How about replacing the Stock Cold Water maker with a small fridge?

[JonnyQuest]

So the huge gaping void referred to as the ice box ('instant cool water maker') has me thinking--of warm beer and soggy sandwiches.

How easy and practical would it be to strip out the existing ice box and fit in a small standard ac fridge in its place? I won't be doing extended sailing for a bit, but what if we did go for a week? Would there be a better cooling appliance that wouldn't break the bank?

(small alternator 55amp, ancient atomic 4, no generator or inverter, due for a charging/battery system replacement too)

What do ya'll like for refrigerator needs on a small older boat?

Thanks.

 

[wonkodsane]

Eventually I will hack away all of the sheet metal from a dorm fridge and wrap the guts around the icebox after I insulate it properly.

 

[Steve Dion]

Yes, try spending the night on the hook when you are trying to pull 120 vac from a 12 vdc battery thank hold 100 amps. The insulation is not going to get anybetter and the power usage will increase 10 fold.

 

[Winkfish]

What about just wrapping more (or better) insulation around your ice box? a friend of mine with a Cal 37 has just an ice box, and that sucker would keep ice ice for a good two days, block ice even longer. He also had a couple of plastic crate-like racks on the bottom of the ice box. The racks would be on top of the ice, the food and .. well, ok, just beer, would go on top. it stayed cold AND DRY.

 

[Ross]

Four inches of foam insulation on all sides and the top including a well fitted lid will keep cold with gallon jugs of ice for a week.

 

[JonnyQuest]

Good idea Winkfish

What about just wrapping more (or better) insulation around your ice box? a friend of mine with a Cal 37 has just an ice box, and that sucker would keep ice ice for a good two days, block ice even longer. He also had a couple of plastic crate-like racks on the bottom of the ice box. The racks would be on top of the ice, the food and .. well, ok, just beer, would go on top. it stayed cold AND DRY.

The crates get me thinking about cutting the available volume in half since I don't really need all that cold storage to keep cold. Reducing the volume in half and then placing crates atop ice block sounds like a good idea to consider if not retrofitting. Thanks!

 

[JonnyQuest]

The frozen gallon jugs are a good idea too, but not for me. I unfortunately don't have a large enough freezer at home to do this. One of those cursed side by side units where you really have not enough room for either fridge or freezer. I thought about prepping frozen jugs but not practical as of right now. No garage for another freezer either.

Arrgh!

 

[Stu Jackson]

The crates get me thinking about cutting the available volume in half since I don't really need all that cold storage to keep cold. Reducing the volume in half and then placing crates atop ice block sounds like a good idea to consider if not retrofitting. Thanks!

OK, following that thinking, why not just put a lot of insulation INSIDE the box: takes up space, reduces the volume inside, and is always easier to do!

 

[JonnyQuest]

Stu, I was considering that too. Do you think the rigid foam board insulation from the hardware store would fare well as the ice melts into water? Or is there a different type of insulation you are thinking about?

 

[Stu Jackson]

Lotsa different material out there. Go to Home Depot and look around, ask what's waterproof, 'cuz you're bound to get it wet sooner or later. Also, figure out a way to remove it, 'cuz the next owner might want a full sized fridge.

 

[Ross]

20 Ounce soda bottles also work well for ice. The extruded foan is great and you fill the joints with Great stuff canned foam to glue it all together then sand it fair. Spray the inside with 3M adhesive and cover it with fine weave fiberglass cloth or even polyester fabric then paint a couple of coats of epoxy on. Mine is done that way and has be completely trouble free for ten years.

 

[JonnyQuest]

good solutions

Great ideas on making my current ice box useful, thanks to you all. Hardware store here I come (again )

 

[JonnyQuest]

20 Ounce soda bottles also work well for ice. The extruded foan is great and you fill the joints with Great stuff canned foam to glue it all together then sand it fair. Spray the inside with 3M adhesive and cover it with fine weave fiberglass cloth or even polyester fabric then paint a couple of coats of epoxy on. Mine is done that way and has be completely trouble free for ten years.

