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Old 08-20-2006
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ebs001 ebs001 is offline
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I am sure every Catalina owner has the same problem. The main concern is the lack of insulation around the ice box - there is none. I added insulation where I could and use an insulating mat over the top. There are some really good R value insulations out there but they tend to be very expensive and do not lend themselves to a retrofit. In addition the refrigerant used R134 is far less effective than the now banned R 12 used in the older models. There is considerable evidence that the ban on R -12 is based on bogus information and orchestrated by Dupont because their patent on freon was running out. It's unlikely the decision will ever be reversed but it's just one more example of how big business is wagging the dog. It would seem that rather than using an evaporator plate to do the cooling the holding plate which holds a jelly like substance similar to the stuff in freezy packs is the way to go. Also the air heat exchanger is not nearly as efficient as those that use water cooling either with a keel cooler or water pumped through a heat exchanger.
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