12V Cooler

[keith]

I tried putting a engel in the cooler liner and under the table but accessing it was a pain so i sold the 40 chest and bought a 80lt upright and did this


The door opens from the rear and clears the ladder and getting a drink from the cockpit is quick and easy.
The laptop sits on top and is viewable from the cockpit.
I did this first with a 55lt but it was too small and the 80 has a better freezer compartment.

[The Mutt]

Does the rear berth feel claustrophobic with the fridge on the battery seat?

Glenn

[DaveB]

March,
As I have mentioned you probably won't have a problem and may run the compressor a little more for your area. 88 degree water in SW Florida will have a major inpack as the air in the hull will remain high during the night compared to the open area of the cabin. You also can put a small low Amp fan in the bilge area to circulate the air in the bildge and bring in fresh air thru all the air leaks.
I just cked my unit and after 5 full days the volt meter said 12.6 volts, today inside cabin closed up was 70 degrees.I have Deep Cycle batteries and fully charge is between 12.8-12.7 volts. Starting batteries are always higher voltage and usually at 13-13.2 volts fully charge.
The Edgestar is rated down to -8 F. compared to other brands that go down to -0 F.
I plan on running mine at 38 degrees and put in a splitter plexiglass to keep frozzen items. This will be located were the cold plates are and will be a trial and error approch.
I have to ck were the temp. throng is and make sure that is in the ref. part of area to keep at 38 degrees, the frozzen section will get the bunt of the cold to freeze and ref. section would be the spill over. Once you have the divider it is just a matter of drilling maybe 1 inch holes thru it to refig. the 38 degree section.
I have done this with a built in Abler Barber system and worked very well.
Dave

Yeah, I know. I was thinking of dremmelling an additional hole in the wall of the starboard seat, so that the airflow will go right under the table, but there was no need for that. We sail on the local lakes and up Duluth, mostly. The Waeco pump seems to handle the local temperatures just fine.

The Waeco ad says that the unit is commonly use to freeze organs and blood in "extreme desert conditions." I would guess that the ambient air temperature would peak way over 100, under such conditions. Being located as it is, the air still flows into the bilge; it's not that the bilge is airtight and creates negative pressures or anything. The only problem, as far as I can tell (I ain't no engineer) is, the higher the ambient temperature, the harder the compressor will have to work, right? My guess is, the difference in temp between the area under the table and that under the seat cannot be higher than 5 degrees. Maybe ten. Yeah, the compressor will kick in a little more often, but the difference cannot be all that great. I don't like my beer frozen.

Come to think of it, the bilge area may be even cooler than the under-the-table area, because of the outer walls which are in direct contact with the water, at least during the daytime. At night, if the water is warmer than the air (I know that can happen sometimes)but again, the differences cannot be all that great.

[Sumner]

..........I plan on running mine at 38 degrees and put in a splitter plexiglass to keep frozzen items. This will be located were the cold plates are and will be a trial and error approch.
I have to ck were the temp. throng is and make sure that is in the ref. part of area to keep at 38 degrees, the frozzen section will get the bunt of the cold to freeze and ref. section would be the spill over. Once you have the divider it is just a matter of drilling maybe 1 inch holes thru it to refig. the 38 degree section.
I have done this with a built in Abler Barber system and worked very well.
Dave..

Sure hope you post pictures and more when you do that . If I'm understanding you right maybe we could take some pre-cooked frozen food from home and keep it frozen until we wanted to eat it and yet still have the rest of the box at 38-41 deg??

==============================================

Off this subject and on to another.............on one of your other posts you mentioned all of the law enforcement boardings. Over how long a time period where those. I talked to a ranger at Flamingo and he said if we were in the park area for any length of time we could probably expect to be boarded. Is this a pretty common occurrence down there. I have a friend that use to sail down there and he said they would frequently spot-light them at night and might talk to them, but rarely came aboard.

