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Thread: Saltwater friendly fridge freezers

  1. #1

    Saltwater friendly fridge freezers

    Seeing I have way more battery capacity then I need with these new lithium’s I’m thinking of adding a 40-50l fridge freezer to the boat for the joy of frozen food and cool drinks while fishing in summer

    Are any brands more resilient to exposure to the saltwater environment and just basic neglect left exposed in a open tinny ?

  2. #2

    Re: Saltwater friendly fridge freezers

    I'm going to say no .....

    I recently bought a National Luna - based on their reputation & that they are stainless steel . I bought this has my mid sized camping fridge so it will be exposed to salt spray on the boat when we do our trips north .

    I'm also looking at a smaller 25-35lt to keep bait frozen on these longer trips .... plus make ice on the boat.

    I still cant get my head around which way to go - a plastic Dometic or an Engel - You know if the Engel gets scratched ... it's going to rust - but that compressor is probably able to withstand being banged around better than a traditional danfoss compressor .
    The reality is that salt spray will get into the internals through the vents ..... so there will be corrosion .

    I'm probably leaning toward the Engel 32 lt - mainly because the interior is square (no shelf)
    But hey right now the CFX3 35 can be picked up for less than $1K ... plus a $150 gift voucher from Anaconda

    Just struggling to hand over the folding stuff

    Chris
    Give a man a fish & he will eat for a day !
    Teach him how to fish
    & he will sit in a boat - & drink beer all day!
    TEAM MOJIKO

  3. #3

    Re: Saltwater friendly fridge freezers

    Might just go the cheapest plastic fridge I can Find and treat it as disposable
    90 percent of what i do with my own boat is fresh water use

    both my waeco cf60 have rattly compressors just from being in the back of the wagon on grocery duties

  4. #4

    Re: Saltwater friendly fridge freezers

    Quote Originally Posted by stevej View Post
    Might just go the cheapest plastic fridge I can Find and treat it as disposable
    90 percent of what i do with my own boat is fresh water use

    both my waeco cf60 have early compressors just from being in the back of the wagon on grocery duties
    Those cheapies from Jaycar/RTM would be my pick. Mate had a fridge/freezer on his boat encased in a ventilated box, but had a small fan at the cabin end that constantly blew air through. He claimed it worked better and he had very little issues with corrosion. From memory it was just one of those computer fans, drew bugger all. He did have to replace the fan once but surprisingly it certainly seemed to work

  5. #5

    Re: Saltwater friendly fridge freezers

    I agree with dig, Jaycar rtm same bloke, for the money if you got two to three years you would be ahead, brass monkey I think there called

  6. #6
    Ausfish Addict disorderly's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
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    Re: Saltwater friendly fridge freezers

    Quote Originally Posted by stevej View Post
    Might just go the cheapest plastic fridge I can Find and treat it as disposable
    Thats one option for sure..the other is subscribe to evacool (maybe the others do it too) because they just send out random specials where they have lines at half price till sold out wich is usaually only a day or 2..

    A year or so back..we got 2 travelmate 80l for $599 each with covers....think it was $50 each for delivery

    5 year warranty as well is the bonus because as we know once out of warranty it a gamble and these things can sometimes cost nearly as much to repair as buying a new one ..

    Black friday is gone but probably be more specials after xmas/new years...

    factory seconds are also an option... with sometimes just some scatchs or a dent ...

    I'd feel a bit guilty paying too much for one if I knew it was going to get wet..

  7. #7

    Re: Saltwater friendly fridge freezers

    Quote Originally Posted by bobfromblacky View Post
    I agree with dig, Jaycar rtm same bloke, for the money if you got two to three years you would be ahead, brass monkey I think there called
    That's the one,considering changing my icebox over to use one but need to change the whole system for the house battery to lithium.

