Refrigeration Installation

[R. Cooper]

I have a First 285, considering installing refrigeration. Where is the best place for the unit to be installed? Is it a do it your self project? Should the house battery be beefed up? What style and size unit would I require? Thank you in advace for your help

 

[Ned Young]

Ice Box Conversion

We just installed a norcold a/c d/c unit on our O'Day 28. In the scheme of things on a boat it was not to difficult. The hardest part believe it or not was drilling a pilot hole from the inside of the box to the lazerette. We had a 12" bit (too Long) and a 6" bit (too Short) and could not find a 8" bit (isn't that always the problem on a boat).We mounted the compressor in the lazerette behind the icebox. We chose this type of unit because most of our sailing in day sailing or overnight and we did not have to have a battery charger on all the time we are at dock.So far everything is great but I will wait for a month to be sure. If you are going to have problems with any electrical equipment it will probably occur in the first month of operations.I think you should be able to add this to your boat without much trouble.Good Luck

 

[Jeff Taylor]

Refer Problem solved

In a previous boat; Elite 324 I installed a Norcold cold plate this "L"shaped plate was easy to install with the refrigerent line already precharged. I drilled a small hole in the top of the ice box and ran the line rehind the stove, aft headsink and into the lazerette where I place the compressor. I need a flat mounting spot so I had used a pressure treated 2X8 and glassed it in place then installed the unit. There was a 110 volt outlet in the head which I taped into and intalled an electrical box in the lazetette to plug the unit into. (USE a GFI) I insutlated the copper tube with pipe insulation. The cost is about $500 and the unit lasted 8years before it died. In replacing it I bought the some one. Installation took about 4hours.

 

[Tom Senator]

Extra Battery's will help

I retrofitted my 1980 Watkins 27 with a Norcolder also. It was arguably the best thing I put on my boat. You might want to think about beefing up your house batterys. I did it very simply by changing out my group 24 (27?) battery with 2-6Volt golf cart batterys from Sears (they only cost about $50 each). They are very rugged and carry alot of Amp-Hours. All you need to do is find the space for the extra battery. You might also look into a good multi-stage charger for your new battery requirements.Good LuckVeni Vidi ('80 Watkins 27)(Moving up to Breathless '99 Cat 36MKII)

 

[Bill Thomas]

The FM790 will work also. The compressor assembly can be mounted anywhere up to 12 feet away from the evaporator, as long as it is well ventilated or has some means of removing the heat build up in the space it is located.It is always a good idea to look at your housebank whenever applying a new or large load on them. The larger the bank you have, the longer time between charging and the faster the charge acceptance rate.