- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
The Fridge on our Bav 39 doesn’t seem very efficient and since we’re heading south i’d like to add insulation.
We’ve a linear galley, so this means removing the front and side panels of the counter. The whole assembly has been built in during manufacture and doesn’t appear to be removable, except by destroying the panels.Has anyone solved this problem?
John
John,
It may be worth getting an engineer onboard to have a look at your fridge as you may be suffering from a pump or gas problem rather than the fridge needing extra insulation. Our experience of Bavaria fridges is that they will freeze really quickly when turned up too high, quite the opposite of what you are describing.
Paul
Hi Paul,
That was also our experience on our previous boat a 2004 B36.
We realised the fridge on the new boat wasn’t working at all last spring. An engineer discovered that the copper tube in the Waeco evaporator was perforated – pretty poor for a 3 year old unit!
He fitted a new evaporator and the fridge has worked since, but not frozen as you describe. He’s been back to check it and declared all is well – or as well as can be expected. He seemed competant, but who can tell.
We spend a lot of time at anchor, so i’m more aware of power drain than most. If we were hooked up to shore power most of the time i wouldn’t be so concerned.John
Hi.
We were faced with the same problem on our Bav 36, how to improve the cool box insulation in Greece in the summer months? A refrigeration engineer pal confirmed there was nothing wrong with the compressor which seemed to work overtime, the prime issue was poor insulation, especially the lid.
It is nearly impossible to get insulation outside of the cool box so we decided on internal insulation. A roll of “ThermaWrap” provided the medium. (this was purchased from Focus do it all) It is a bubblewrap style of wall insulation, silvered plastic in appearance and about 5mm thickness. Easily cut and secured with double sided tape it takes up little space, it is not affected by damp and is easily removed for cleaning. We laid an extra loose piece on top of the cool box area just to give extra insulation.
The result was stunning, ice cold Ouzo!
The cool box should always be kept a full as possible, an easy task topping it up with beer, wine, tonics, oh and water!Malcolm
I’ve not come across therma-wrap, but i’ll look out for it.
We tried reducing the vol of our fridge adding rigid ‘Celotex’ insulation on the bottom & side, but your solution sounds much better.
I’ll let you know how we get on, but that won’t be until next summer.Many thanks,
JohnHi, on Storm Dragon a Holiday 35, which has spent a good few months in the Med, so keeping the fridge cold was very important,and we met a guy in Gibraltar who fitted his own fridge and followed his idea regarding the evaporator plate. Originally this was fitted vertically at the back of the fridge, but he suggested it would work better if fitted horizontally a high as possible, and there is just enough room under the worktop to the right hand side of the fridge.Was a bit tricky to fit but eventually got it sorted. The advantage is two fold, firstly cold air sinks so keeps the fridge cooler, and secondly with the evaporator plate mounted horizontally there is room for a couple of ice cube trays, so can now have ice in the rum ‘n’ coke etc.
Ed Holmes
Sounds good. I’ll see if i can change the mounting next spring.
Hopefully that and the thermawrap should solve the problem!I thought i’d post an update on our efforts to improve our fridge performance.
I had hoped to add insulation externally by pooring 2part foam into the cavity around the fridge, however when i measured up it became apparent that the fridge ‘box’ was made to fit within the surrounding cabibinet work exactly- there was almost no air gap around. This also showed that the insulation was much to thin- about 2cm on the top & sides & not much more on the bottom!
We did however make 2 modifications which significantly helped.
Firstly we lined the inside of the fridge with Therawrap, as advised. This made a significant difference, though not as much as i’d hoped. Research revealed that it’s very good as a radiant barrier, but has little effect on conduction- this is the biggest cause of heat gain on a poorly insulated fridge.
Secondly i fitted an extract fan to suck air out of the Compressor compartment, thus drawing cooler air from the bilge. The idea was to improve the efficiency of the compressor – this definately helped. It’s a cheap & easy mod to make- i’d suggest an 80mm dia ‘quiet computer fan’, to keep down the noise.The fridge could still be better. Next season i plan to line the inside with extruded polystyrene foam (Blueboard).
We thought that hygene would be a problem, but it wasn’t. We put a plastic box (without lid) in the bottom of the fridge & any open bottles, packets etc went i the box. We mopped out the condensate every 7-14 days and after 5 months on board had no fridge smells.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
