I heard this week about Frigoboat and their divided refrigerator boxes. Is there anyone who has partitioned their refrigerator and uses the Frigoboat keel-cooled unit with it?
Updating or replacing the 10 year old refrigeration unit on our 1980 E38 is becoming more of an imperative after the past two cruising seasons. Our current air-cooled Adler-Barbour compressor/heat exchanger is working fine, but it suffers from installation-related issues that greatly affect the power draw and the length of time food lasts in the refrigerator section. We would like to be able to go two weeks without touching a dock and this is a limitation.
We have the aft starboard galley and the engine is under the companionway. The compressor/heat exchanger is located less than a foot from the engine compartment in the forward end of the starboard lazarette, and exhausts under the sink. Even though the engine area is pretty well insulated, after a couple hours of motoring, the area becomes heat saturated and the fridge temperature goes from 37-40 deg. F to the mid 40's or higher, and stays up until a couple hours after engine stop. We open up engine ports and the lazarette lid to help get the heat out, but our milk and other perishables spoil days sooner than they should. The unit runs quite a bit more getting the temp back down, as you can imagine. Our lid is fairly well insulated with 2+ inches of plastic enclosed foam.
I've read good reviews of the Frigoboat system with the keel cooler here on the board. My head and gut say this is probably the way to go.
Our friendly advisor at Electric Boat in Seattle told us that Frigoboat offers a fan-thermostat unit that facilitates a divided box. I had never heard of this in a small boat, but it makes sense. Essentially it's the same way a 'regular' refrigerator is built. We will have to build in a partition, which doesn't sound too hard. This configuration should also help us with our access problems, as the L-shaped box with the rectangular box-shaped cold plate makes the opening crowded and restricts access to the back end of the box.
In my next post I may add some photos. At the upcoming Seattle Boat show we'll be taking our ideas and cubic-foot measurements to the vendors and see what they have to say. We'll also go aboard a few boats and see how they did the fridges. If we do replace the unit I'll have a used Adler-Barbour for sale this spring.
Updating or replacing the 10 year old refrigeration unit on our 1980 E38 is becoming more of an imperative after the past two cruising seasons. Our current air-cooled Adler-Barbour compressor/heat exchanger is working fine, but it suffers from installation-related issues that greatly affect the power draw and the length of time food lasts in the refrigerator section. We would like to be able to go two weeks without touching a dock and this is a limitation.
We have the aft starboard galley and the engine is under the companionway. The compressor/heat exchanger is located less than a foot from the engine compartment in the forward end of the starboard lazarette, and exhausts under the sink. Even though the engine area is pretty well insulated, after a couple hours of motoring, the area becomes heat saturated and the fridge temperature goes from 37-40 deg. F to the mid 40's or higher, and stays up until a couple hours after engine stop. We open up engine ports and the lazarette lid to help get the heat out, but our milk and other perishables spoil days sooner than they should. The unit runs quite a bit more getting the temp back down, as you can imagine. Our lid is fairly well insulated with 2+ inches of plastic enclosed foam.
I've read good reviews of the Frigoboat system with the keel cooler here on the board. My head and gut say this is probably the way to go.
Our friendly advisor at Electric Boat in Seattle told us that Frigoboat offers a fan-thermostat unit that facilitates a divided box. I had never heard of this in a small boat, but it makes sense. Essentially it's the same way a 'regular' refrigerator is built. We will have to build in a partition, which doesn't sound too hard. This configuration should also help us with our access problems, as the L-shaped box with the rectangular box-shaped cold plate makes the opening crowded and restricts access to the back end of the box.
In my next post I may add some photos. At the upcoming Seattle Boat show we'll be taking our ideas and cubic-foot measurements to the vendors and see what they have to say. We'll also go aboard a few boats and see how they did the fridges. If we do replace the unit I'll have a used Adler-Barbour for sale this spring.
. I did several things to change that. (1) made a loop in the drain tube so cold air would not escape. (2) Replaced the lid seal with one that would work on the lid as well as on the box. (3)As for the area near the motor I used 2" insulation and added 6" to that bulkhead area as that is under the sink. That was a big improvement holding time went to a week. That was good for awhile but later I wanted to put in a reefer system and added 2" of insulation to the inside of the box and glassed it in, then the holding time for 2 blocks of ice went to 2 weeks. Then it was ready for a reefer unit. We put in a Glacier Bay 12v system with a cold plate. We do not have a freezer. The unit only runs about 17min every 8 or 9 hours depending on how many times you go into it, and keeps the temp at 37 to 40. The more stuff in it the better. This unit has been in the boat for 12 years with one hiccup and that was the thermo probe for the plate which was a quick replacement. We have been cruising the last 10 yrs and use it every day. The newer Glacier Bay units are smaller and more efficient. 
