There are a plethora of fridge
rebuild threads in the site but I thought this one is different enough to where it may be of interest to other tinkerers so here goes.
Previous Marine Fridge Adventures
This is actually my third foray into
boat refrigeration. The first was a build from scratch where I built the box and the condenser
heat exchanger and a fridgy tech friend built the eutectic tank and we installed and piped it up together. It worked OK and the little BD35 would keep everything in the box frozen if you let it cycle continuously. It lasted about ten years before the
compressor finally retired itself.
The second one was the
installation of a kit in the same box. This was the most disappointing as it only lasted about nine months before a pin hole corroded in the very thin walled copper tubing from which it was fabricated. It then lasted about another two years before another hole, which I could not find and removed it from
service. The BD50 from that unit is one of the ones I am using on this
rebuild.
What I evolved during the second rebuild was a very good
storage system involving sliding trays which allowed both a very high packing density whilst also allowing convenient access to everything in the box.
The sliding trays were constituted by
plywood pieces which rested upon longitudinal
cleats. Each
plywood piece had a cut out which allowed various sizes of Tupperware containers to be suspended in the box at various levels. It was a good system and worked well so I decided to evolve it a bit further.
One of the problems with the arrangement in the extant vessel is that about one third of the aft end box extends under the bench top and built in dish
storage and part of the forward end under the counter top so the top access is limited. consequently I decided upon a system of rolling trays using the SS trays used in steam tables in the aft end and the old system of suspended tupperware in the forward.
The image illustrates the ice box as it was originally.