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Underfloor cooler - please share your ideas/designs


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Hi, 

 

I'm mulling over the underfloor cooler concept - particularly as a winter fridge-free option to save on power requirements.

 

Anyone with experience or ideas regarding the following aspects - location - access - hygiene - size - efficacy, and any other factors you may think pertinent. Would you mind sharing? Pictures?

 

Ideally, we'd be switching off the fridge/freezer from around 15th November to 15th February - that's what my limited observation - in terms of solar power generation - has been the period we need to have use of alternate cool storage.

 

As I am still in fitout and have not finalised the flooring yet, I thought it may be a worthwhile thought experiment. 

 

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A cheap and cheerful coolbox can be mad from a large biscuit tin.I have a steel ammo box to keep milk,butter,cheese and cooked meats.

Simply cover the box with a wet towel and the evaporation of the water keeps the box cool.

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4 hours ago, CompairHolman said:

You will get about 10 deg C below ambient under the floor. Canal water is never really cold but this is certainly worth doing .

It feels cold enough when I have a hand down the weed hatch in winter

  • Greenie 1
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The most significant point is surely that the temperature of anything that is controlled by the temperature of the water and therefore of the baseplate is very steady and predicable whilst any other solution inside or outside the cabin will need constant monitoring to keep it cool or to stop it from freezing.

 

Go for it!

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1 hour ago, Idle Days said:

How did we manage before we owned refrigerators? 

 

 

We used to have one of these :

 

It is a steel box with a door, it is surrounded by Plaster of Paris, and has a depression in the top.

You fill the depression with water and it trickles down all the holes in the plaster, keep filling it until it stops disappearing.

 

As the water evaporates it cools the contents.

Certainly worked keeping our milk and 'stuff' cool.

 

There are several makes - one is the "Osokool"

 

 

THIS WAY UP!: What the jiggins is an Osokool?

 

 

Previously discussed here :

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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On 23/07/2021 at 16:36, Mad Harold said:

A cheap and cheerful coolbox can be mad from a large biscuit tin.I have a steel ammo box to keep milk,butter,cheese and cooked meats.

Simply cover the box with a wet towel and the evaporation of the water keeps the box cool.

 

11 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

We used to have one of these :

 

It is a steel box with a door, it is surrounded by Plaster of Paris, and has a depression in the top.

You fill the depression with water and it trickles down all the holes in the plaster, keep filling it until it stops disappearing.

 

As the water evaporates it cools the contents.

Certainly worked keeping our milk and 'stuff' cool.

 

There are several makes - one is the "Osokool"

 

 

THIS WAY UP!: What the jiggins is an Osokool?

 

 

Previously discussed here :

 

 

 

 

 

Bugger! I should have patented my DIY coolbox!

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3 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

Well it was over 40 years ago when we had ours, and, it was 'weel used' prior to us getting it,

 

Don't know how young you are but this was their advert from 1958

 

 

Osokool

My parents had one on their grp cruiser in the 1960s. Worked well enough as I recall, although the well in the top which you filled with water seemed to grow a good line in green slime.

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I have 3 under floor storage cooler 1 in the bedroom where we keep all our toiletries and 2 in the galley we can get 30 cartons off milk in each one if we wanted to keeps your fruit and veg fresh 

IMG_0276.JPG

IMG_0277.JPG

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6 hours ago, luggsy said:

I have 3 under floor storage cooler 1 in the bedroom where we keep all our toiletries and 2 in the galley we can get 30 cartons off milk in each one if we wanted to keeps your fruit and veg fresh 

IMG_0276.JPG

IMG_0277.JPG

Very nice indeed! (The solution, not the contents!) ;)

 

  • Greenie 1
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14 hours ago, luggsy said:

I have 3 under floor storage cooler 1 in the bedroom where we keep all our toiletries and 2 in the galley we can get 30 cartons off milk in each one if we wanted to keeps your fruit and veg fresh 

IMG_0276.JPG

IMG_0277.JPG

That looks great - did you have any issues with the floor heights? I'm putting down a layer of insulation under the floor boards and I'm a bit worried I may battle to get the closed heights equal? 

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On 23/07/2021 at 10:26, Loddon said:

A stainless steel tray of the size required to fit between floor bearers and the height of the gap between the baseplate and floor with a hatch cut into the floor.

 

 

Well, no need for me to add photos of the ones we used to do, as this photo was the first set we did, on n/b Merryweather. Every boat after that, we were asked for them, and I have them in my own boat. We put vent into the sides of them after the first, to keep them fresher and cooler, just a simple routed out gap, with mesh over on the outer side of the box (my addition as I'm spider paranoid!) My experience is they keep things cooler, the space is well worth it. I wouldn't keep meat in it, but keep things like eggs, sauces that are supposed to be refrigerated,  chocolate (drat, given away our stash place!) Onions, that kind of thing, oh, bottles/cans of beer and wine too. One boat had us put one near their stove, steel lined, for coal or wood! They can go anywhere.  Handy in the galley area, or engine room if you have one.

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2 hours ago, alistair1537 said:

That looks great - did you have any issues with the floor heights? I'm putting down a layer of insulation under the floor boards and I'm a bit worried I may battle to get the closed heights equal? 

No issues with height 

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