Cheap refrigeration

[Ixneigh]

I see several very small, or "personal" refrigeration units these days on Amazon.
These cooler sized things apparently use about 3-4 Amps and cost under 500.00 dollars. Some as little as 360.00
That's getting to the point where I might consider having one just to keep a few drinks cold.
These are different then the thermoelectric variety that will only cool to 40 below outside temps. In 90 degree Florida heat that's not saying much.
Currently most of the units I looked at have good ratings and are used by truckers and tradesmen. My question is has anyone here used any of these cooler type refrigerators and will they work well enough to be worth having.
My plan is to run it off solar during the day and turn it off at night. I have extra solar capacity after about 11am when my battery's are topped off from very light evening use.
I currently have a yeti cooler that rarely gets used except for a seat and storage. I just don't bother with ice in real life use. It's too much work. If I could replace the yeti with something that works and uses my excess solar power, I might do it.
Ix

[Tomfoolery]

I've never considered any of the new generation stuff, beyond cold plate or thermo-electric, and just use ice. The boat is too small for cold plate, and it doesn't have a permanent ice chest anyway, and thermo-electric works pretty well on road trips in the car but not so much in a really hot boat, even up north. So I'm interested to see where this goes.

[ris]

We have a Engel. It can be a fridge or freezer. We run it on a 1.5 setting. If you go to 3.5 it will freeze stuff. This one was a 35 or 40 quart. After a month of traveling we love it. It will hold a lot of food. It is over $800 but it is 120/12 volt. Sumner has had good luck with another brand. Chinook is using a Engle also. Three Gypsies has 2 Engels one used as a freezer and one as a fridge. If you go out a lot one of these newer ones is great. I think the better ones all use about 2 to 3 amps per hour. Ours has been on continuously since 2 Apr. We are also traveling 4 to 8 hours a day and the boat motor has a 22 amp charging capacity for our 400+ amp hour batteries.

[Russ]

We bought the same unit Sumner has (Edgestar??) Yes, buying a thermoelectric fridge is a total waste of money and energy. However, these 12v compressor deals work great.

Our boat is unplugged. No shore power. So the fridge is totally dependent on the 80w solar panel (and some outboard charging) to recharge batts. We can run it all weekend without issue. More than that would require more solar or engine running.

It's really nice to have cold stuff and not soggy sandwiches from melted ice.

--Russ

[Starscream]

I am thinking about one of these:

http://www.costco.ca/Koolatron%C2%AE-P9 ... 15952.html

4.5 amps is a bit high for extended traveling, but with a 100 AH house battery, some motoring and some shore power it might be doable. Going to see this afternoon if it will fit under the aft dinette seat.

I thought about about one of these too:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B009QB ... YIK6Y9EEQB but for the price the Koolatron looks like a better deal. Plus with the Koolatron I can leave the boat at the marina with the cooler on shore power and have cold drinks ready for me at any time.

[Seapup]

I was given a free coolatron, I ended up also giving it away for free

My question is has anyone here used any of these cooler type refrigerators and will they work well enough to be worth having.

I love being able to always have a cold fridge already waiting and stocked, no carrying food, condiments, and drinks back in forth each trip except for the primary meal ingredients.

We used a midsize Dometic/Waeco coolfreeze. You can get the smallest model for around $300. They use the same Danfoss BD-35 compressor in all their boxes from the smallest up to 60L. The compressor is variable speed so ability to draw more or less amps depending on how its programmed to match the box. They have been around a long time and work as advertised. I briefly considered buying the smallest for the compressor and modifying it before coming across a larger used one. I left mine plugged in to 12v for about 10 months a year for the 4 years we had it. We were very happy with it, however averaged about 25 Ah a day in cooler weather and 35-40Ah for 24 hours in the summer, which is a bit higher than advertised.

For AH frugality and to try something different I switched to a propane cooler in the other boat. Time will tell how it works out. Its very slow to cool & makes a lot of frost, but does have a separate freezer and keeps everything cold as expected. So far a 10lb bottle lasts a little over 3 weeks and it uses no electric and is 100% silent.

[Russ]

I am thinking about one of these:

http://www.costco.ca/Koolatron%C2%AE-P9 ... 15952.html

4.5 amps is a bit high for extended traveling, but with a 100 AH house battery, some motoring and some shore power it might be doable. Going to see this afternoon if it will fit under the aft dinette seat.

