Icebox considerations

[K9Kampers]

For a near-future mod, I pose the following as a design excercise:

I will design / build an icebox for use on the , to replace the under dinette cooler. To be located on the fwd port sette, the unit will be vertical with seperate ice & food chambers / access. One version has a front or top access to the upper food chamber with front access to the ice chamber on the bottom. A wire shelf will seperate the two chambers. The 2nd version has the ice chamber on top / food chamber below. A pan will contain the ice & meltwater. Both designs will have a bottom drain for meltwater.

The intended advantages will be in keeping the food from floating in meltwater, and being able to add new ice blocks / cubes / frozen jugs without rearranging the food. Beer, wine & other bottled items will be happily swimming in the ice / meltwater of a seperate cooler.

Ice over food vs. food over ice. The primary question is does one design have better cool air distribution over the other? Or does neither design have a significant advantage over the other?

All thoughts are welcome.

[Sumner]

For a near-future mod, I pose the following as a design excercise:

I will design / build an icebox for use on the , to replace the under dinette cooler. To be located on the fwd port sette, the unit will be vertical with seperate ice & food chambers / access. One version has a front or top access to the upper food chamber with front access to the ice chamber on the bottom. A wire shelf will seperate the two chambers. The 2nd version has the ice chamber on top / food chamber below. A pan will contain the ice & meltwater. Both designs will have a bottom drain for meltwater.

The intended advantages will be in keeping the food from floating in meltwater, and being able to add new ice blocks / cubes / frozen jugs without rearranging the food. Beer, wine & other bottled items will be happily swimming in the ice / meltwater of a seperate cooler.

Ice over food vs. food over ice. The primary question is does one design have better cool air distribution over the other? Or does neither design have a significant advantage over the other?

All thoughts are welcome.

The ice on top is going to give better cooling, but if there is a front door as soon as you open that your cold air will spill out, so I would go with the ice on the bottom or side.

I hated the floating food thing, so before our last long trip I made this.....



http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... de-20.html

.....rack for the cooler........and it worked great. It has a bottom divider that keeps the ice on the far side where the milk bottle with the purple cap is. Now you can pull the near ones in and out without the ice getting in the way under them when putting them back.



http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... de-11.html

We kept two coolers going. The one shown that we worked out of and another one behind it packed with pre-frozen food and ice. We could to about 8-10 days on ice this way if we were careful and the weather wasn't above 70.



http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... de-22.html

But now we bought a real frig and I'm hoping it will even work better. When we leave home we will still take the old cooler/coolers and pack stuff in them and leave them in the Suburban just in case the frig stops working and then go back for them.

I don't know how much money you will have invested in the new icebox, but maybe consider putting to towards a frig if you stay out much. I think we will pay for the frig almost over the next year with the ice we won't be buying and it sure will be more convenient to use for the reasons you stated.

c ya,

Sum

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[Catigale]

You will get condensate on the OUTSIDE of the cooler too, btw, so plan for that. Make sure you dont keep a second cooler over bedding for example. Ive found we are fine with ice on 5-7 day cruises on the Cape and couldnt imagine the infrastructure for a fridge (capital cost, batteries, charging mechanism) pays off ever compared to cost of ice (and frozen food that you eat anyway)

[Sumner]

...... Ive found we are fine with ice on 5-7 day cruises on the Cape and couldnt imagine the infrastructure for a fridge (capital cost, batteries, charging mechanism) pays off ever compared to cost of ice (and frozen food that you eat anyway)

I agree for most people having a frig might not make much sense, but for us I feel it will pay off big on our experiences on the water. We only make trips of a week or more and never stay in Marinas at night as we like to anchor out as remote as possible. It is a pain planning them around getting to ice. For instance when we sailed Priest Lake and Upper Priest Lake.....

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... index.html

...in Idaho, upper Priest has no services and the services on Priest are down a ways so if you want to go to Upper and want to keep items refrigerated you have a problem if you want to stay up there longer than 3 days, with a day up and back added to that. On Lake Powell if you go from Page to Bull Frog/Halls Crossing it is 90+ miles with a floating marina about 40 miles up the lake that is supplied only by water. We were sailing the whole distance...

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... index.html

...and when we finally made it to that Marina we were out 7 days and down to just cold water and still had that only because the temps were in the low 70's during the day. Then we had 11 more days on the water until we got to Bull Frog the next place you can get ice. We will return and do Bull Frog to the end of the lake and that is another 50+ miles with no services.

