Added drawers to front-opening fridge

[jibstay]

We have a front-opening fridge on our Beneteau 473. It's quite deep and finding items sometimes involved getting down on your hands and knees.

At the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show, my wife saw a few fridges with drawers instead of the front-opening door. While this might be a great idea, I wasn't excited about the money and work required to replace our perfectly good fridge.

Instead, I found some stainless wire drawers on Amazon, had the front lip of the plexiglass shelves trimmed at a plastic sign shop, and bolted the drawers to the shelves. I had to offset the drawers because of the depth of the door, but the side space is great for bottles and jars.

We're both very happy with the results. I'm hoping someone else might benefit from the idea.




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[Hudson Force]

Very nice! I'm not a fan of front opening refrigerators or freezers because I'm too stingy to have results of my precious 12V energy spill out the door, but if you have enough power to afford this type of unit, drawers like yours would be nice to have.

.... so I'm resigned to hover over my lids and dig through items that continually fall to the depths.

[redhead]

You do great work. The old boat we bought came with 3 front opening (2 fridge, 1 freeze) reefers. At 27" wide I don't know what we can replace them with, but your idea may work for the next year until we can save up to buy new.
I hate getting down on my knees to search through the back or to clean.

Great idea - thanks!

[JPA Cate]

It is a good idea, and nicely executed, too. Thanks for posting it, jibstay.

Hudson: maybe you could use stacking boxes to sort your fridge. Ours is a dive-in sort of box. There are 1/4" plywood frames for the bottom area, and the 4 boxes sit on top of it and each other. The two forward ones are longer, and of equal size to each other, the two aft ones are narrower, one is short and the other tall (gotta have somewhere for tall stuff). The very bottom, we use for what must be colder, and the rest is a matter of practicality. One often only has to remove one box to get to what one wants. The sections have names to us: Upper forward, middle forward, bottom forward, aft bottom, middle and top(the latter also known as "the dairy bin". The boxes are the same light plywood, with air holes for air circulation and air spaces around them, penetrating epoxied, then painted. The whole system works okay, although, I'd rather the internal corners of the boxes were radiused, 'cause cleaning the corners is a pain. I'd also prefer if they were made of acrylic plastic, but radiused.

Maybe you could find some s/s wire bins to organize your fridge. It really helps to have a "ready use bin", so you don't have to plow through everything looking for lettuce for the sandwiches or whatever.

Ann

[Hudson Force]

Thanks for the thoughts, Ann. I could do better, but mine is not just a pit. I do have a set of stacked wire shelves occupying half the fridge and forming three layers. Of course I need to lift things out from the non-shelved half to reach items on the lower shelves. I may be inspired some day to design something more convenient. Your plan sounds good.

[Scaramanga F25]

Stacking and setting on counter to warm ambient air or front opening door
and losing cold air.
I have had both.

Cold in any box is retained mostly by items much less by cold air.
Either case we lose hard earned energy.

[GulfportBarb]

[QUOTE=jibstay;1986222]We have a front-opening fridge on our Beneteau 473. It's quite deep and finding items sometimes involved getting down on your hands and knees.

At the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show, my wife saw a few fridges with drawers instead of the front-opening door. While this might be a great idea, I wasn't excited about the money and work required to replace our perfectly good fridge.

Instead, I found some stainless wire drawers on Amazon, had the front lip of the plexiglass shelves trimmed at a plastic sign shop, and bolted the drawers to the shelves. I had to offset the drawers because of the depth of the door, but the side space is great for bottles and jars.

We're both very happy with the results. I'm hoping someone else might benefit from the idea.

THANKS for the great idea!

[jibstay]

In case anyone wants the link for the drawers:

TRINITY Ecostorage Wire Drawer with Slides

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FRWEJEO..._ZtVBwb3JKS79Y


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[Secondwind410]

Hi, great idea, I have seen these drawers at Home Depot and have even put these in my kitchen cupboards to make life easier at home! They were much cheaper in Canada for a two tier one that pulls out.

[Stu Jackson]

Nice idea, thanks for sharing and even more for the link.

We use the same idea to convert a useless hanging locker into our galley pantry.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

Nice idea, thanks for sharing and even more for the link.

We use the same idea to convert a useless hanging locker into our galley pantry.

Indeed! /a pantry is a great thing to have on a boat!

Ann

[IntoMyHealth]

Looks great! Love the Sabra hummus, too! And while I'm going off topic, we're not able to get the top shelf under 45-50 on our B473 in the summer. You?

I'm going to order those shelves, thanks for sharing!


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[Steve Bean]

If the drawers had solid sides and bottoms, it would tend to reduce the loss of cold air when the door is opened.

[jibstay]

Originally Posted by IntoMyHealth

Looks great! Love the Sabra hummus, too! And while I'm going off topic, we're not able to get the top shelf under 45-50 on our B473 in the summer. You?

I'm going to order those shelves, thanks for sharing!


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You're welcome.

We don't have a problem with the top shelf being cold enough. The thermostatically-controlled fan brings in plenty of cold air from the freezer. The drawers also help prevent us from accidentally blocking the fan.


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