Refrigeration options for a mac

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whgoffrn
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Re: Refrigeration options for a mac

Post by whgoffrn »

Haha yeah you're definately right....its not a necessity .... we can survive without a fridge as I will dehydrate and can most of the food so it isn't necessary to refrigerate much..... refrigerator is just a luxury item ..... I haven't done this trip to the exumas yet and basically preparing for the exumas with a trip to the keys in 5 days (this is my 4th to the keys) to see what works and what doesn't...this trip to the keys is more of a testing ground for the exumas.. in my imagination I cross the banks after surviving 80 miles of dodging and getting caught in squalls.... when I'm anchored at chub cay and realize ive made it....i don't want a celebratory 80 degree water bottle.....im going to want a nice cold almost frozen Pepsi ....(or beer)...ive wanted to go to the exumas since the very first day I bought my boat and I guess it all depends what that feeling of success feels like to each of us...mine requires watching the sunset a few nights in the exumas with an ice cold pepsi.....i also hope to catch a few fish which would help in keeping fish and meats cold ....plus it's too late now anyways as I pulled the trigger before I financially chickened out last night and it shows up Wednesday...... only have 100 watts of solar so I'm gonna see how well it keeps up before I add led lights
Last edited by whgoffrn on Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Sumner
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Re: Refrigeration options for a mac

Post by Sumner »

DownSouth wrote:Every time a fridge on a boat topic comes up I feel compelled to put the alternative view...

Sailing since the 70's we of course never had a fridge and still don't - we seem to have survived quite nicely.

In fact with the range of foods available now inc long life 'UHT' milk & custard, and everything in tins/feeze dried etc etc it's now much easier.

Save yourself the hastle and the thousand $/£ + and buy a new sail!

Yours in alternate thinking,

DownSouth
True but would you want to eat that food for 2-3 months at home if you didn't have to :wink: . I do take the UHT milk but still put it in the fridge after opening it. I did cut other items out of my life so I could also afford the new sails also :) ,

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kadet
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Re: Refrigeration options for a mac

Post by kadet »

DownSouth wrote:Every time a fridge on a boat topic comes up I feel compelled to put the alternative view...

Sailing since the 70's we of course never had a fridge and still don't - we seem to have survived quite nicely.

In fact with the range of foods available now inc long life 'UHT' milk & custard, and everything in tins/feeze dried etc etc it's now much easier.

Save yourself the hastle and the thousand $/£ + and buy a new sail!

Yours in alternate thinking,

DownSouth
We live in the 21st Century not the 19th so why not take advantage of the technology available if you can afford it, it's no hassle really.
Do you still navigate with a sextant and a chronometer :?:
I like cold beer, fresh steak, decent food (all that longlife, freeze dried, tinned stuff tastes like crap and the box it came in is probably healthy for you) and if I am ever lucky enough to catch a decent size fish that will be more than a single meal I don't want to waste it by not being able to keep it cold. :(

I also purchases a suite of new sails and a topdown furler for my spinnaker, I am older now, can afford to be comfortable and want to retire in 4 or so years so why not get prepared now for some nice long trips away in the :macm: :P

I was planning on getting a bigger keel boat to retire to but the :macm: seems to be able to do all I want at a fraction of the cost so the money I save on the keeler is going on toys for the :macm:

Next item might be a watermaker so I can stay out even longer in comfort :P
whgoffrn
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Re: Refrigeration options for a mac

Post by whgoffrn »

Kadet i also looked into watermakers and but every thing I read said it needed to be used regularly or the membranes would deteriorate ..a water maker would seemed only to be an option if it was used every day ... so I'm gonna attempt to collect rain with a 10x 15 tarp and my dinghy anchor in the center weighing it down putting a hole and in the center with grommet. And filter with a Sawyer filter........ will know if i g worked or not next week
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kadet
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Re: Refrigeration options for a mac

