Kyle

My god. What a loser, middle aged old troll you are. why do you provoke people online whilst sitting on your arse behind a computer screen? Does it make you feel knowledgable and superior? You know nothing about me, my life, or how hard I work

Thanks for all the responses guys. When I run this old Electrolux on 240 with my 1700w inverter, it flattens the batteries before it barely gets cold. I know I need new batteries before winter but they ain't that bad. Would one of those cheap argos fridges really perform much better than the old Electrolux? I don't really fancy leaving the inverter on constantly

Interesting thoughts, I'm not sure I trust myself to do a decent job when it comes to gas. This fridge works on gas, but its pretty old and I don't know its history also. Wouldn't I need to put in a pipe? There isn't one behind the fridge. Generally speaking, what is an acceptable ampage drain on 12V when the fridge is running? 3 or 4? I just want an idea of what wont drain these batteries. Can this one really be as low as 0.6? Or is that a mistake? http://www.dometic.eu/product/waeco-coolfreeze-cdf-18t/

Any chance you can link the chinese pump you succesfully use?

My understanding was that to fit it as a gas fridge, I'd need a certified technician and a new hole in the side of the boat for ventilation? More trouble than it's worth. As for the A++ fridge, I already have a 1700w inverter, do you rally think that will draw less power even though on 240v? I hadn't considered that. Finally, regarding the thermostat, it says that the new fridge I'm thinking of (the first one above) has on 12v "Electronic thermostat Thermoelectric". Would that ensure its not on a constant drain?

Hello people! I'm trying to get a decent fridge on a Budget for a live aboard. currently got an old second hand Electrolux that I can't even turn on because of its awful power consumption which I think is about 7 or 8 amps. I can't afford to spend 500/600 on a proper fridge here, so I'm wondering how a waeco coolfun 40D would do for continual running on a 12v system with 4 110 leisure batteries and 250w solar? (http://www.dometic.eu/product/coolfun-ck-40d-hybrid/) It takes about 3.9 amps as I understand it. Alternatively I could go for a smaller, more expensive cool freeze cdf 18t (http://www.dometic.eu/product/waeco-coolfreeze-cdf-18t/) which I would have thought draws about 2.9 amps at 35w but it claims 0.5! How can that be? Anyway some advice or info on your own setups would be much obliged! We don't need to refrigerate much stuff, just the odd bottle of milk and fresh veg.

Hahaha! Yeah I've got quite a bit of space in the engine room to store them ;-)

I've had a brief look at the leesan website and can't find any clear fittings like those, do you suppose they sell them separately? How did you get that? I was planning to just connect directly to the pump out hose with a 1.5" suction hose and connectors. That would be amazing!! I will private message you to get your details!

Thanks Rob. I'm guessing thats what is going on with mine (not sure, second hand boat). It wouldn't make sense to simply have the hose attach to the top of the tank. Does your internal hose come up to an output hole in the tank's top? Having said that, even with your setup wouldn't you always have a few millimetres of stuff left at the bottom after a pump out?

Very interesting... and does your pump out hose attach to the top of the tank? And do you particularly recommend 12V over manual? the extra cost isn't as much an issue as the installation (fuse, switch, etc)... Not bothered as long as it empties and allows for a good rinse out!

Right then, quick pump out question. I am considering building a self-pump out kit for emergencies using the following MANUAL waste pump, which I would connect via a sanitation hose to the black tank's pump out hose. http://www.whalepumps.com/marine/product.aspx?Category_ID=10028&Product_ID=10015&FriendlyID=Mk-5-Sanitation-Pump I have just inspected my tank however and I notice that the pump out hose connects to the tank at the TOP. Surely it makes more sense to connect at the bottom of the tank? Is this not the norm? Doesn't my set up mean then that a formidable vacuum force is needed to draw up the lovely waste to the exit hose? Or am I completely wrong? Would this manual pump work and create enough pressure? It is what it is made for after all, and not really any different than the diaphragm pump you get on the leesan pump out kits. Perhaps there is an internal hose inside the tank that leads to the bottom of the tank? Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Hah, as soon as I read your post about revving the engine, I jumped up to put her in neutral. More bad advice led us to doing that. The guy who was here did "rewire" the alternator so that the ignition light goes off when the alternator is powering the batteries... would the point when that light goes off (usually first gear) be the point to maintain for charging? The water heater is gas powered, but for some reason (probably just to spark but maybe more) it needs the inverter on. Would you recommend changing boilers? Solar: We have a new MPPT controller with a meter too so got that covered. Quick question regarding solar installation... the manual indicates putting a fuse between battery and controller, is this necessary with just 250W panel? I actually do have a fuse that I think I can use here, it was the one being used previously to protect that starter battery from the shore power (via the pro charge ultra), but it is now connected to nothing. Could I put that between the leisure bank and the controller? I am attaching pic of the fuse if it helps... pic: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-eqQxcnWMK6M0VFaWk4RGZtNHNYNFJVM3ZjNllSZHNPZ2pN/view?usp=sharing

Wow! Thanks for all of the wonderful replies guys! Boaters are so helpful. We got our solar today so the priority is getting that set up. To answer some of your questions, we have no idea how old the batteries are. I've spoken to the manufacturer and tried to get the info from the old owner but still waiting. The boat was moored for a few years before us, so I'm guessing the batteries took something of a hit from that. Having said that, she has a pro-charge ultra setup, which apparently protects them well. I'm currently running the engine at full rev and the power issues (radio turning off when loo is flushed, ect, have disappeared, so I'm glad we are definitely looking at power ((and not wiring issues). The guy who took a look said he suspected the alternator wasn't big enough for charging 4 leisures, so I think (hope) this is primarily a charging issue. The solar might help. In any case new batteries might be nice, are there any real problems with swapping them out for 4 80AH batteries? We don't have a TV and only charge laptops occasionally. The water heater runs from the inverter though. I really do want to do a full diagnostic on these batts, but charging them up fully (without shore power) is time consuming and, frankly, loud. Do you reckon I can charge them up gradually with engine and solar, and when they read 12.6V I can disconnect and test individually? Arthur, do you mean to say that the four batteries combined might well be giving less than 100AH now?!

Hi! We're new to boating and are on a boat with 4 leisure batteres (Xplorer 120Ah). Very annoying power issues: the batteries don't seem to hold charge well at all, but it doesn't seem to be a busted cell (paid a guy to come around and tell us that much, but unfortunately not much more). We can charge to well above 12V and leave overnight with little drain, but as soon as the batteries are in use, or god forbid the inverter is on, they drain like there is no tomorrow. Also using certain items, like the 12V fridge, results in lights dimming, fllushing the loo results in radio resetting, etc) Is this all due to weak batteries? The problems do seem to be less when they are charged more. Our solar arrives tomorrow, which will be a god send (we are continuous cruisers). At this stage we are considering taking the hit and just getting 4 new batteries. It is a real bother to run this loud old lister for hours to charge them up, disconnect them and wait for them to drain so I can test them each in turn. The thing is they were expensive batteries, and some of them might be fine. If I buy some more batteries, is there a place I can test and sell the old ones? Do I even need 4 of them? If I could test them prior to buying new ones, wouldn't it be best to replace all of them at the same time anyway? Is there a big chain in London (aside from Halfords) where I can just rock up and get a good deal on leisure batteries? Any help or advice would be much appreciated!!