E32 Ice box to fridge conversion
Also see related topic: Ice box/refridgerator conversion/battery capacity Date: April 13, 2003 I am contemplating putting an Adler Barbour in my E32. I am curious as to which model(s) some of you have used. Have you gone with the Cold Machine -- it is more powerful than some of the other models Waeco/Adler/Barbour now has. What evaporator(s) would you recommend? I am thinking of the larger models because they are able to cool a larger box and the Endeavour's ice box seems large to me. Has everyone put the compressor unit aft near the hot water tank, or have any of you installed it under the starboard settee? Would appreciate any other misc. advice. Date: April 15, 2003 Our refrigerator is an E-Z Kold cold plate. We mounted the plate "horizontally at the back 1/3 of the box and it serves as a shelf for ice cubes & frozen fish etc. The Ice box on the E-32 is 12 cu ft and it works great. Our compressor is mounted under the hot water tank and has water cooling as well as the std air cooling. Specify the DB50 large-size compressor for the big box. The whole unit costs $1199.00 from Cruising Solutions Date: April 15, 2003 We have a AB in Danny's Fault, a 79 E32. We installed the compressor in the starboard saillocker on the shelf. All has worked well till last summer when the AB's electronic control unit quit. Needs to be replaced this year. The unit has always kept the box cold. One must be careful not to freeze to many things in the bottom of the box. Date: April 17, 2003 Hello, this is Erik, s/v Kuaihelani By the way,
From: Bob and Sandy Warren warren9776@yahoo.com
From: Bradd Wilson marina@portcolborne.com
From: Rob & Jude Johnson robjude@shianet.org
From: Erik Hasselbach ingriderik7@msn.com
I installed a Fridgeboat refrig. Bought it at used boat supply store. The evaporator is large, vertical. Not my first choice when I was planning. No problem. I first plugged the drain hole in the ice box. I put a new bottom 13 inches below the lid. Under that bottom is insulation bought at Home Depot, building materials. Blue or pink large sheets of foam, 2 inches thick. Cut so it would fill the void. What is left of the (upper) space is insulated with another Home Depot product: silvery looking thin bubble material in rolls. The space is approximately 5.3 cubic feet. The space below the new bottom is 2 cubic feet. So, your ice box is close to 8 cubic feet. The compressor is behind the water heater on a shelf which I epoxied and glassed against the hull. The system has a keel cooler through the hull. The fridge works fine, the engine compartment is not too hot where the compressor is. I plan to install an oscillating fan in that area just for good measure.
We took the water heater out when we bought the boat. All heaters available
seem to big. Does anyone have any ideas?
Date: January 8, 2013
From:André and Nicole Hay
We would like to know if someone knows the capacity if the icebox of an endeavour 1977. We would like to install a refregiration unit.
Date: January 8, 2013
From: Jiles Hinson
This past year we replaced our 12 year old refridgeration system in our E32 with another NorCold 12V unit. It is a great conversion system for an ice box. Be advised . . . you need to insulate the port side and aft end of the the ice box better as it is near the engine compartment. We used spray foam insulation from Home Depot. You need to climb down through the starboard lazzerette to accomplish this task but it makes a world of difference.
Date: January 8, 2013
From: Don Reeder
I bought my 1977 Endeavor 32 in 1965 and it already had refrigeration. It runs off of the DC batteries and will drain them flat in 30 minutes with the engine not running or only running at idle. I would recommend they install a mechanical system that runs off the engine to avoid dead batteries with no way to start the engine or recharge the batteries. From a voice of experience.
Date: January 8, 2013
From: Allen Murphy
I faced the same decision and went the simple route. I now use my old ice box as dry storage and added a simple electric cooler which I keep under the main cabin table. Since I have the table down most of the time, the cooler is not in the way. I chose an Engle which runs off both AC and DC so it doesn't matter if I have shore power or solar, the fridge keeps on ticking.
