Thinking I don't need a headbut would like a built in fridge / freezer, I see its easy enough to buy a compressor / control unit on its own so wondering if anyone has got tips / pics on how to create a built in fridge / freezer. The space I'm eyeing up is about 1000L x 400W x 450H, obviousy this will shrink due to insulation....
What to use for insulation? How thick?
How to make a lid?
Any other hints / tips?
Cheers
C
Make sure its well insulated, 2in at a minimum.
Also make sure your cooling element fits the whole space that you have. If not it will be very hard to control the temp of the space, if you want stuff frozen you will have to have it on the element side or it will not freeze.
Can you fit a waeco/engel on a slide in the same space?
corthane, polyester resin, flowcoat. use ply for lid with a pice of bevelled corthane on the underside for insulation glassed to ply. flowcoat the whole show.
can use ordinarry soft drawn copper bent into a coil for the evaporator instead of commercial one or even better make your own eutectic tank (stainless steel tank with coil on inside filled with glycol).
if you buy all the shite (compressor, evaporator etc) seperatley its cheaper just to buy an engel or waeco
Good point on the ready made jobs, will see if any can phyiscally fit in that space without wasting too much valuble space.
Sending PM to you Crunchy. All too easy.
A Proud Member of
"The Rebel Alliance"
Crunchy,
I've got two 100 litre boxes built in that form a 1500mm long bench seat on port side at helm. These boxes were built when the boat was built, and fitted with 100mm polyurethane (green foam), except the lids which are 50mm. All then fibreglassed over internally. Both are refrigerated with the Isotherm systems from BLA, which use the Danfoss BD50 compressor. I generally run one as a fridge and other as a freezer. They're an awesome set up!
regards
dave
A mate of mine builds the fridges for Seawind cats. A couple of other mates and myself have been talking about getting him to build us a special model with extra insulation. He would have to build molds but if there is enough interest it might actually be economical.
What about a 40 Litre Evakool Fibreglass Fridge Freezer?
External Measurement 725mm x 360mm x 415mm (LxWxH)
http://www.evakool.com/40-litre-evakool-fibreglass-fridge-freezer
HI Crunchy,
My Berty 25 has a full refrigeration system installed. It was done by a prior owner I believe for long distance cruising given all the other features it has. I'll pop out after dinner and get some piccies. It was a very expensive system they had custom made (at least 10K). When I bought the boat the compressor was missing as the owner prior to me had an engine changed and they didn't bother to reinstall the compressor. I sourced a compressor and made some custom mounts with adjusters and an idler pulley so we could run a serpentine (sort of) belt setup to also run the alternator and main pulley. I then had a local commercial fridgie re-gas and recommission the system and he was super impressed at the work that had been done by the original builder.
The original seat boxes were removed and replaced with custom made units 2 inches thick. Then a commercial refrigeration system was added which is seawater cooled. Where the engines raw water inlet hose attaches to the transom the water was re-routed up through a filter and then into the heat exchanger for the fridge and then it runs back down and joins the engine.
The 2 boxes are about 250ltrs in total and half an hours running of the port engine will make things cold and stay cold all day. An hours running and you start to freeze things. Amazingly efficient.
I'll probably look at selling the boat before long so if anyone wants a cracking B25 on a registered trailer call me lol!
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote