Make freezer Smaller, How?

[Mycroft]

12x14x28

I have a HUGE freezer box. I'm installing a new CoolBlue system and I want to reduce the size of the freezer compartment to make it more efficient. No way do we need such a large freezer.

Anyway, the box is about 14" front to back, 30" wide, and 28" deep. The side against the port bulkhead slopes in at the bottom and I want to remove about 12" of space (up to the edge of the lid) from that side of the box. So the space to be eliminated, looking at it from inside the box, is about 12"d, 14"w, and 30" high.

Any ideas?

[tomfl]

What I did was get some insulation to fill the area and then fiberglass a chunk of starboard over it starboard. Well if the truth be known I hired a guy in the harbor named Fiberglass Dave to do the actual fiberglass work.

[colemj]

Your box will be more efficient if you added insulation evenly around it to take up the volume you want. Or if it your present insulation isn't evenly distributed, focus on building up the thinner walls in taking up space. If one side is against the hull or engine compartment, a bit more insulation there would be good.

Mark

[Greg4cocokai]

I added 2" of foam to the whole inside to make it smaller, glassed it in with white pigmented epoxy leaving a flat lip to add a second weatherstrip. Has worked out great. Can still put in 50kg of meat/chicken.

[PanPan]

So dropping in several bottles of vodka won't do the trick?

[Greg4cocokai]

Yes, I have room for 1 at a time. My other 100 bottles and 250 bottles of wine are one my hidden cellars!

Cheers, Greg

[MarkSF]

Why don't you just put some stuff in it of the volume you want to fill. Bear, soda, whatever.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by MarkSF

Why don't you just put some stuff in it of the volume you want to fill. Bear, soda, whatever.

mmmmm….frozen bear….

Don't know why you'd want frozen soda - I like vodka with my bear.

Mark

[Mycroft]

Insulating all four sides would be a good idea except:

1. The starboard side of the freezer is shared with the fridge and the only cold the fridge gets is from the freezer.
2. The front and back are about even with the box lid and I need 2.5" already for the chill plate.

So the only place I can really remove space is the port side - against the side of the boat.

tomfl, that would be my plan A if I don't find a better plan B.

[Cheechako]

a 2 gallon water container or two? reserve ice if your fridge quits that way also. Otherwise reinsulate as much as you can. I once did the box interior in a boat icebox with formica faced ply. I 5200'd a fillet on the corner seams. It worked fine. You could do that, or spend the money for a glass liner, or go with starboard also I suppose...

[SV THIRD DAY]

Home Depot sells 4ft x 8ft sheets of Polyicocyanurate foam with foil on each sides and they usually carry 0.5", 1" 1.5" and 2" thickness. From an cost, results and ease standpoint I think this is approach is damn hard to beat. Puzzel pieces togeter and attach them to the current box walls. Then for a easy, cheap and clean looking covering. Buy some sheets of the fiberglass bathroom stall/wall covering also at Home Depot. A little 3M77 adhesive spray and 4200 to cauck the seams and you will have a easy DIY box insulatoin project!

[Mycroft]

Rich, do you think that it would work ok with just the panels puzzle pieced and glued together, but without caulking in a fiberglass wall? I'm thinking of making it not so permanent.

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by Mycroft

Rich, do you think that it would work ok with just the panels puzzle pieced and glued together, but without caulking in a fiberglass wall? I'm thinking of making it not so permanent.

Absolutely,
Any insulation you add will help and if you seal the insulation properly from the inside of the box with a tight fit agsinst the current walls that will help. The risk/negative is that any air pockets between the box wall and the new insulation will promote condensation...and you know where that goes...right into the foam is it loses some of it's R value. Your box is indeed HUGE, so I would go for it because you are not talking about a long term fix here...but a somewhat temporaty and CHEAP solution right. So what's the risk? Having to do it again in 3-5ys?

[Mycroft]

Thanks Rich!

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Mycroft

Rich, do you think that it would work ok with just the panels puzzle pieced and glued together, but without caulking in a fiberglass wall? I'm thinking of making it not so permanent.

Yes, but leave room on the bottom to wipe clean to the walls then. Things tend to leak now and then, meat blood, fish etc...