Saltwater friendly fridge freezers

[NAGG]

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...

It really does depend on what was the Temperature setting & where the fridge was (ambient temperature) . If the fridge is set at 3 deg - it wont work much at all .
I just checked my EvaKool in the Canopy - There has been no charge added since around 7pm & at a minus 2 deg setting ... over 14.5 hours the battery is at 88% ( 100amp LiFePO4) - that's about 0.8 amps / hr overnight

so the power draw can actually be pretty low

Chris

[stevej]

In ideal conditions
shade insulated bag only opening once a day my waeco set to -5 averaged under 1 amp per hour

Did the test on the new battery by freezing everything down to -5 then swapping over to 12v on the new lithium
after 4 days I recharged the battery and put 82 amps back in which is 0.82 amps per hour

[disorderly]

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%!

Sounds great...my only limited experience is my new Evacool in the tropics in the boat and it did use about 2 amp/h at max feezing temp...so yeah in a cooler spot thats sheltered and using it as a fridge I imagine it would be a lot less then that...the tropics is hard on everything...

[disorderly]

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

You are really trying to point the bone at my Evacool fridge arent you, Chris...

Still have 4 years warranty so that should cover your bad Ju-ju for a while longer anyway....

As far as your drawer fridge goes..maybe because they are relatively new they are are just a bit of a dog and you are the guinea pig to sort out any problems...sux having to take brand name stuff back twice though..

[NAGG]

You are really trying to point the bone at my Evacool fridge arent you, Chris...

Still have 4 years warranty so that should cover your bad Ju-ju for a while longer anyway....

As far as your drawer fridge goes..maybe because they are relatively new they are are just a bit of a dog and you are the guinea pig to sort out any problems...sux having to take brand name stuff back twice though..

Mate - it's a Gen II .... even bought it as a pre order - you couldn't buy a Gen I as they were sold out ........ Thought that this would be the bomb but turned out to be a dud .

I've always admired the brand .... so it's disappointing .

Unfortunately - I'm only relaying what I was told by probably the expert repairer in Sydney for marine refrigeration .... & the authorized repairer . .... Sorry .

.... let me say , May your EvaKool have a long & trouble free life

Chris

[NAGG]

I count on a 2-3 amp / hr usage up in the tropics over the course of a day ......

Previously I would take 2 x 100amp AGMS & they would require 2-3 charges each over the course of a 1 week trip - I would draw them down to 75% DOD - so beyond the 50% recommended .

​Chris

[cpt snapper]

Yep I've the Brass Monkey, like the poly construction and one hand to open/close the lid, all good so far. 3 year warranty.

[stevej]

Picked up a brass monkey unit

in the electronics section I asked about running my Garmin on 24v
well the fridge will also work on 24v so going to run it all on two 12v lithiums and see if the fridge will affect the sounders at all

tried it with my 12v waeco and didn’t do anything to the Sounders returns

[Corry]

We've been running one of the Engel Eclipse fridges, the plastic ones. It's been in our tinny for nearly 6 maybe 7 years, always exposed to the elements. It's run like a dream, only thing I do is lay a fold up solar panel over the bimini when parked up when on our NT trips, but as for here (Cairns) or home (Seaforth, Q) fishing, it's just left to run off a couple of batteries that run it and the MK. I think they were worth about $800, I also think that they don't make them anymore (there is a couple in a hardware store in Cairns that I've thought of grabbing)

[ranmar850]

I can start my 45 L Engel from warm,(25c or so) set to 2c, on my 75a/h Lithium ( slimline Bainbridge), and run it for 5 hours and only drop from 100% to 95%.

Didn't someone post on this very subject a while back, a mate had one of the plastic engels on his small boat for 7 years or so, no problems? my personal feelings on the matter revolve around ease of use--if you need to slide the thing out just to open it, EVERY SINGLE TIME, stuff that, gets old real quick. Which seems to be the setup on most of these flash plateys you see now with all their "custom" Main reason I built my own, so I could have split lids to be able to access it easily . If you can find one with a lid arrangement that lets you open it in situ, without needing to slide out, you'll be ahead.

EDIT--- oops, there he is just above, should have read the whole thread.

[NAGG]

This is like an itch that wont go away - just struggle to hand over the cash to have the pleasure of having a fridge freezer on an open boat .... pretty well just to keep bait frozen .
It needs to be small enough (small footprint) because of where it will be located behind the console but big enough to hold a few blocks / bags of pilchards.

25lt Dometic & 32 Lt Engel ..... the mind says Engel (longevity & it doesn't have a shelf) but the Dometic has a very small footprint & is light.

I did have a look at the Trailblaza web site & they do have some smaller units 20/25lt (50mm insulation) & while they are smaller - it's still a pretty big unit ( not much smaller than my National Luna 40lt. Pricing sits at around the same as the Engel 32 lt.

I know Trailblaza come with a big reputation but will it have the longevity of spending a good deal of time in the boat ..... appreciating the fact that they are aluminium & use stainless steel hinges

Chris

[toecutter]

I'd buy a cheap and nasty fridge, then coat the working bits with tectyl, use it until it dies then rinse and repeat.

The alternative is something like a fibreglass case Evakool ordered with a factory marinised option (I.e. internally tectyled) but you can go through a swag of cheapies before you catch up $$$ wise.

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[NAGG]

I'd buy a cheap and nasty fridge, then coat the working bits with tectyl, use it until it dies then rinse and repeat.

The alternative is something like a fibreglass case Evakool ordered with a factory marinised option (I.e. internally tectyled) but you can go through a swag of cheapies before you catch up $$$ wise.

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The trouble is that you know that the cheap & nasty fridge will die while you are away on a mission Yep you could buy 2 or even 3 cheapies but how long will they last.
Wouldn't you be better off coating the internals of a better quality fridge ?

Chris

[toecutter]

The trouble is that you know that the cheap & nasty fridge will die while you are away on a mission Yep you could buy 2 or even 3 cheapies but how long will they last.
Wouldn't you be better off coating the internals of a better quality fridge ?

Chris

I would agree somewhat with that, but I bought a cheap ebay one years ago for ad- hoc use and the darned thing has been absolutely bullet proof. It's outlived previous fridges including a not inexpensive waeco and a retail store cheapy. Compared to the Evakool, it does use about twice as much power but reliability hasn't been an issue.

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[stevej]

depends on how critical it is

for day trips just for cold drinks and food who cares if it only last 5-6 years this thing was 1/5 the cost of a top end fridge
if your leaving civilisation for days on end then its a different story and not the reason i asked the question in the first place