How much fridge freezer do I need?

[wholybee]

My recent build worked out to 1cf of freezer and 1.5 cf of fridge. It is plenty large enough for a 6-10 day crossing. Think about it. You can fit 35lbs. of meat in 1cf of space. With a crew of 2 that is enough meat for 35 days assuming half a pound per day. Similarly, you can pack a lot of veggies in the fridge half.

Prior to this, I used an iceco portable fridge that was about 1cf. I made that work, so doubling to what I have now is a luxury. Of course I would love something larger, but a box that size works fine if you have access to provisioning every 14 days.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by wholybee

My recent build worked out to 1cf of freezer and 1.5 cf of fridge. It is plenty large enough for a 6-10 day crossing. Think about it. You can fit 35lbs. of meat in 1cf of space. With a crew of 2 that is enough meat for 35 days assuming half a pound per day. Similarly, you can pack a lot of veggies in the fridge half.

Prior to this, I used an iceco portable fridge that was about 1cf. I made that work, so doubling to what I have now is a luxury. Of course I would love something larger, but a box that size works fine if you have access to provisioning every 14 days.

One cubic foot is just short of 30 liters so that is way oversize for a 6-10 day crossing, see my notes up thread.

Of course you need to pack and store everything efficiently. We use a chamber vacuum machine to seal everything in the same size and shape bags, then flash freeze those while laying flat, before storing them in the boat freezer like index cards in a paper filing system, see picture attached

[Buzzman]

I dunno about the "30L being overkill for 6-10 days".


Here in Oz, where the auto-fridge is king, 30L is considered way too small for anything more than a weekend adventure.


For week long or longer expeditions, especially off the beaten track where shops are few, far between, and bloody exxy if they appear at all, 60 or 80L is considered adequate.



The most common auto fridge used here is probably still the Engel, whose most commonly puchased size is the 40L versions - and add other 40L versions of other brands....

40L is "what the average person can afford" and what "takes up the least amount of usable real estate in the back of the vehicle".


OK, so auto mounted fridge-freezers usaully get to run off the vehicle alternator for much of the day while travelling, but camoing at destinations can mean reliance on portable solding solar panels for days, which is around 200W maximum.


The larger frdge/freezer models feature separate freezer compartments, and are usually aaprox a thrid of the capacity of the adjacent fridge compartment. The better versions of these all have separate compressors so they ca be adjusted accurately for each compartment separately, making it easier to keep the freezer at minus 18C while the fridge remains around 0-4C.


Obviously none of these 'box fridges' have thick enough insulation to reduce the current draw to what is acceptable aboard a boat, generalising, but I know of plenty of smaller 30' cabin boats and smaller for whom this option works just fine, utilising the occasional run of the engine for an hour or so to recharge 'fridge depleted' batteries.


So I concur with the poster above who suggested just keeping a smaller 'portable fridge freezer' aboard for those (likely far fewer) occasions when the additional freezing capacity is necessary.


Also, the OPs idea to put an insulated divider between the two 'compartments' within a single compartment is also something that has been done many times before in auto fridges.


The difficulty is regulating the flow of air to the frige compartment without inadvertently lowering the temp of the freezer copartment, or having all liquids in the fridge freeze solid.


Geralising again, the way this is often done is to use holes drilled in the divider that are closed with roatating bezel vents.


It has also proven useful to use a small 12V compurter fan to blow the air form the freezer to the fridge, and to pu this on a timer once you have extabished the correct or adequate 'pattern' of cooling required.


So the with the fridge sensor set to minus 15 to keep the freezer frozen, the small fan might need to run for 5mins every hour to keep the fridge compartment approx at 0-4deg.


And that will of course vary with ambient. So haveing a second thermocouple to record the fridge compartment temp is vital.



[Note that arbitrary time measurement I totally invented - YMMV]

[s/v Jedi]

So in Oz 30 liters is barely enough for a weekend and everyone has 40 liters which is good for 2 weeks? While we do 9 months with 95 liters?

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

So in Oz 30 liters is barely enough for a weekend and everyone has 40 liters which is good for 2 weeks? While we do 9 months with 95 liters?

How much fridge freezer do you have in your dirt house?

Why should a boat have less, especially if doing it full time?
If anything, because shops and reprov are often months away, MORE fridge freezer is needed.
Life's too short for compromise

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

How much fridge freezer do you have in your dirt house?

Why should a boat have less, especially if doing it full time?
If anything, because shops and reprov are often months away, MORE fridge freezer is needed.
Life's too short for compromise

We were talking about fridge. We have 95 liters fridge and 190 liters freezer. I don’t know many who have more.

As can be seen in the pictures I posted above, it is all about optimizing the use of refrigeration space. If you just toss stuff in, nothing is enough.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

We were talking about fridge. We have 95 liters fridge and 190 liters freezer. I don’t know many who have more.

That's all you have in the dirt house?

[Buzzman]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

So in Oz 30 liters is barely enough for a weekend and everyone has 40 liters which is good for 2 weeks? While we do 9 months with 95 liters?

I was more commenting on the size the OP thinks he will end up with, which is pretty damn small for an 'all fridge' never mind a fridge/freezer.


The 40L size is the most commonly bought becasue it is the most affordable compromise. Excellent for a weekend, not really good enough for a week away.


Many car campers have two 40L Engels - one for food and one for beer.


So it depends on your priorities!