New refrigerator build.

[Kalimniosjohn]

Been building this fridge/freezer for a while. Almost finished with it now. Hope to have it in the boat by end of week. I unfortunately don’t have many pics of the build, but I do have the beginnings and the end result.

I went with a cool blue system and built the box pretty much to the specs recommended for the system.

The initial shell was 1/2” divinicell, then I added 2 layers of 2” foam board from Home Depot all the way around, so total insulation is 4.5”. I left the lid a single 2” sheet for ease of use.

I’ve never built a fridge box before so hopefully it works okay. I’ll give an update after a few months use.

[Kalimniosjohn]

More pics. Have a video too but cannot figure out how to post it.

[OzePete]

Great job John. If the two holes in the dividing wall are for air transfer from the freezer to fridge, may I suggest you increase them both to say 75mm diameter (3") and bed an 80mm fan into the fridge side wall and over one of those holes for thermostatic control of the fridge temperature.

Cheers OzePete

[RaymondR]

Nice looking job.

[GILow]

Very nice! Inspiring too.

Fancy a trip to Adelaide to help me build mine?

I’m fitting an Ozefridge to my Swanson just as soon as I can.

Between your skills and Pete’s advice I could imagine a cold beer on my horizon.

[mikedefieslife]

Looks like some good work. Is that epoxy paint you've used, or just general epxoy with a pigment added?

I've starting adopting the philosophy of don't build it if I can buy it, as many things on the boat take up a lot of time, but I'm struggling to find a good A+++ fridge to fit the space I want, and I already have a spare cold machine compressor.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by OzePete

Great job John. If the two holes in the dividing wall are for air transfer from the freezer to fridge, may I suggest you increase them both to say 75mm diameter (3") and bed an 80mm fan into the fridge side wall and over one of those holes for thermostatic control of the fridge temperature.

Cheers OzePete

Yes do this.
A spillover works well in theory, but not as well in real life. Reason is you have a thermostat controlling the freezer side, but the fridge side is pure passive and if the spillover holes are correctly sized to maintain a good fridge temp when everything is in equilibrium, then adding a watermelon, gallon of ice tea, case of beer etc will raise the fridge temp quite a lot and take days for it to completely cool down again.
If I added a lot of food to mine the temp would come up from high 30’s to mid 50’s and I wasn’t comfortable with that at all.

So I added the fan and thermostat, set it so that the fan turns on at 37f and off at 34f. Temps stays between 34 and 36 now, no matter how much food we throw in there, and the fan and thermostat are less than $20.
I also installed a second fan that runs continuously in the fridge to keep temps even.

I covered my spillover holes so that I only have the one hole that a fan sits in, but the dividing wall on mine doesn’t quite come to the very top either, so air can return over the top I guess.

[Kalimniosjohn]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

Looks like some good work. Is that epoxy paint you've used, or just general epxoy with a pigment added?

I've starting adopting the philosophy of don't build it if I can buy it, as many things on the boat take up a lot of time, but I'm struggling to find a good A+++ fridge to fit the space I want, and I already have a spare cold machine compressor.

I used epoxy tinted with white pigment. Then when I wasn’t happy with the result I used white polyurethane.

I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum and don’t buy anything I can build for three reasons. First being mostly because I can’t afford to go that rout. Second being that I find in the end I can usually build a better product then I can find on the shelf somewhere. And lastly because I enjoy building things.

[Kalimniosjohn]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Yes do this.
A spillover works well in theory, but not as well in real life. Reason is you have a thermostat controlling the freezer side, but the fridge side is pure passive and if the spillover holes are correctly sized to maintain a good fridge temp when everything is in equilibrium, then adding a watermelon, gallon of ice tea, case of beer etc will raise the fridge temp quite a lot and take days for it to completely cool down again.
If I added a lot of food to mine the temp would come up from high 30’s to mid 50’s and I wasn’t comfortable with that at all.

So I added the fan and thermostat, set it so that the fan turns on at 37f and off at 34f. Temps stays between 34 and 36 now, no matter how much food we throw in there, and the fan and thermostat are less than $20.
I also installed a second fan that runs continuously in the fridge to keep temps even.

I covered my spillover holes so that I only have the one hole that a fan sits in, but the dividing wall on mine doesn’t quite come to the very top either, so air can return over the top I guess.

I will definitely do this after hearing these two comments. Once this thing is in I don’t wanna think about it for at least a few years haha. What brand/model fan did you use?

[Richard Kollmann]

There is more to a good spill over box than drilling holes in divider.
Kollmann Marine.

[Kalimniosjohn]

Since I couldn’t post the vid of it with the lid last night I took a couple more pics this morning

[Kalimniosjohn]

Originally Posted by Richard Kollmann

There is more to a good spill over box than drilling holes in divider.
Kollmann Marine.

Do you mean the circulation fan mentioned above, or something more that I’m missing?

[Richard Kollmann]

Originally Posted by Kalimniosjohn

Do you mean the circulation fan mentioned above, or something more that I’m missing?

Did you click on the Kollmann Marine Link? if you need more info let me know.

[john61ct]

Great job there, keep up the good work

[OzePete]

Originally Posted by Kalimniosjohn

I will definitely do this after hearing these two comments. Once this thing is in I don’t wanna think about it for at least a few years haha. What brand/model fan did you use?

Suggest a model 80-80-15 (80x80x15mm overall dimensions). (Suggest: Get a spare fan and store in a sealed plastic bag. You can also get grills to suit and if you get 4 of them they make neat covers for your four air holes. Try Ebay!)

Use a digital thermostat so you can easily set the fan start / stop to provide exactly the fridge temp you require along with temp read-out. Suggest locating the digital thermo outside the cabinet where easily monitored.

Cheers OzePete