Thanks,

Sum

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[DaveB]

Sum,
I have Sailed all of Florida and twice was boarded at same spot (Popcorn cove).
It is located between Little Shell and Big Shell island on the Inter Coastal water way at Tarpon Point area, Ft. Myers.
Both times were 1 am and 10 pm late at night and they were boarding every boat in the cove.
21 Years full time sailing SW Florida I have never been approced or boarded in any areas in Florida.
Time span was probably 6 mo. apart and for that location I anchor often would say 1 boarding in a 2 year time. I Anchor their at least 6 times a year.
I think they were looking for something both times as the Coast Guard had local Sherriff and Cape Coral Police on their boat.
Getting back to Ref. I went to Lowes and bought a grey rubber backing carpet for the cabin Sole . Pd $.50 a sq ft. and doesn't unravel.
Put this under the new Ref. and took off the 4 legs on the ref. and put on 1 inch wide self stick 3/8 thick rubber.
I will use carpet tape to keep it in place so the ref. doesn't slide around. Also putting two eyes that I will attach to liner with rivits on each side of frig. and will secure the unit to these with 3/16 inch braded line. I also put in 4 screws mounting the access wood panel below the ref.
Takeing pictures tomorrow.
Dave

Sure hope you post pictures and more when you do that . If I'm understanding you right maybe we could take some pre-cooked frozen food from home and keep it frozen until we wanted to eat it and yet still have the rest of the box at 38-41 deg??

==============================================

Off this subject and on to another.............on one of your other posts you mentioned all of the law enforcement boardings. Over how long a time period where those. I talked to a ranger at Flamingo and he said if we were in the park area for any length of time we could probably expect to be boarded. Is this a pretty common occurrence down there. I have a friend that use to sail down there and he said they would frequently spot-light them at night and might talk to them, but rarely came aboard.

Thanks,

Sum

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[Sumner]

Sum,..I have Sailed all of Florida and twice was boarded at same spot (Popcorn cove..........

Thanks, I'll sleep better now .

Now about the plan to use the frig as both a freezer and as a frig at the same time we might have a problem. Ruth and I were so excited about your plan to use the divider I went out and started the frig in the boat on 12 volts. From what I can tell the cooling coils/plates or whatever cools are all the way around the top. I ran it for about 30 minutes with the lid open so that it wouldn't cool the whole inside down.



To me it felt like all of the sides from about the bottom of the small basket up to the lid all the way around the frig got cold . I hope I'm wrong and you find something different. I think you were hoping the cooling would just be at one end. That might also explain why they say to leave a free air space around the whole frig not just the compressor end and the vents there.

I then closed the lid and set the thermostat to 49 deg. to see where it would shut off. It dropped to 46 and cycled off. If that is consistent (I didn't experiment more) then it looks like it operates over about a 3 degree range.

If what I found is not right and you still figure a way to use it as you were hoping please post or let us know as we are really interested.

c ya,

Sum

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[nedmiller]

Sum,
If you want to turn your freezer into a freezer/fridge combo, you'll have to put the fridge part on the top if you have room. You can buy one for an Engel but they are pricey--called TwoZone. Remove the lid and build a box with no top or bottom that is exactly the same size as your freezer. Put the top back on. Google Engel TwoZone using Google images if you want to see what they look like. We've considered buying one for our Engel 45 but the price is a bit much for basically a box without a top or bottom!

SILK

[Sumner]

Sum,
If you want to turn your freezer into a freezer/fridge combo, you'll have to put the fridge part on the top if you have room. You can buy one for an Engel but they are pricey--called TwoZone. Remove the lid and build a box with no top or bottom that is exactly the same size as your freezer. Put the top back on. Google Engel TwoZone using Google images if you want to see what they look like. We've considered buying one for our Engel 45 but the price is a bit much for basically a box without a top or bottom!