Ahh, 20 oz soda bottles...that's possibly workable for my freezer situation at home.

 

[Ross]

7 twenty ounce bottles is sixteen pounds of ice and is good drinking water and keeps the food dry.

 

[alexco38]

Dry bag

Been there done that.

Your jug of frozen water only last a day or two even if the ice box is insulated well. Ever try to get some marina to freeze your plastic jug? Not a chance.
Cube ice and block ice are readily available almost anywhere buy they ended up into the bilge and stink.
One day I was watching a kayak guy put his camera in a dry bag. Yes the kind you buy from camping store. That gave me an idea.
I put a bag of cube ice in a dry bag and put that in the ice box. When it melt, I got drinking water and keep the bilge dry. I can always buy new bag ice at marinas.
Yes I do have 12v fridge for my ice box but that drains the battery.

Try the cube ice in a dry bag approach. You'll love it.

 

[Ross]

Re: Dry bag

The first 8 pounds of ice will chill the box but will melt rather quickly. It is in the melting that ice does the cooling. Make sure that everything you put into the ice box is pre-chilled. If your beer is at 80 degrees when you put it in the ice box and you like it best at 40 degrees it will require about a pound and a half of ice just to cool the beer if it is in cans, bottles take more ice.
In my ice box a single gallon jug will cool the box to about 35 degrees is 4-5 hours and be about half melted. But if I use a total of 5 gallons of ice in jugs and smaller bottles it will keep cold for a week.

 

[kloudie1]

I remembered someone posting that the thin, tough bags inside the better wine boxes were useful for freezing.. I “happened” to have one from a Black Box Cab .. pried out the spigot and rinsed and bleached and rinsed and bleached.. Filled with about 6 pounds of water (measured).. replaced the spigot and laid flat on a shelf in the (side by side) freezer.. Made a fine little pillow shaped block of ice .. more or less flat bottom and top.. Fits vertically, diagonally in a small Ice box.. Uhhhh water still has a distinct grape flavor, but the convenient shape of the ice works fine.. Side note, I was on a 5 day long delivery last summer on an O’day 290.. That built-in box converted ice to water at a very fast rate!. The Ice in our Coleman (5 day) chest stayed frozen much better with similar loading, in the 95 degree heat.. Box looked similar to yours, Winkfish.. No insulation in top and I think it was more of a wet locker with drain instead of an insulated place for ice..The bottom and sides of the box inside the cabinet were kind of accessible, so he was going to add some Styrofoam outside and seal it, to make the box more useful. Not good that the manufacturer could have added about $5 worth of insulation while building the boat .. and didn’t do it.

 

[JonnyQuest]

Claude,
My wife's a big fan of wines in a box, so I'm sure she'll be happy to know that she will be contributing in such a meaningful way to our sailboat . Great idea there-- I was thinking about camelback bladders, but the box wine bladders will be better and cheaper for keeping the inevitable cool water clean and dispensible.

 

[Ross]

I have tried the bags from wine boxes and they work well with two minor caveats, 1. they can be punctured and 2. they are a little difficult to handle when the ice has all melted. I suggest that you keep at least one box to hold the bag of water for easier dispensing.
The general advantage of water ice in closed containers is the total weight of the water helps to keep the cold. If you drain the melt water as it happens you are dumping 34 degree water into the bilge.

 

[gpd955]

In our Catalina 30 I would freeze half a case of bottled water, put 8lb ice on the bottom, put in the water and then anything else we were trying to keep cool and then top it with some ice (depending on the room left) and a towel on top of it all. We would get 5-7 days out of that. What helped was plugging the drain hole and allowing the melted ice (i guess we can call that water) remain. I also used refrigerator weatherstripping around the lid to seal it up.

Claude,
My wife's a big fan of wines in a box, so I'm sure she'll be happy to know that she will be contributing in such a meaningful way to our sailboat .

Plus it's good for the earth!