SailNet Community banner
  • SailNet is a forum community dedicated to Sailing enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about sailing, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, repairs, reviews, maintenance, and more!

12 volt ice chest

5K views 30 replies 19 participants last post by  eherlihy 
#1 ·
Anybody use a portable 12 volt ice chest?
Ice box, icebox, cooler, fridge, refrigerator,
whatever else they might be called.

And, yes, I did a search but came up with
nothing. Engel makes one. Anyone else?
 
#5 ·
There are numerous 12 volt portable refrigerator/freezers on the market that are very energy efficient and do the job very well, from what I've read. We'd very much like one, but have no place to put one of the size we'd want, and have easy access to it.
I've done a bunch of research and if one has the battery capacity, I think they would give one refrigeration at a pretty good price.
 
#7 ·
We'd very much like one, but have no place to put one of the size we'd want, and have easy access to it.
I don't know what you have already so my solution may not be relevant.

We have a refrigerator and separate freezer, both good sized. We found for long term cruising in the boonies freezer space is more important than refrigerator space. I added the biggest Engel that would fit under our aft berth in a space it shares with our batteries, autopilot computer and actuator, an A/C, and the steering quadrant. It is certainly awkward to reach. I dig around in there every time we change the sheets to water the batteries. When we have eaten the main freezer down we shift the contents of the Engel to the main freezer and shut the Engel off.

This works for us.

Some friends rebuilt a settee around an Engel which works well. They had to provide an extra ventilation grate.
 
#6 ·
some use thermoelectric to make the cold on the small ones. as stated by others.. not great.

the large ones (Like Engel) have compressors. A good but $$$ choice and nears as much as retrofitting the box on your boat.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Gary's ( @travlin-easy ) recommendation that I should have refrigeration in my thread on heading south has me looking at these. The boat is a '87 O'day 35, which has two good sized ice boxes in the galley.

I could buy a Adler Barbour, Norcold, Frigoboat or Sea Frost unit in, and convert one, or both, icebox to a refrigerator, for between $1000 and $2500 plus installation. One issue is deciding between systems that are air cooled, water cooled, and keel cooled. Another issue is how to install a refrigeration system so that it is not only functional and reliable but also serviceable.

I love my boat, but over the last seven years I've put as much money into it as I spent on the boat in the first place. If I were to sell, she's only worth about what I paid for her. Adding a refrigeration system, with no possibility of recouping the investment just doesn't seem to make sense.

So, I'm wondering if there is any experience on SailNet with the Norcold (Portable Refrigerator Freezer)
, Isotherm (Travel Box)
, EdgeStar (FP)
or Dometic (CoolFreeze)
units.

These units range in price from <$500 to ~$1000, and they will work on the next boat, or camper, or truck. If so, could you share your thoughts on this versus a built in? I see that @MarkofSeaLife has the Dometic CF-25, anyone else?

Assuming that space were not an issue does it make sense to purchase one big unit, or two smaller units?

My thought is to pillage some of the rear quarter-berth, which I only use as a garage, and install some form of fastening system so that the unit(s) would not slide around.

Thanks!
 
#11 ·
Assuming that space were not an issue does it make sense to purchase one big unit, or two smaller units?
!
2 small units. Gives you 1 freezer and 1 fridge. If I had 2 CF 25's I would have a lot more flexibility. And in the occasional long passage both could start as freezers.

The fridges on production boats are now huge... far too big for me.
But add a woman......
 
#12 ·
Are you saying that you could fit a woman in two small units?
 
#14 · (Edited)
I've had an Engel operating on board for over a decade that still runs great. I then added a second larger Engel and turned the smaller one into a freezer when needed.
THE BIANKA LOG BLOG: WHAT WORKS! WHAT'S COOL!
They are next to a port side bunk in the main cabin. This enlarges the bunk width making more it comfortable and also allows me to use them a convenient seat when charting or working on something on the table. I have also been on chartered a Catamaran in the Virgin Islands that had two Domentic units as Mark mentioned. Captain of the Cat said they were preforming good too.
 
#15 ·
I was fortunate in that my boat came with a refrigerator/freezer already installed. The PO had installed a unit in the old ice box space, which he insulated with several more inches of foam insulation to make it more efficient. Now, the freezer compartment is relatively small, and was designed primarily to make ice cubes and have a little space left over. It holds four vertical ice cube trays that make a dozen cubes each in about 3 hours. I never use them, though. Instead, I place an 8-pound bag of ice outside the freezer section, which will remain frozen for about a week or more, depending on the outside temperature. This allows me to place 10 TV dinners in the freezer section.