  8. #8

    Re: Saltwater friendly fridge freezers

    Quote Originally Posted by disorderly View Post
    Thats one option for sure..the other is subscribe to evacool (maybe the others do it too) because they just send out random specials where they have lines at half price till sold out wich is usaually only a day or 2..

    A year or so back..we got 2 travelmate 80l for $599 each with covers....think it was $50 each for delivery

    5 year warranty as well is the bonus because as we know once out of warranty it a gamble and these things can sometimes cost nearly as much to repair as buying a new one ..

    Black friday is gone but probably be more specials after xmas/new years...

    factory seconds are also an option... with sometimes just some scatchs or a dent ...

    I'd feel a bit guilty paying too much for one if I knew it was going to get wet..
    Evakool is just around the corner from me, have gotten a few odd awesome iceboxes just by dropping in.

    BTW my mate bought a Brass Monkey and the guy at Jaycar did say they would be ok on his bay cruiser but advised not suitable for a yacht due to the heeling angle.

  9. #9

    Re: Saltwater friendly fridge freezers

    I have a 42 litre Brass Monkey. Its been out a few times and still works great. At $450 its a pretty good deal.

  10. #10

    Re: Saltwater friendly fridge freezers

    I've had the last model cfx waeco 50 litre before they rebranded to dometic in the boat for about 4 years. So far so good no problems at all. I went plastic by choice around the whole corrosion thing, it was also a bit lighter in that model line-up. Mine is on a slide in a cabinet under the seat so doesn't get any water. Hard to go back once you have had a good fridge/freezer setup in a boat with electrics to match.
    Scott

  11. #11

    Re: Saltwater friendly fridge freezers

    Quote Originally Posted by stevej View Post
    Seeing I have way more battery capacity then I need with these new lithium’s I’m thinking of adding a 40-50l fridge freezer to the boat for the joy of frozen food and cool drinks while fishing in summer

    Are any brands more resilient to exposure to the saltwater environment and just basic neglect left exposed in a open tinny ?
    on the lithium battery capacity, a mate just bought a 75l waeco/dometic dual zone. after 30 hours running, the 120a battery still showed 85% capacity. crazy how good these batteries are now!

  12. #12
    Ausfish Addict disorderly's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    In the Jungle/Mission Beach Hinterland

    Re: Saltwater friendly fridge freezers

    Quote Originally Posted by ericcs View Post
    on the lithium battery capacity, a mate just bought a 75l waeco/dometic dual zone. after 30 hours running, the 120a battery still showed 85% capacity. crazy how good these batteries are now!
    Did he work that out from an estimation based on voltage...?..if so that method is not very accurate.

    A unit that size will typically use about 2.5-3 a/h per hour..

    But I do agree the lithium batteries sure are unreal...

  13. #13

    Re: Saltwater friendly fridge freezers


  14. #14

    Re: Saltwater friendly fridge freezers

    Dont buy a EvaKool - FFS

    My fridge drawer has been in for warranty work twice in 5 months - its 12 months old ..... Maybe I got a lemon

    However

    When I took my fridge in the first time - there were a couple of Evakools in for repair . The second time there were several more.

    The repair guy - said they are problematic ( issues with controllers / electronics) - " they are over represented " his words

    This is the guy that had high praises for the Brass monkey - he hasn't seen any come through for repair ( but it's still early days) . When I did some research there was an area of concern - they need to be kept relatively flat (<15 deg) ..... I reckon that would be an issue on a boat .

    Chris
    Give a man a fish & he will eat for a day !
    Teach him how to fish
    & he will sit in a boat - & drink beer all day!
    TEAM MOJIKO

  15. #15

    Re: Saltwater friendly fridge freezers

    Quote Originally Posted by disorderly View Post
    Did he work that out from an estimation based on voltage...?..if so that method is not very accurate.

    A unit that size will typically use about 2.5-3 a/h per hour..

    But I do agree the lithium batteries sure are unreal...
    just going on what he told me. said he had it on for 30 hrs, and i saw the led display on the battery display 85%!

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