boat)

If you could measure, or estimate, the real world power consumption that would be help to those considering purchase, or trying to decide between a proper marine fridge and a car fridge.
(If you can do this don't forget to include average temperatures)

[Dulcesuenos]

Originally Posted by mischief

Warning do not store your 3yo in engel!

Why not? They are virtually soundproof

[svseachange]

Originally Posted by noelex 77

If you could measure, or estimate, the real world power consumption that would be help to those considering purchase, or trying to decide between a proper marine fridge and a car fridge.
(If you can do this don't forget to include average temperatures)

We tried a truck stop car fridge, but found it both ineffectual at keeping things cold and a huge power hog. When turned on it used 3 amps all of the time.

The Engel keeps everything very cold. It has a thermostat with 1 to 5 (5 being "freezer". We set it at 2 and found ice start to form in some of our beverages.

We don't have a great way of measuring total power consumption over 24 hours. However we only have 80W of solar and two marine batteries. We operate one of the marine batteries at a time and switch batteries every two days. For this reason we are very sensitive to power consumption.

The Engel only runs some of the time (seems to be less than the 30% advertised) and uses less than 2 amps when it runs. On average I would guess the average power consumption is a miserly 0.5A 24/7 when used as a fridge on setting 2 in our current conditions (NE USA summer).

There a several models. I would avoid the Engel MD-14. From the data and reviews I read it has different engineering and just is not nearly as good. The larger MT-17 and MT-27 are larger but use less power. There is a fantastic chart here:
http://www.roadtrucker.com/engel/eng...technical.html

[noelex 77]

Thanks for the estimation and link.

[FSMike]

I love my Engel. It keeps things cold at a minimum setting.
Don't know the daily power consumption, I turn it on when I get up and turn it off when I go to bed, the solar panels deal with it adequately.

[Celestialsailor]

Sounds like a great option.

[svseachange]

Originally Posted by Dulcesuenos

Why not? They are virtually soundproof

Believe me, there are days... if you ever hear a screaming banchee in your anchorage around bedtime it might be us.

[Ocean Girl]

We have had our Engle for a couple years and love it, our ice box is now dry storage. Be careful though, it will freeze! I think we have ours set on a notch before 2. Anything above 3 freezes. great product.
Erika

[mischief]

Originally Posted by Dulcesuenos

Why not? They are virtually soundproof

I stand corrected. Here I was so worried about them occupying space for my beer.
I see now the 3yo goes in engel and after the screaming disappears then its time for the hard liquor instead.
How could I have been so foolish? Although for us our 3yo is no problem it's our 5yo and I just can't fit a big enough engel for her.

[mbianka]

Originally Posted by Ocean Girl

We have had our Engle for a couple years and love it, our ice box is now dry storage. Be careful though, it will freeze! I think we have ours set on a notch before 2. Anything above 3 freezes. great product.
Erika

Yep. My old ice box is now dry storage too! I just move a few beers and beverages over to the Engel when I need too. Currently at the mooring I'm operating in refrigerator mode. When I head out on a cruise I put in freezer mode to freeze bottles of water that I rotate into a cooler:
THE BIANKA LOG BLOG: IS THIS A COOL WORLD OR WHAT!
My Engel draws about 2.7 amps when of and my two 75 watt solar panels keep things pretty much charged up. One of the best items I added to the boat.

[Blue Crab]

I don't think I've heard a discouraging word about Engle.

[sailpower]

Engel does seem to be the gold standard. Some suggest that Edgestar is comparable for less money. Did you happen to investigate them?

http://www.engel-usa.com/

http://www.edgestar.com/edgestar-tra...ridge_Freezers

[Dulcesuenos]

Originally Posted by sailpower

Engel does seem to be the gold standard. Some suggest that Edgestar is comparable for less money. Did you happen to investigate them?

http://www.engel-usa.com/

http://www.edgestar.com/edgestar-tra...ridge_Freezers

We went for the edgestar and couldnt be happier! Coming up on 4 years never an issue! It has traveled and been banged around on 3 different boats and at the farm and keeps going!