Getting the most out of your Cooler

[Chinook]

I saw something in the mod section once which involved substituting the stock ice chest and fiberglass tub it sits in with a new ice chest with extra insulation. It works well, with the seat cushion resting directly on top of the ice chest. We get extra mileage out of the ice chest up here on Puget Sound by storing beer and pop in the bilge, where the 56 degree water keeps drinks nicely chilled. Not a good alternative in Florida though.

[Chip Hindes]

My wife suggests just buying a small dorm refrigerator and plugging into shore power. I was trying to avoid the added bulk onboard.
Yet again I think she has come up with the smart solution.

No offense to your wife, but the dorm fridge is not necessarily the perfect solution. Even a small one takes up quite a lot of space which is wasted whenever youre away from shore power. Even if you can manage to install it in a fashion which allows it to be easily removed, its got no handles so taking it ashore for picnics or simply to load it off the boat is problematic.

Even a small fridge will generate quite a lot of heat inside the cabin. OK in cold weather, not so good when its hot. It wont operate well when out of level, and if you block off the ventilation of the coils with a permanent installation it will be inefficient, and may not keep things very cold. Also not sure whether the cheap ones can easily handle the pounding of frequent trailering.

The economics I guess depends on how you use your boat. Ive had mine for six years and if I leave out the $25 I spent for a block of dry ice in Key West, I dont think Ive spent $100 on ice during the whole time Ive owned it.

[Beam's Reach]

We usually use just a regular cooler with ice, but then most of our trips are day sails on one nighters. We try not to use bag ice except in an emergency. We keep a case of bottled water in the freezer all summer and use that in the coolers. Less mess in the cooler and you have drinking water once it melts.

We've lived aboard at the marina for 4-5 days at a time and used a 12V cooler that works OK as long as you have shore power and things are good and cold when you put them in. As someone said previously, coolers help keep things cold, not make them cold.

We got a Coleman Extreme 5 day cooler for Christmas and can't wait to test it out.

[DLT]

Are you in a slip permanently? Or are you travelling? Are you travelling by boat or trailing around?

If you're in a slip, with daily excursions, you could buy a dorm fridge and leave it on the dock... The freezer portion should make small quantities of ice for use on your excursions... The marina's I've experienced (which I admit is relatively few) have all allowed dock boxes for long-term residents. It can be secured if needed...

If you're travelling by boat, then trailer jostling isn't the issue, but rough seas and heeling are...

If you're travelling and decide to buy a cheap dorm fridge, be sure to buy it from someplace that has stores everywhere you plan to go. If you buy it from Home Depot, or some other places, you can likely even buy an extended warranty. I'd do that if I were you...

I suspect that the issue is more than just economics. I suspect there is a convienience factor at play here too. If that's the case, all I can say is I love my 12vdc fridge. But, it ain't anywhere near as economical as ice...

[aya16]

not any problems in any area you mentioned chip. You can use it like a cooler by adding ice, a 1000 watt gen will run it, and it fits fine across the head where I used to have a cooler, 04 Mac, and I dont feel any heat coming from it. I think they work great I used mine on a ten day trip with the gen and with a few hours run time each day and a small bag of ice it worked great. Being off level isnt a problem because as you sail you dont run it. A semi perm. place in my 04 is strapped down it doesnt move and you only see two small straps going over the top.

Now a real boat fridge will run you what about 900 + bucks?
I can buy ten of these for that.

The real advantage of course is when the boat is not used and you visit it
for repairs or stay over night. If its pluged in all the time the thing always has cold drinks in it. Mines pluged in all the time.

[aya16]

a side note to this. I think those that tow thier boats to the water are better off with a cooler. But if your in a slip or mast up with power you cant beat the fridge. As was stated somewhere else a cooler is made to keep things cool a fridge will take a warm item and cool it off. thats what you need if the boat is stored with power near the water. I visit my boat at least 3 times a month and probably sail it once or twice a month for the day mostly. The fridge works out great you can be out the whole day and its still cold inside when you get back. I keep juice bags in the freezer part all the time they freeze and they will keep the fridge cold all day.
Sears sells a couple nice ones for around a hundred bucks.