Post by kadet »

whgoffrn wrote:Kadet i also looked into watermakers and but every thing I read said it needed to be used regularly or the membranes would deteriorate ..a water maker would seemed only to be an option if it was used every day ... so I'm gonna attempt to collect rain with a 10x 15 tarp and my dinghy anchor in the center weighing it down putting a hole and in the center with grommet. And filter with a Sawyer filter........ will know if i g worked or not next week
Flush it with fresh after use it will keep for a week if not using for more than a week pickle it. I am looking at rainman portable. When I am away I think I would use it a lot especially in the sub-tropics for showers etc. I only have a 50L tank in the boat :)

http://www.rainmandesal.com/

or this one

http://www.h2oonthego.com.au
whgoffrn
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Re: Refrigeration options for a mac

Post by whgoffrn »

Those are out of my price range lol sometimes I've seen katadyn power survivor 40e pop up on eBay or the cruiserforum classifieds 1000-1500 they have 12v and manual mode in case needed so if my tarp rain catcher attempt fails I'll be looking closer at them when I come back
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kadet
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Re: Refrigeration options for a mac

Post by kadet »

Powersurvivor 40e's are normally about $4200 USD new so about $5400 AUD and they only make like 4 litres an hour and are not portable. For the price you have seen them at they have probably been recover by ship breakers and the membranes will need replacing at least. We had a lot of the Katadyn PUR Survivor 35s turn up here cheap on ebay. They had been "recovered" from lifeboats on ships that were being broken up in India but were in need of significant maintenance to make the useable again. So buyer beware.

I have tried to justify it by the money I would save on marina fees, I only have to forgo going into a marina 100 times to make it pay for itself :P

Did not quite make it seem worth while so then I factored in back surgery and physiotherapy if I had to lug 50kg of water to the boat every couple days, so now I can get like 2 of them and still be in front 8)
DownSouth
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Re: Refrigeration options for a mac

Post by DownSouth »

kadet wrote:
We live in the 21st Century not the 19th so why not take advantage of the technology available if you can afford it, it's no hassle really.
Do you still navigate with a sextant and a chronometer :?:
:P
Fair point, I was only spurring the conversation on really :wink: I do read on other forums and have friends that get into a cycle of keeping their batteries charged, I saw pictures of Sumners though and it looked like an impressive set up.

Everyone thinks Australia is a bright and sunny place which it is in the summer but down south we have cold winters, the best topic on the local sailing forum is how to fit a wood heater in your trailer sailer :!:

Watch the current draw vs panel output on a cloudy day combined with battery capacity and that cold Pepsi should be in reach :wink:

DownSouth
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kadet
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Re: Refrigeration options for a mac

Post by kadet »

the best topic on the local sailing forum is how to fit a wood heater in your trailer sailer :!:
Is the follow up topic how not to die from suffocation or CO poisoning :)

Think mine will be how can I run an aircon from 400 watts of Solar :P

Yep it has been shocking up here, we must have had at least 2 or 3 weeks of winter this year. Went out testing the new motor last week and got sunburnt 8)
whgoffrn
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Re: Refrigeration options for a mac

Post by whgoffrn »

Propane heater won't work ? I have a small propane heater that keeps it warm. You can buy adapters to refill small propane tanks from the 20lb tank to make it cheaper
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sailboatmike
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Re: Refrigeration options for a mac

Post by sailboatmike »

Been the coldest winter I can remember down south, had the heater on everyday for the last 3 months and we are only half way through winter grrrrrrr

Regularly below zero at night, sunny Australia my bottom
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Bilgemaster
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Re: Refrigeration options for a mac

Post by Bilgemaster »

sailboatmike wrote:
We try to do this but find a nice cold drink at the end of a warm day is just awesome.

We have tried ice but its just not economical and is very messy and gets everything wet, we use as much long life stuff as we can UHT milk, canned goods etc but the overwhelming desire for a cold drink is our driving factor, that being said there are some brilliant Eskys (cool boxes for you USA residents) that are supposed to keep ice for 48hrs
If you just want to keep the beer cold, one of these little 12 volt 25 quart Koolatron Fun Coolers really do the trick. Got mine off craigslist, tested it on several occasions with a little thermometer at various cabin temperatures, and it really does crank down the contents an honest 40 degrees or more under whatever the ambient temperature may be, which makes for cool refreshment. Don't know if I'd wanna keep the steaks in it when the mercury pegs a hundred and six, but your lager will still be lovely:

