Refrigeration

[mystery117]

I just purchased a used Beneteau equipped with two engine driven cold plates for the fridge and freezer. I'm looking at running the engine 2 to 3 hrs per day to keep these cold. With and 85 hp diesel and the cost of diesel it gets expensive real quick. So I had planned to add 12v/110v to the existing system. I've been looking at options and want to make well found decision. Input on systems and options would be very much appreciated. If you've done this kind of thing yourself I'm sure you learned some things in the process.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Don't know if you're familiar with Richard Kollmann, really great fridge guy, check his website out: http://www.kollmann-marine.com/Performance problems.aspx

I understand your cold plate issue, since many bareboats in the BVIs came with them back when you & I both had hair!

Isotherm or Isotemp, and Adler/Barbour/WAECO are good 12V units. NorCold has received some really poor writeups for many years, one just this week here on this forum.

I have a 27 year old A/B knock on wood, I won't tell you how simple and useful it is, and this is with R12 or 22, I forget. Been doing a lot of that lately...how about you?

Good luck, good question.

 

[gettinthere]

2 to 3 hours per day? In the tropics?
First thing to look at is the Insulation. Lots of prod boats have crappy insulation.

I have a seafrost coldplate system. It has 2 cold plates and the plates have 2 sets of inputs. One is for the engine drive and one is for the 12 volt compressor. Works pretty well. In subtropical conditions, an hour of engine drive will chill freezer down to -5 or better. Its up to the insulation to keep it there as long as possible. When at anchor or extended sailing, the 12 volt system kicks in. Nice having redundancy altho the 12 volt has been going strong for 5 years since I installed it. Engine drive did have one small leak, likely from engine vibration that was easy to tighten and recharge.

Richard Kollmann is a good resource and published a good book. If you have a seafrost, Cleve is also great for support.