[End Of Message]

The MacGregor supplied Coleman 48 quart cooler that fits in the cooler tub is specified as 14.88" x 25.5" x 13.5". I'm not sure which of those dimensions is height and width.

The Igloo Max Cold 70 quart cooler Frank C used without the tub (but on top of a 3/4" thick board IIRC) is specified at 29.5"L x 16.31"W x 15.69, but he did have to trim the width of the seat opening about 3/8" on each side, IIRC.

The outside dimensions of the Engel 35 (34 qt equivalent) chest refrigerator is spec'ed at 25.5" x 14.3" x 16".

I can't find it now, but I THINK that at one time I saw one of these mounted in the 26X ice chest tub, which was cut out for ventilation for the refrigerator's fan, etc. Maybe not, but it should fit in place of the tub.

I think we've determined these should use about 17-20 amp-hours of 12VDC every 24 hours when not on shorepower. And keep in mind you need half or less the volume since you don't have to have ice in it.

If I needed a refrigerator in a 26X, I think this is the way I'd try to go.

[Billy]

If you don't mind spending to extra money, the Engel 35 is the way to go. Especially if you're dealing with 90+ degree weather. It will fit in the cooler bin, but I needed to remove the foot pads and handles. (Made some wire handles.) Never notice any additional heat in boat, the unit is quiet, and power draw is minimal. Here you can see the clearances. I just drilled a few holes in the bin for air circulation. Has been really great for long trips.

[James V]

The long term cruising boats have Ice boxes with as much as 10 inches of insulation and boast of ice's that last for 21 days. I was thinking that an easy way that this could be done is to get a bigger/taller ice chest and put the smaller one inside then pack stuff around it.

Has anybody done this??

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

I'd guess a cooler within a cooler would keep ice a very long time. I don't agree that air in the cooler is a good insulator. I find that the ice lasts the longest when you have the cooler very full with as little air gap as possible. We need a lot of coolers, even for a 2 day trip we go through 2 big coolers and 1 small cooler. I freeze water bottles and tupperwares of water the day before leaving for a trip. Rarely use bagged ice, but when I do, its $.99 a bag in the grocery stores.

[End Of Message]

Even with a shorepower refrigerator, but especially with only ice, I think I'd still like an Ice Cube cooler for drinks, like Duane's and Moe's.



Having drinks easily at hand in a separate cooler is not only more convenient, but also reduces the amount of time the refrigerator or food cooler is open. Remember, beer in a refrigerator is at 40 degrees, while sitting in ice water it's at 32 degrees! Even tho these aren't 5-day coolers, I'd think buying a bag of ice every second or third day for one is worth it, especially in a hot climate. In fact, if you buy cases of bottled water, maybe you could get the store to keep a case in the freezer for you, and that will help reduce the ice requirement.

You can keep the cooler tied down and use Duane's method of emptying water from melted ice into the galley sink with the backup manual bilge pump when it's time to refill the ice. Empty only enough to replenish ice and beer tho since the ice water actually helps the ice last.

[Idle Time]

We use 3 coolers. 5 day with 2 frozen water jugs. This has the frozen hamburgs and any other meats that wont be used the first few days. Then we dont open it at all. We store this one under the cockpit on the starboard side.

Cooler #2 has 2 frozen jugs and all the sandwich meats, cheese, mustard etc. Milk, creamer. Everything that gets used regularly. That one sits between the bench seat and the table ( which is now a bed)

the 3rd one is for the drinks. It usually requires a bag of ice every other day if we use it alot.

By using the frozen jugs of water we get an extra 3 or 4 gallons of drinking water.

The 12 volt coolers worked well in the big truck but it didnt stay cold enough for meats for a long period of time when it was really hot out so doubt it would be much different on a hot day on the boat. It would do real well for our second cooler.

[Moe]

Someone gave me one of those 12VDC thermoelectric coolers, and while convenient in the truck, it was marginal for cooling and a real battery-eater! And you couldn't add ice to it for fear of shorting it out. It wound up in the trash.

The 12VDC compressor refrigerators are nothing like those. They use much less power and can be cranked down cold enough to freeze things.

--
Moe