I have read the archives about adding a refrigerator and 90% of the posts were specific to Hunters and a few Cats. What have the O'Day 25 sailors done about adding a D.C. refrigerator? Location? Will a 100 - 150 dollar cool box work or are they too much a drain on the batteries? All insight and better asked questions welcomed. I have a few months before I act and would like to make a well considered choice. Thank You
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Dave, Your question in a sense is so broad that it is hard to answer.
The biggest question is what do you know about your electrical system? 12 volts sounds easy but the truth is managing 12volts is a full time job. Batteries are rated with two systems: one is cranking amps and the other is amp hours. The two different systems alone pretty much seperate which they are. There are batteries that can start almost anything because they can deliver power now. They are not good batteries for drawing power for the long run. The other batteries deep cycle type. They deliver a constant heavy demand very well. A simple refrig system draws about 4 amps/hour while running. If you can insulate the area so that the system runs half of that, you have a 2 amp/hour system. The main question is what power system do you have that can produce and maintain a 48 to 96 amp draw per day refrig system? Ok, that was harsh. I hope you see that power is hard to come by on a boat unless you are plugged in regularly at the dock. hope something here helped! r.w.landau
The biggest question is what do you know about your electrical system? 12 volts sounds easy but the truth is managing 12volts is a full time job. Batteries are rated with two systems: one is cranking amps and the other is amp hours. The two different systems alone pretty much seperate which they are. There are batteries that can start almost anything because they can deliver power now. They are not good batteries for drawing power for the long run. The other batteries deep cycle type. They deliver a constant heavy demand very well. A simple refrig system draws about 4 amps/hour while running. If you can insulate the area so that the system runs half of that, you have a 2 amp/hour system. The main question is what power system do you have that can produce and maintain a 48 to 96 amp draw per day refrig system? Ok, that was harsh. I hope you see that power is hard to come by on a boat unless you are plugged in regularly at the dock. hope something here helped! r.w.landau
Thank you
Thank you. I am trying to decide if I need to spend 700+ dollars on a refrigerator designed specifically for a boat or if a cool box designed to plug into a car's cigarette lighter will work at a fraction of that cost. I plan to use two deep cycle batteries. Also curious as to where people have found to set these to maximize cabin space.
Thank you. I am trying to decide if I need to spend 700+ dollars on a refrigerator designed specifically for a boat or if a cool box designed to plug into a car's cigarette lighter will work at a fraction of that cost. I plan to use two deep cycle batteries. Also curious as to where people have found to set these to maximize cabin space.
Recess, since your profile tells me nothing about you,
I will explain what do. We have a CUBE cooler. It has worked fine. We have used ice and draped the cooler with 5 or 6 towels to hold the temp. The towels were hard to keep on the cooler and really had no insulation value. I have to say we have finally found what we are happy with. We use our cube as the cooler. We pack it on Thursday night with three half gallon juice containters that we freeze. then add 8 frozen 16 oz water bottles. then maybe 6 cokes a beer or two and the rest of our meat, salad, cheese, etc. The cooler lasted, two weeks ago through 92 degree weather, until Sunday afternoon and the water bottles still had ice on Sunday morning. The reason, I made a cooler cover. Last winter I sewed a cover for our cooler. It has four sides, a bottom all sewn together with a flip top to cover it. I made it out of two layers of sunbrella with two layers of 1/2" fiberfill in between. I am so happy with this that I would consider marketing it. That is four days of food and drink for two and going home with ice in the extra bottles! By the way, there was no electric needed, that went to the fans in the vee berth to cool the wife! r.w.landau
I will explain what do. We have a CUBE cooler. It has worked fine. We have used ice and draped the cooler with 5 or 6 towels to hold the temp. The towels were hard to keep on the cooler and really had no insulation value. I have to say we have finally found what we are happy with. We use our cube as the cooler. We pack it on Thursday night with three half gallon juice containters that we freeze. then add 8 frozen 16 oz water bottles. then maybe 6 cokes a beer or two and the rest of our meat, salad, cheese, etc. The cooler lasted, two weeks ago through 92 degree weather, until Sunday afternoon and the water bottles still had ice on Sunday morning. The reason, I made a cooler cover. Last winter I sewed a cover for our cooler. It has four sides, a bottom all sewn together with a flip top to cover it. I made it out of two layers of sunbrella with two layers of 1/2" fiberfill in between. I am so happy with this that I would consider marketing it. That is four days of food and drink for two and going home with ice in the extra bottles! By the way, there was no electric needed, that went to the fans in the vee berth to cool the wife! r.w.landau
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