Refrigerator Water Cooled to Fresh Water Tank

[SAIL23692]

I have two Danfoss compresors which are air/water cooled. The water cooling comes from the fresh water tanks. There is no problem with the water heating up but there is a serious problem with particulate being thrown off by the pipes on the compresor. It took two years to figure out where all the suspended matter was coming from. I'm in the proces of installing a stainless coil in the tank and having a closed loop for the coolant. I have the piping and pump in place.
The systems were installed by StoneCold in Trinidad and they are clueless to what they have done. There must be hundreds of these in operation.

[Krogensailor]

I put a system in my Cheoy Lee many years back. I got a 6" x 36" pvc pipe, mounted it in the bottom of a locker, turned it into a salt water cooler. ran the coil thru there and can't remember if I put a small pump in there or not.

[sailorchic34]

Actually using a copper coil in the water tank would be the safe way to use the fresh water tank as a heat sink. As a previous poster pointed out you can get deposits in the fresh water tank, which would be annoying at the least. Installing a copper coil in the bottom of the tank and making the refrigeration look closed would solve that.

I would add a small water hammer arrestor to act as a small thermal expansion tank and maybe a watts 630 pressure relief set at 40 psig too allow for thermal expansion should things go other then expected. You also would need a fill valve to fill the system and bleed the air out.

Me I would just run a keel cooler /condenser and get rid of the extra power and cost of a water pump and the fiddly bits. If you wanted to get fancy, put it in the fresh water tank, then no holes in the hull.

[Harryg]

Ozefridge use fresh water cooling through food grade tubing in their AW480 system. The following is a quote from the manual.
"To avoid corrosion and fouling, it is recommended that water from the boats
fresh water tank be used. The cycling water is not harmed and the increase
in tank water temperature is only 1 to 2 degree centigrade while the system
is running, returning to natural temperature soon after the cycle is
completed.
 The minimum effective tank storage is 40 litres."