Refrigeration

The boat came with an ice box originally, that had been converted to a powered refrigerator with some ancient 12v conversion kit. The problem was that the ice box compartment itself was huge and not insulated (!) meaning that it would suck up huge amount of power and probably not stay very cold. In addition the whole compressor system was rusty as hell and was maybe older than I was, so I decided to pull the whole thing out as documented here

For a while I planned to completely build a new ice box inside the old one and fit a new conversion system, but had put that off since it would be a humongous amount of time, and be pretty expensive, and amazingly messy.

Then I did some reading on pre-built 12v cooler/freezers, and that seemed like a good compromise. More money, but extremely efficient, a lot less tricky to install and less likely to break! Engel ones were getting rave reviews so I started looking at those – they use very very little power and are extremely well insulated.

I settled on the Engel MT60 Combi Fridge/Freezer, because it had both a fridge compartment and a freezer.

I ordered it and it arrived (and just barely fit through companion way with an inch or so to spare)

The view inside, and making sure it can fit in frozen pizza (very important)

I had originally planned to put it where my icebox was, and cut all that away and mount it in there

BUT!

I had failed to realise that the bottom of the icebox curved round to follow the hull, so it will not fit there.

After some thought I’ve decided to place it at the other end of the single berth from the heater, like so. This is the most out of the way place, and means I can use the old icebox for dry food storage, which I had a huge lack of before.

I’ve called in the lady who did my upholstery to redo the cushions so that they will be shortened and fit around the unit better, and this means it won’t stick out the side (even as it is now, it is flush with sink bulkhead behind it). I’ll provide further updates once that is done and it’s all mounted correctly!