SILK

Thanks, that is a pretty slick idea......



http://www.twozone.com.au/index.html

....we are going to have to pass on either making or buying one. Our lid couldn't be.........



http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... de-22.html

.....any higher or we wouldn't be able to get into it. I guess we will just have to go back to eating pre-prepared frozen food in the first 10 days or so. That won't be hard to swallow . We are really looking forward to using the frig,

Sum

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[The Mutt]

We know the New South Wales repair agent for Engel quite well, the Australian distributors for TwoZone gave them a unit to test for an advertizing campaign they were putting together, what they found during the test is that the 4 Engel fridge/freezers they tested showed that the motor had to work very hard to keep the set temp, they said that any unit with a TwoZone will have premature failure of the motor and that Engel themselves were looking at the warranties of those using a TwoZone that are having problems, I don't know what the final outcome was.

Glenn

[nedmiller]

Good to know Glenn!

Like I said, we have been flirting with the TwoZone and wondered if the freezer would end up running all the time. Of course, it will depend a lot on where we are and what the temperatures are that freezer needs to work against. At this point when we do trips with only one or two overnights, loading with cold food and operating as a fridge works great. On longer trips, it operates as a freezer and we have a separate cooler for drinks and things that we don't want frozen. We haven't yet tried to see if the freezer can keep up with ice production for the cooler in addition to keeping things frozen. Again, the outside temperature will make a difference. We have a 65 watt solar panel that we are hoping can keep up.

SILK

[flynfol]

Hi sum,

Quick question on your fridge. What does it sound like when running? Can you hear the compressor? Is it a mini sealed freon cycle unit? Does it have a fan that cools the compressor?

Thanks, John

[The Mutt]

John, we turn our fridge off when we go to bed and turn back on in the morning, the maximum that the digital temp guage on top has altered has been a rise of 2 degrees, we are usually in freezer mode so no big problems, never thawed a chook accidently yet, during the day we take out something frozen that we will use for that nights dinner or a couple of Poppers (juice boxes) and put them in a small Esky (ice box) that will keep the milk, etc cold enough.

We tend to notice noize during the night, we live on an acre of bush at the end of the street, during the night if someone drives into the street three quarters of a Kilometre away we wake up, the noise from our Engel is minimal, we notice it, others we have talked to don't.

Glenn

[DaveB]

Sum, first time I tested the unit I put in 2-1/2 gal. and 2 gal. water containers plus about 20- 20oz bottles of water and set the FF mode for over night (they state don't leave in FF mode over 4 hrs). All water containers were put in at air temps aprox 68 degrees. In the morning the 20 oz water bottles were almost frozzen around the cooler liner and inside not, temps temps were 18 degrees. Thats a lot of water almost full at 68 degrees to bring down over night.
My thinking is to keep frozzen goods next to the interliner and deep. than have a inner container for ref.
What this will do is freeze anything next to the coils and have interior for refig.
Just the matter were to do it and how much volume for interior plastic basket.
I also said this would be a trial and error and have yet looked into the placement of refig. coils and the sensor unit.
I know all about the top loading features you can attach but this won't work for a clearance to open hatch.
I spent all weekend cutting carpet for boat and fitting Refig. in place.
I bought a 12ft.X51 inch cut off roll of rubber backing Interior and exterior carpet @.50 a ft. Cost $ 28 and had enough left over to do walkways in cabin again plus carpet pads for stern.
I will use double carpet tape under Refig. carpet and snaps on the forward walk.
Dave


Now about the plan to use the frig as both a freezer and as a frig at the same time we might have a problem. Ruth and I were so excited about your plan to use the divider I went out and started the frig in the boat on 12 volts. From what I can tell the cooling coils/plates or whatever cools are all the way around the top. I ran it for about 30 minutes with the lid open so that it wouldn't cool the whole inside down.



To me it felt like all of the sides from about the bottom of the small basket up to the lid all the way around the frig got cold . I hope I'm wrong and you find something different. I think you were hoping the cooling would just be at one end. That might also explain why they say to leave a free air space around the whole frig not just the compressor end and the vents there.

I then closed the lid and set the thermostat to 49 deg. to see where it would shut off. It dropped to 46 and cycled off. If that is consistent (I didn't experiment more) then it looks like it operates over about a 3 degree range.