Now, I know the TV dinners part will be somewhat controversial, but those things have really improved over the years, and some taste pretty darned good. Additionally, they're usually low calorie, high protein dinners, which make a good choice for those of us that have put more inches around our waistlines than we really should have. I have a microwave on the boat, which runs on the inverter, but not very efficiently because of the inverter's waveform output is not sine wave. However, I found an easy way to cook the frozen dinners which is quite efficient. I merely place a 5-quart saucepan on the gas stove burner, add about 3/4-inches of water and bring it to a boil. Then, using a frozen dinner gadget I made for lowering and lifting the dinners from the pot, I place the dinner in the boiling water, and cover the pot with the lid, and boil for about 12 to 15 minutes. This is all it takes to cook the vast majority of the frozen dinners. I made the lifting device from a length of heavy brazing wire.



From the research I've done, I've found that there are some new refrigerator/freezers that only draw about 1.7 amps, which is pretty much negligible when you have 500 AH of house batteries, which is the case on my boat. My current refrigerator/freezer sucks down about 5.7 amps when running. Fortunately, it is insulated well enough that it only runs for about 5 minutes, then shuts off for about 20 minutes before it kicks on again. It's an old Adler Barbour system that has a secondary water cooled system, but when that is running, it draws nearly 7 amps. Without running the water pump to cool the condenser, the temperature of the freezer is about 20 degrees, while the refrigerator ranges from 38 to 42 degrees, which is more than sufficient for my needs.

All the best,

Gary :cool:
 
#16 ·
So I broke out my wallet (chased the moths away) and bought a Dometic CF-050;


This unit is the largest 14" wide unit available, and it will fit beneath my nav station without any modification. Unfortunately, it seems that there is a newer model, the CFX-50 and it is simply too wide to fit within the space that I have available.

I initially placed the order with Amazon where it was listed for $489, but out of stock. After a week, and no updates, I came to the conclusion that Amazon was fishing with an unobtainable low price as bait.

So I forked out $650 for the same product from another vendor, again through Amazon. The fridge arrived last night, and I am currently running it round the clock at 0ºF in order to test it out.

This is STILL far less expensive than converting an icebox.
 
#17 ·
So I broke out my wallet (chased the moths away) and bought a Dometic CF-050;
So I forked out $650 for the same product from another vendor, again through Amazon. The fridge arrived last night, and I am currently running it round the clock at 0ºF in order to test it out.
This is STILL far less expensive than converting an icebox.
Congratulations. Should do you fine if the boat I was on is any indication. They had two one a fridge the other operating as freezer. Are you running it empty on your test?
 
#20 ·
I'm running the Engels off of my Morningstar Solar Controller. I took some current measurements a number of years ago. I think the draw was around 2.8 Amps times a nominal 12 volts = 33.6 watts. My two 75 watt Solar panels and two parallel Group 27 Gel batteries easily keep up with the demand 24/7.

As far as additional insulation I throw a boat cushion on top of the units since I also use them as a seat. Helps keep the sun off the cover when the main hatch is open. You could put some rigid foam around the outside too. But, I never saw the need. They are pretty efficient as is.
 
#19 ·
The key thing is the danfoss compressor. Don't get a chinese knock off compressor.
Dometic is where its at IMO. Though I'm in fresh water and mine doesn't have salt air day in day out to deal with...
 
#21 ·
I am running the test with the temperature set to 0ºF with a small bottle of water (now ice) inside. I figure that this is a worst case scenario torture test. The lowest that the digital readout indicated was 2ºF and highest was 4º. I ran a 12-hour test yesterday (I must have shut it off by accident), and am in the middle of a 24-hour test right now.

Also, the Dometic uses a Danfoss compressor.
 
#22 ·
Yeah, I think you are right about you test being a worse case scenario. Normally it's probably better to have the refridge/freezer fully stocked with chilled/frozen items instead of air. Unit should cycle on and off less and have shorter run times saving energy. I use the old built in ice box on board to store a case or two of seltzer and other items and just keep the 12 volt Engel filled as needed.
 
#25 ·
It just sounds odd. With 30 [wet] quarts in one cubic foot, and a typical home fridge being 16 cubic feet or more...that would be 480 quarts for a "modest" home fridge, versus, say the 40 quarts of Mike's new Engel. Twelve Engel's to equal one modest home fridge??

Of course home fridge's are funny too. The energy consumption labels on them always seems to be the same for "all makes, all models" in any one given cubic foot size. No one even tries for more insulation there.

I keep thinking in terms of "bags or blocks" and not in quarts or inches.(G)
 
#28 ·
The Catamaran we chartered had two large Dometics. One was in the cabin under the table the other was in the cockpit. The cockpit was well covered so I don't it got splashed but, it was still more exposed to the salty air. Was running well after two years in that environment.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top