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BOAT
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Re: Refrigeration options for a mac

Post by BOAT »

Well, of course everyone knows about the ice chest. That's all you could get in 1970 - ice chest is fine old technology and if you go that route the bigger they are usually the longer the ice lasts. Since most of the stuff I do in the boat is a weekend and the rare 5 or 6 nights out I can get by with the good old small Igloo Playmate that is easy for one person to carry on the dock when you make the ice run or buy groceries. But I too think a solar panel with a small compressor type refrigerator is the best way to go - I don't think I would wast my time on a 12 volt car Kooler - they don't work very well in the heat - ice is better in the heat, or you need a real reefer if your going to depend on it for food preservation over several days, so that means a refrigerator with a compressor. The Engle or something like that. If I were an HVAC genius like Sumner I would love to use the separate reefer compressor/coil kits like he uses and build my own freezer box. That to me would be the best, but since I am not Sumner I guess I will end up with an Engle like everyone else.

There are still a few tricks this old dog can teach you guys about saving your coldness in your ice box that were not mentioned here - (Spending 4 weeks on the Sea of Cortez in 100 degrees will teach you lots about keeping a beer cold).

Here is one trick we always use and it works for Ice Chests AND reefers too! #1 Don't put your warm bottles and cans and meats right into the Ice Chest, we have a net and we put all the containers in the net and the meat in a bag in the net and hang it in the cold water off the back of the boat for about 30 minutes - that will make the food cold before you put it in the reefer. If there are big fish around don't put in the meats (they will eat them) but it works great on the bottles of beer and cans of coke and other things.

If you guys are nice I might give you a few more trick I know . . . .
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Phil M
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Re: Refrigeration options for a mac

Post by Phil M »

sailboatmike wrote:Been the coldest winter I can remember down south, had the heater on everyday for the last 3 months and we are only half way through winter grrrrrrr

Regularly below zero at night, sunny Australia my bottom
Below zero? OMG! How do you survive? :wink:

A block of ice in a proper cooler often will last 4 days in Canada. Not always, but often. But the Engel looks like a useful feature to put on the "some day" list. Then of course upgrading the batteries to 6 volt deep cycle is another cost.
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Tomfoolery
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Re: Refrigeration options for a mac

Post by Tomfoolery »

Bilgemaster wrote:
sailboatmike wrote:
We try to do this but find a nice cold drink at the end of a warm day is just awesome.

We have tried ice but its just not economical and is very messy and gets everything wet, we use as much long life stuff as we can UHT milk, canned goods etc but the overwhelming desire for a cold drink is our driving factor, that being said there are some brilliant Eskys (cool boxes for you USA residents) that are supposed to keep ice for 48hrs
If you just want to keep the beer cold, one of these little 12 volt 25 quart Koolatron Fun Coolers really do the trick. Got mine off craigslist, tested it on several occasions with a little thermometer at various cabin temperatures, and it really does crank down the contents an honest 40 degrees or more under whatever the ambient temperature may be, which makes for cool refreshment. Don't know if I'd wanna keep the steaks in it when the mercury pegs a hundred and six, but your lager will still be lovely:

Image
My FIL bought the P20, which is a little smaller and fits between the seats of his Honda Odyssey for the long trip between Rochester and south Florida twice each year. I have it on the boat now. I also have an older 50-60 qt unit that works very well, but FIL insisted I try his. :D

They both keep water bottles very cold. In the fall, they'll actually freeze. But even during a heat wave, water is always cold, I suppose due in part to it getting cooler at night here than at lower latitudes.

BUT, they do suck a lot of power. They're very inefficient. And that's OK with me, as I keep it running on shore power only. If I was going to spend time at anchor, I'd just use the OEM cooler and a bag or two of ice. But I don't use the boat like many other here do (ris, BOAT, Sumner, et al). If I did, I'd have a cold plate system or a packaged system with a compressor. And a solar array. And more battery power with 6V DC batteries. :)

But for my needs, the big Igloo or the small Koolatron are just fine. 8)
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