It says "Thermoelectric". If so, those are totally worthless. Don't waste your money. They just don't work and run non-stop at 4.5 amps. Been there, done that. Put a room temp can and it takes days to chill it.

--Russ

[Sumner]

As Ris mentioned we bought an Edgestar some years back and have really used it a lot.



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

I got the 63 quart from here...

http://www.compactappliance.com/FP630-S ... FP630.html

$560 now with free shipping (was about $100 less than that when we bought it but it looks like they all have gone up since then).

They also have a smaller 43 quart that is comparable to what Ris has for $460 ...

http://www.compactappliance.com/FP430-C ... FP430.html

These are true compressor type fridges that will either cool or freeze and use less power than the thermoelectic and like has been mentioned they only cool 40-50 degrees under ambient temps. I had one in my teardrop trailer and quit using it as it would run a battery down in 6-8 hours if it wasn't being charged. For that reason I'd stay away from something like the Koolatron that has been mentioned, but it sounds like you already have planned to not go down that road. They might work for day sailing but for more than that I wouldn't invest in one.

My 63 quart fridge uses about 35 amp/hr a day in Florida heat with inside boat temps around 90 for part of the day. I researched the other more expensive brands and they all are about the same according to some reviews I read at the time. I can't imagine taking a longer trip without a fridge and I know you live a lot on your boat so I'm sure you would love it. If you plan on charging say the 63 quart on solar I'd plan on 120-150 watts minimum if you want to handle all conditions, winter/summer, sunny days and cloudy days in a row. You might get by with 100-120 for a 43 quart if it is mainly just powering the fridge.

On previous Florida trips I turn it off at night and it would go from about 35 deg. (where it was set to avoid freezing items) into the low 40's by morning and then would run for about 10 hours straight (30-35 ah) to get back down to 35 again for the next night. This was with the box full of food vs. an empty box. Full there is a lot of thermal mass to deal with. On the Bahama trip I just left it on all the time and felt that was better as it then ran for shorter periods but still probably ran for a total of 10 hours a day so no real savings but I felt it was easier on the motor/compressor since they had more frequent periods to cool down. At one point in the trip I noticed that it was running for longer periods. The problem turned out to be that I had wired a female plug in under the cabin seat and plugged the male plug that comes with the fridge into it (I had this circuit on a switch so that I could turn it off when I wanted). The plugs had become corroded and the connection wasn't good and I'm sure there was a voltage drop taking place which resulted in the cooler running longer. I cut the plugs off and wired direct and no more problems,

Sumner

============================
1300 miles to the Bahamas and back -- 2015

The MacGregor 26-S

The Endeavour 37

Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

[frede]

I'm thinking about getting this one: Whynter FM-62DZ Dual Zone Portable Refrigerator/Freezer, 62-Quart

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008VX ... PDKIKX0DER

[Ixneigh]

Ok cool
I'll get one of the smaller ones as soon as I can. I'll let it run as soon as my batteries are topped up in the morning.
Even just for cold or cool juice and water it will be worth it.
Next question!
They offer just the guts of these things on eBay for cheap! Search for 12 volt fridge or cooler kit.
They say they have a six amp draw but they are much cheaper and I already have a perfect sized yeti cooler to retrofit.
Do I buy a unit from Amazon and sell the yeti for a hundred bucks, or do a buy one of those drop in kits for a hundred and chop a hole in the yeti to accommodate it?
Ix

[yukonbob]

What about the guts from a camper propane fridge? I much prefer to tent but we keep a small camper around for late season river fishing and came with a no power propane fridge. Don't know much about them really (other than ours works) but maybe an option for someone wanting to install permanent fridge? It doesn't seem to burn through too much gas, but we really only use the thing for maybe a week total over the year and really more a novelty as when we use it we really don't need a fridge as its plenty cold wet and miserable out. Just a thought.

[March]

I wouldn't sleep easy with the idea of a propane flame burning all night long below deck. Or all day, too, for that matter

[yukonbob]

We do it all the time with the furnace. As long as its burning there isn't a problem, its when it goes out and there's no shut-off that it becomes a problem.

[March]

I wouldn't sleep easy in the basement next to my furnace, either

[yukonbob]

I meant on the boat