Date: January 9, 2013
From: Roger Benger
Avoid if possible mounting the compressor unit in the cabin,because normal heat buildup when the boat is closed up realy impedes the exchanger function. Under the cockpit is a better and when vented properly a computer fan realy adds to circulation. I changed the location of the compressor in my E35 to this area from under the sinks and it improved efficency dramaticly plus it gave me room for the AC . (getting old and like my comfort)
Date: January 9, 2013
From: Chris Cayley
I added this unit to my 32, 3 years ago. Put the 2 separate plates on the port side of the ice box they fit under the lip that holds the vertical divider and does not hinder its use. The compressor is mounted on a shelf I built in the engine compartment on the port side below the rope locker and behind the quarter birth. All the copper line were long enough to neatly route them with out getting in the way and allowing access to the engine compartment. The control is mounted in the ice box. I don't have any pictures of the install and I can't get access as Stella is now on the hard for the winter.
Date: January 10, 2013
From: Bob & Sandra Warren
Boat's on the hard so I can't take pictures.
We live on the Chesapeake. Summer temperatures are in the 90's.
I installed an Adler Barbour 10+ years ago on my 1979 Endeavour 32, sail # 379. I did not increase the insulation around the existing ice chest. I used the large horizontal evaporator and the aircooled compressor. I removed the plexiglass shelf (rests on the molded-in ridges fore & aft in the ice chest). To support the evaporator I bought a length of wire closet shelving from Lowes (wire is painted) and cut it to fit the dimensions of the ice chest furthest aft. I built a shelf in the lazarette, starboard side, directly behind the round locker, to mount the compressor.
The most difficult part was measuring and drilling the holes to pass the freon tubes through the back of the ice chest, without running into the water heater. I did manage to do this successfully and then routed the freon tubing back behind where the starboard seat is hinged. There was barely enough length of the freon tubing to reach back to the compressor, but it did make it.
Using the refrigerator adds a lot of draw on the batteries. I have just two batteries, group 24, dual purpose. When the batteries are reasonably new I am able to run the refrigerator, anchor light, etc. overnight, and start the next day on just the one battery, leaving the other battery fully charged for starting if necessary.
I'm sure we'd be better off if we installed an additional battery just for starting, and had two deep-cycle house batteries run in parallel so they wouldn't be drawn down so much overnight.
When I have a long stretch of motoring, I will change the thermostat to make the frig colder. If we are anchored two days, I turn the frig off at night.
The ice chest stays pretty cold on the bottom, the evaporator unit does make ice, and the ice chest near its top is not as cold as I'd wish. Maybe a little battery-powered fan to circulate the air would be useful.
Knock on wood; we've had a trouble-free experience. And it is nice to not have to worry about ice every couple of days. Plus it has become very difficult to find block ice on the waterfront, or anywhere else for that matter. And the cubed ice you can buy melts down much too rapidly.
Whatever you want is always on the bottom. We use three baskets roughly 12 L x 7 W x 6 H sitting on top of pop/beer cans sitting on the bottom. This helps cut down on the time you need to have the ice box open to fish out what you want.
In the tropics, the water/air cooled compressor might be a better bet, but the air-cooled is more simple. And since we've been cruising, we see a lot of people having to clean their sea strainers for airconditioning, etc. with regularity.
Hope this helps.
Date: January 10, 2013
From: Paul Uhl
And my 2-cents . . .
We have an Adler Barbour 'fridge' on our C&C110 (a story for another time folks) which was a bit larger than the one on our E32. I'm not sure the model or capacity but on really warm days in Chicago it struggled to keep up. I think Bob's comment about a fan to circulate the cool air is an excellent one as we also found a wide variation in 'cool' items in the fridige. Of course space around itmes will be a factor.
Our Adler Barbour was a DC system that ran off our 3 Group 27 batteries. When we were in our slip, shorepower kept the batteries at full charge with the fridge and other things running. At the moment I don't recall the drain on the batteries (and that's all relative depending on air temps, etc) but I don't recall any issues when sailing even with the autopilot running. I'm an electricity miser and don't like to discharge my bank more than 25%
I also think adding something along the inside surface of the fridge that might allow air to circulate would be a great addition. We often pack these fridges so tighly that the cold air can't circulate and replace the warm air. A simple solution might be installing a thin panel on each of the walls with spacers to allow the cold air to circulate around the contents.
One resource that you might find valuable is Practical Sailor Magazine:
http://www.practical-sailor.com
Search for 'refrigeration' and you'll find several reviews with good advice. I think you have to buy them but PS usually does a good job reviewing systems and retrofit advice.
