12 volt fridge qiestions

woodster

woodster

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Sep 15, 2009
6,244
S2 9.2a Fairhope Al
as for the dedicated power source on my refer i like the fact that it controls where the power is coming from ...if it runs on 12vdc it will get power from the house bank but if you are plugged into 120 vac at the dock or generator and have no 12vdc power on and i am not sure how they are made but it may have a voltage regulator in it that controls the voltage going to the compressor limiting over voltage to the compressor in any case if you kill 120 vac at the dock it picks up the 12vdc from the house bank and keeps the refer running so you don't have one of those oh s#!t moments
 
Stu Jackson

Stu Jackson

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Feb 26, 2004
23,347
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
Fridge options

Doug,

I had a neighbor who owned a Volvo station wagon (circa 1980!!!) and he loved that car. Being an ardent environmentalist, he rarely, if ever, ran his air conditioning, trying to save the environment from global warming, one Volvo at a time. :)

Then one day he went to turn his air conditioning on and: Nothing!!!

Brought it in for service and was astounded to find out he'd need a whole new unit which would cost more than the car was worth!

The lack of use dried out the seals, as one skipper has already mentioned.

Richard Kollmann has also pointed out that newer units come WITHOUT recharge ports because of environmental rules which tried to stop amateur refrigerant technicians from working on their own equipment! http://www.kollmann-marine.com/Performance problems.aspx

Then there is the "age-old" discussion of "Do you leave it on all the time?" I've always maintained that running it will use it up, as Ron mentioned, just as much as NOT using it will "rot it" as Ron said. He's right.

I bring cold beer, or just wait 30 minutes. I never leave mayo on our boat! :) I never run the fridge when I'm not there except for the night before a long cruise when I bring food down to the boat (and it's plugged in).

I cruise for two nights at anchor every week or every other week all year long. The fridge is R-12 from 1986, and is still working just fine.

Sometimes "use it or lose it" is true.

One of our skippers installed a separate small battery:

To come at the cycling problem caused by leaving the refrigerator on 24/7 from another angle.

I have just installed a separate 10 AMP charger and small battery (refrigerator manual says there must be a battery in the refrigerator power circuit) to power the refrigerator when at the dock.

Which battery is used for the refrigerator is controlled by a relay which in turn is controlled by the main DC switch – main DC switch is ON, the refrigerator is powered by the main batteries, main DC switch is OFF, the refrigerator is powered for the separate battery / charger.

Your boat, your choice. :)
 
G

gettinthere

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Nov 26, 2008
1,970
Endeavour 42 Cruisin
That seems like extea complications to the system. With a good 3 stage charger you should have no battery issues leaving the charger on full time when at the dock.
 
Ron20324

Ron20324

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Jan 22, 2008
8,050
Beneteau 323 Annapolis MD
Looking at Stu's post 22... I don't know if it is still the case, but car owner manuals used to tell you to run the AC once a month in the colder seasons to lube the parts. Sort of like operating the shutoff valves under your home sinks or your boat thru-hulls- to make sure they don't freeze in one postion or the other.
 
Stu Jackson

Stu Jackson

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Feb 26, 2004
23,347
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
Ron, you're right. My neighbor didn't think I was right when I told him HE created the problem by not running his A/C regularly. His car was also sooooo old that the defrost switch didn't automatically turn on the A/C, he had to turn on the defrost to get the air to blow to his windshield and ALSO turn on the A/C button. He never did and wondered why his windshield didn't clean up with only heat on a cold and snowy trip to Tahoe!!!

Then I said: RTFM! :)

[Bruce, F is for funny!:)]
 
DougM

DougM

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Jul 24, 2005
2,242
Beneteau 323 Manistee, MI
Ron20324 said:
Doug... Is this what you have?
Click to expand
Ron, that is exactly the same setup, without the venting you have added. My cabinet has considerably larger grillwork to allow airflow than what yours seems to have had. Your additional hosing has definitely had to help.
 
Ron20324

Ron20324

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Jan 22, 2008
8,050
Beneteau 323 Annapolis MD
These pics are from when we had the 323 web site. Neither one is mine, but it's something I'm in the process of working on. One of those is Chuck McG's. What year is your boat? A larger vent to the salon area? Good idea.

I had added a vent (like in the 1st pic) to the door and where the one is in the pic. My 2006 has the round vent likle in pic 3. I don'e see why the elbow was not connected to the vent?
 
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