Next fall we hope to be in Florida and hope to spend a considerable time in the 10,000 Island area and on south where there is no access to ice except if you keep going back to Everglade City which would be a real pain. Even south of there along the keys we won't want to have to keep finding marinas for ice.

If you mainly take 4-5 day trips or less or stay on longer trips in marinas then yes a frig might be considered a luxury. In Florida or Lake Powell during the summer it is going to be hard to keep ice over 5 days. The frig we got was just over $400 and I figure we will pay over 1/3 of that back in savings vs. the ice we would buy over the next year. We also added a $200 solar panel that should handle it most of the time and we already have the gas driven 12 volt generator. So maybe the frig/solar panel cost us the same as staying in a slip or motel for 8 or 10 days. Not a bad trade for us .

Also no more soggy food and more freedom ,

Sum

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[DaveB]

Summer,
Went out for a 4 day cruise 2 weeks ago with no frozzen gal. of water in my Edgestar 66 quart refig. and no recharge I came back with 12.3 volts on the twin 27group house batteries. I ran everything except dept sounder on the House Batteries. AirTemps were 88-90 degrees, water at 80 degrees.
I just corrected all my chargeing needs and finally added a combiner ,Regulator/rectifyer and now can charge all batteries at once and don't have to switch to battery 2 (house Batteries) when engine is off.
I am very impressed with the EdgeStar Refig. as I find it very hard to hear it running and the very low power draw.
We opened it a lot during the 4 days.
Dave

[Boblee]

Just a note on the "meltwater" the experts say that should be removed asap as it defrosts the frozen goods faster than air but if you are only interested in cold drinks etc I would imagine any cold (water) removed is cold lost from the box.
I agree with Sumner if staying out in remote places the real fridge is well worth the cost and effort just for the flexibility to be able to do those extra little tours and if fishing invaluable to bring them back for on.
Of course you really don't need a fridge if you don't want cold drinks or don't want to hold meat or vegies fresh but we are on the water and travelling on land for 4 months a year and couldn't imagine not having it.

[Catigale]

We find ice gives us cold drinks and meat every night for 5 nights pretty easily...this in Cape Cod summer at about 80F peak temp during day.

[K9Kampers]

I don't know how much money you will have invested in the new icebox, but maybe consider putting to towards a frig if you stay out much. I think we will pay for the frig almost over the next year with the ice we won't be buying and it sure will be more convenient to use for the reasons you stated.

Ice has always worked best for the type of cruising I've done... 2 - 6 days and always within reach of somewhere to replenish if needed.

My motivations for an alternate cooler, aside from the floating food as stated above, are in part, the desire to relocate the under-dinette-seat cooler to better access / uitilize that storage area, and my decision to re-purpose the fwd port sette area to a clothes / widgets locker mod.

I find better flexibility & use of space with two smaller coolers, than with one large.

LINKS:

EPOXYWORKS (Using Google SketchUp to design a new cooler.)

Improved Icebox

[Highlander]

I use square plastic basins inside my koolatron fridge & coolers to keep my food dry !
& use froozen water in plastic bottles which becomes cooking water when thawed
But canned food is great also no need to cool & your extra canned beer keeps pretty cool if kept down in the bilges

J

[K9Kampers]

I concur John. I plan meals for fresh & spoilables for the first half of the trip, canned, vac-pack, & dry towards the end. Tho on my last long trip, the brie & prosciutto came out OK after 5 days in meltwater!

[Québec 1]

While in Florida I found that the most economical way to keep my food cool and dry in my 5 day cooler was to put a 10lb bag of ice in this yellow dry bag
http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http ... lweml4S0CA
I found at wall mart . The cold melted water stays in the dry bag and the food stays dry in the cooler. When you want to change the ice , you simply empty the water from the dry bag and put in new ice. There is of course a bit of condensation which leads to water in the bottom of the cooler ....but it's really minimal and nothing you can't dry out with a paper towel or 2.
Economical and tested by
Q1

[The Mutt]

Q, good idea about the dry bag .. or is that wet bag.

Glenn

[efatzinger]

I've been thinking about doing this myself for quite a while.
Why not just install styrofoam underneath and all around the FG insert and make an insulated lid for the insert?
think that would work?

Ed
Up4Sail