Refrigeration: Let's Get REAL!

We have been using this Adler Barbour Super Cold Machine for 8 years now and it has run 15 years since 1994! We turn this unit on in April, and off in November and it runs 50% of the time. IT IS A ROCK! The question is...."Why spend tons of money on another unit?"

Here are the the facts:
Adler Barbour CU-200 Air/Water Cooled Condensor Price:$837.22
Adler Barbour VD150 Small Vertical Evaporator Price:$ 393.27
Total frig costs = $1,230.49

Add in some cheap insulation like reflectix foil or DOW Styrofoam and you are good to go! No need to spend big time money on fancy insulation, expensive refrigeration units when this one will run for at least 15 years. The beauty of this unit is that it does NOT need a thru hull or a water pump, it simply uses a cooling fan. So all that is needed is a 12 volt supply and you are good to go.

Radeen and I go off cruising every summer for 5-8 weeks, and we pack up the cooler with meals and we pack up the freezer with meals, where we can easily provision 30 meals inside our refrig. Everyone always worries about the ice box, and here we are, our living off the ice box/refrig and it is real simply and works so well. The key is, to add insulation to the ice box and to use a blanket of some type. Then. go off cruising and do not worry about it.

We use about 60 amp hours in 24 hrs (24 hrs, on 50% of the time, 12 hrs @ 5 amps on) for refrigeration, so even that is not that much!

So, do not worry about refrigeration, and DO NOT spend tons of money and effort on the ice box making a special freezer. This freezer will only demand extra power and who really needs it. Use the simple freezer that comes with the Adler and get out there, and go cruising.

PS:
Posted after a great salmon meal from the freezer while on a mooring in Booth Bay Harbor, Maine. Salmon loaded onto the freezer in Rock Hall, MD, on June 19th, eaten July 13th in Maine....see what I am saying?

Hayden - think you have misrepresented the refrigeration needs of a cruising sailboat. You do not have a fully functioning freezer so for a full time cruising boat you are not set up to do so. We are configured to keep 6 months of frozen food and a bag of ice cubes. Original ice box is divided into two compartments 60 reefer and 40% freezer. Insulation requirements are different, custom evaporator configuration required, even cruising area temperatures are different that you have experienced on Island Spirit.

You have described a reefer setup that works well for weekends and extended coastal cruising along a well populated coastline with lots of reprovisioning opportunities.

Bobby

350-57 Gra'inne

Hi Hayden,
Somehow the evaporator in our 1996 IP40 developed a hole, allowing the refrigerant to escape. The only fix appears to be replacement of the evaporator.
Question: is the refrigerant in the evaporator separate from the refrigerant in the condenser?
The system worked well prior to the ice pick incident.
Thanks
Randy

Randy
The refrigerant is one loop. You can buy a new coil but then you will need a frig guy to recharge the entire system.
Ps. We only defrost using hot tea pot water and a sponge
Hayden

Randy
The refrigerant is one loop. You can buy a new coil but then you will need a frig guy to recharge the entire system.
Ps. We only defrost using hot tea pot water and a sponge
Hayden

Thanks Hayden,
Given the age of the system, we have decided to replace the entire system, as you recommended above.
Although I wont be doing the install, the pricing is basically what you mentioned.