400: L400 fridge motor cooling

[jugga]

Hi All,
The built-in Vitrifrigo refrigerator with freezer compartment in our L400 seems to have poor motor/compressor cooling capacity. The few stock holes/slits in the cabinet to release the heat are inadequate in my opinion. The back of the galley countertop and the sliding window get warm. So if that heat stays too long, the fridge compressor will have to work more often and longer, and will eat more precious amps, and release more heat ... vicious circle.
Any of you guys experience the same problem on their boat, and if so, what have you done to improve ?
Thanks in advance !

[tuskie]

Yep, Jugga, the setup is not ideal.

We have a pair of "Vitri- FRIG-UPs" in this space, a freezer and a fridge. So considerable heat buildup when they work hard.

I've done two things to mitigate the problem; installed larger vents just aft of the doorway fitted with two 12 computer fans controlled by a toggle switch just inside the fridge opening and added more insulation to the fridge bottoms, doors, backs and sides. If you search these Lagoon forums, you'll find an excellent thread by Paulinoz about adding insùlation to fridges.

The additional insulation is probably the best of the solutions other than throwing this crap overboard and replacing with a properly insulated eutectic system.

[jugga]

Thanks Tuskie,
i'll go have a look for the PaulinOz insulation posts.
SMH, it seems like I keep having to rebuild/change/adapt almost every single item on our boat before things operate in a more logical, effective and sensible manner...

[PaulinOz]

"'ll go have a look for the PaulinOz insulation posts."

For what it is worth.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...nt-181609.html

The insulation helped a lot, but the smell from the glue took a long time to go away. It has increased the time off between cycles, but has no effect on the frosting up and the consequently required de-frost. Which in the tropics can end up being as often as every 3-4 weeks. Just a bloody pain in the a....

We have boats worth a million or more and they use the same old marine rubbish for heating and cooling of food and drink. For the price of an Eno 3 burner stove top and oven (no oven light, no oven fan and barely big enough to warm a couple of pies in) you can purchase a S/S commercial oven and cook top.

I believe the production cat builders need to stop using modified appliances (gimbals removed) from 30-40 foot mono's and get serious about the fit out. Domestic style appliances work fine in the Power Trawler market.

My current 2 x 12 VDC freezers 200 lt and 3 x 12VDC fridges 340 lt cost approk $10,000 AUD.

1 x 600 lt fridge/freezer costs $1800 AUD leaving $8,200 to boost inverter/solar/battery power to run. It will work and you will not have to defrost it.

Fridge space allowed for on boats is still based on a small bar fridge sized units, because it was all that could be fitted on the 30-40 foot mono in the day. The problem is the design of the boat will not accommodate a 1700mm x 850mm x 650mm currently without very major cabinetry modifications.

Which I currently believe will impact the resale value, due to being non-standard as perceived by the market. Rant mode off!!!