If what I found is not right and you still figure a way to use it as you were hoping please post or let us know as we are really interested.

c ya,

Sum

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[Sumner]

Hi sum,

Quick question on your fridge. What does it sound like when running? Can you hear the compressor? Is it a mini sealed freon cycle unit? Does it have a fan that cools the compressor?

Thanks, John

John I/we consider it to be very quiet. It does make similar noises to the frig in your/our kitchen, but not nearly as loud. It is a regular compressor type with the fan. We see no problem with it being in the cabin right next to were Ruth normally sits. It won't interfere with conversation or anything like that. It is the kind of noise that you might hear it, but then not be aware of it a few minutes later even though it is there.

We sleep in the V-berth and I doubt we will hear it at all there and I could sleep next to it in the aft berth without a problem, but we are all different on noise. My CPAP machine makes more noise than it does. Also the frig won't be running probably more than 20%-30% of the time and probably even less at night when it is cooler. In fact I believe some people just turn them off at night an let them coast. You can see from Dave's posts (thanks Dave) that they are very efficient.

Once it cycles on long enough to get to the thermostat setting it goes off and is completely quiet. They did say that the fan could come on at times if the power supply needed cooling if I remember right, so maybe there will be times the fan runs after the compressor stops.

So far we are really impressed with it, the room it has (63 quart) model, the low noise, and absolutely no detectable vibration, so no vibration induced noise at all like we have running the generator and last the price was way under comparable makes of smaller size.

Hopefully I can reiterate all of this again this time next year .

Here are some links if you missed them.......

http://www.edgestar.com/products/fridgefreeze/fp630.asp

.....the company site.....

http://www.compactappliance.com/FP630-S ... 20Freezers

....where we bought it. One last thing, as was mentione earlier in I think this thread, the unit is made in China and I believe the exact same unit is sold under different names, Edge Star being one of them,

Sum

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[DaveB]

I have been working on the boat and have to turn off Music to hear it run. At night has a very low humm and will put you to sleep.
Some don't like that low humm every 15-30 min. and will unplug the refig. over night to drop temps to 40 degrees if you set it at 34 degrees.
The unit only drops 4 degrees overnight if air temps is 72 degrees overnight and you don't open the lid.
All tricks to the trade and experance what you have and post the results. No givers..no results!
Dave

Hi sum,

Quick question on your fridge. What does it sound like when running? Can you hear the compressor? Is it a mini sealed freon cycle unit? Does it have a fan that cools the compressor?

Thanks, John

John I/we consider it to be very quiet. It does make similar noises to the frig in your/our kitchen, but not nearly as loud. It is a regular compressor type with the fan. We see no problem with it being in the cabin right next to were Ruth normally sits. It won't interfere with conversation or anything like that. It is the kind of noise that you might hear it, but then not be aware of it a few minutes later even though it is there.

We sleep in the V-berth and I doubt we will hear it at all there and I could sleep next to it in the aft berth without a problem, but we are all different on noise. My CPAP machine makes more noise than it does. Also the frig won't be running probably more than 20%-30% of the time and probably even less at night when it is cooler. In fact I believe some people just turn them off at night an let them coast. You can see from Dave's posts (thanks Dave) that they are very efficient.

Once it cycles on long enough to get to the thermostat setting it goes off and is completely quiet. They did say that the fan could come on at times if the power supply needed cooling if I remember right, so maybe there will be times the fan runs after the compressor stops.

So far we are really impressed with it, the room it has (63 quart) model, the low noise, and absolutely no detectable vibration, so no vibration induced noise at all like we have running the generator and last the price was way under comparable makes of smaller size.

Hopefully I can reiterate all of this again this time next year .

Here are some links if you missed them.......

http://www.edgestar.com/products/fridgefreeze/fp630.asp

.....the company site.....

http://www.compactappliance.com/FP630-S ... 20Freezers

....where we bought it. One last thing, as was mentione earlier in I think this thread, the unit is made in China and I believe the exact same unit is sold under different names, Edge Star being one of them,

Sum

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