Freezers

[davidfG3]

Obviously never tried "Aunt Bessies" roast taiters then?

oh anything but not Aunt Bessies, even my own look and taste better than Aunt Bessies Cardboard and the roast pots are somthing to be missed for sure, once bitten yuk then thrown away

[Boatgypsy]

Just a thought here. If you have a freezer on your boat and it is well stocked, and you are cruising somewhere, and you break down - just think how long your freezer will keep on working without power. Now you might be lucky and have a backup generator to recharge your batteries, but do you think it impossible that both your main engine AND your generator can pack up while in a remote location. Well it happened to me and luckily I only lost the food in my fridge. Thank God I had no freezer.

[wonderdust]

You would be suprised how long the food stays frozen for if the door is not opened.

 

Just a thought here. If you have a freezer on your boat and it is well stocked, and you are cruising somewhere, and you break down - just think how long your freezer will keep on working without power. Now you might be lucky and have a backup generator to recharge your batteries, but do you think it impossible that both your main engine AND your generator can pack up while in a remote location. Well it happened to me and luckily I only lost the food in my fridge. Thank God I had no freezer.

[ditchcrawler]

I have had a seperate 12v shoreline freezer on both my boats and wouldn't be without one. The one I have is about half a metre tall and fits nicely under the kitchen sink. In my first boat it doubled as the TV stand.

 

Me thinks having a freezer means more time spent cruising and less time spent shopping.

 

Find the frozen peas very useful when accident-prone husband falls off boat, but any frozen veg does just as well

What does husband think about keeping the batteries charged?

[NiceNarrowboat]

What does husband think about keeping the batteries charged?

 

Husband doesn't think. Ever.

I run the engine - and before I get grief, engine is v. quiet, most people accuse me of having an electric boat!

[Edders]

Just about to install a standard household under counter freezer, have an inverter and 3 new batts. I'll let you know how I get on [if anyone is interested]. If anyone has already tried this please let me know how YOU got on.

 

Sorry about the late response. We have an undercounter fridge and freezer (both A rated Hotpoint).The boat has 4 x leisure batteries with an inverter and generator. We are marina based, but when we are out we can get anything up to 24 hours battery use (depending on other equipment use, temperature etc) before we have to recharge the batteries. This setup works well for us, but are now looking at the possibility of adding solar panels to increase the time between charging.

 

Edders

[Phil Ambrose]

Hi all

 

Has anyone experience of yacht type freezers? We have seen a couple on boats we have looked over recently but been advised by someone that they are not very effective at long term storage. He was a bit vague as to what he meant ie 1 week or 1 year! We would want something that worked whilst we were aboard on extended cruises.

 

Thanks

We live on our boat and have a 100ltr fridge and a 80ltr freezer both have same size cabinet and we stack one on the other. The combined draw of them is about 3amp.hr and yes they work very well, I'm a bit fussy about temps as I am a chef, both units were purchased from Shoreline, they have Danfos compressors and when I took delivery it was raining which made the Shoreline labels transparent, beneath the label the name LEC could clearly be seen. So a decent bit of kit at sesible money (for a boat)

[Gibbo]

We live on our boat and have a 100ltr fridge and a 80ltr freezer both have same size cabinet and we stack one on the other. The combined draw of them is about 3amp.hr ..................

 

Here we go again

 

Gibbo

[ditchcrawler]

We live on our boat and have a 100ltr fridge and a 80ltr freezer both have same size cabinet and we stack one on the other. The combined draw of them is about 3amp.hr and yes they work very well, I'm a bit fussy about temps as I am a chef, both units were purchased from Shoreline, they have Danfos compressors and when I took delivery it was raining which made the Shoreline labels transparent, beneath the label the name LEC could clearly be seen. So a decent bit of kit at sesible money (for a boat)

When I started fitting my boat LEC sold these direct to the public, by the time I was ready to buy one the sale of them was "stitch up" and to buy one from a retailer would have cost well over £100 more than buying direct.

[bridgit]

I have a shoreline 12v fridge freezer. Its packed with home made goodies. I can take advantage of super market offers and often freeze veg from markets Ive bought in bulk. I can also get fresh fish and freeze that when I see it. The only thing I buy ready done are peas. I used to have a very large chest freezer when on land and have had to reduce my batch cooking. When cruising there is not always a shop nearby and a freezer is a god send.

[Phil Ambrose]

Here we go again

 

Gibbo

Hi Gibbo, you must excuse me as I am new to this site (but have lived aboard for 7 years) not sure what "here we go again means.

[estwdjhn]

I think Gibbo's comment is related to forum 'life'. The same topics come round with a certain frequency, as do the same (implausable) claims, e.g. 12v freezers use more power than 240v ones...

[dor]

not sure what "here we go again means.

 

 

I think it is "The combined draw of them is about 3amp.hr" that (quite rightly) offends gibbo's sensibilities. It either draws 3 amps or it has used 3 amphours, but it can't draw 3 amp hours.

[Justme]

I think it is "The combined draw of them is about 3amp.hr" that (quite rightly) offends gibbo's sensibilities. It either draws 3 amps or it has used 3 amphours, but it can't draw 3 amp hours.

 

 

Plus without knowing the voltage that 3 amps was used at its meaningless.

 

3 amp at 12v = 36 watts

3 amp at 24v = 72 watts

3 amp at 48v = 144 watts

3 amp at 230v = 690 watts

 

Then you get into duty cycle too. So realy need a figure of power per 24 hour period.

 

Justme

[Phil Ambrose]

I think Gibbo's comment is related to forum 'life'. The same topics come round with a certain frequency, as do the same (implausable) claims, e.g. 12v freezers use more power than 240v ones...

Oh I see, thanks for that, did'nt want to offend anybody, suffice to say we are more than happy with our set up.

I guess it is a case if it works for you it's fine, and in this case it works for us.

 

Phil

[Gibbo]

Oh I see, thanks for that, did'nt want to offend anybody, suffice to say we are more than happy with our set up.

I guess it is a case if it works for you it's fine, and in this case it works for us.

 

Phil

 

My comment was indeed regarding the "draws 3amp.hrs".

 

We all know what he means so I just leave it but every time someone gets a unit wrong it gets jumped on.

 

Gibbo

[Jonsue]

One of the things I'm really unhappy about giving up when we move on board is a freezer. Just how much power do they take? We're going to be living aboard full time with very little money - so I see a freezer as an essential (buy cheap meat at Lidl when we com across one to see us through a few weeks). Himself is very dubious about being able to power a freezer. I can live without the microwave, electric kettle, hair straightenters, etc but struggle to imagine life on a budget without a freezer.

I agree with you totaly, I can do without many things but a freezer is one thing I have put great presure on John for, I would very much like to take our 50/50 fridge freezer on board, I dont understand electrics etc, I cant understand why its such a problem, he keeps going on about load on inverters and stuff like that, surely it cant be that much of a problem.

 

Sue

[Gibbo]

I agree with you totaly, I can do without many things but a freezer is one thing I have put great presure on John for, I would very much like to take our 50/50 fridge freezer on board, I dont understand electrics etc, I cant understand why its such a problem, he keeps going on about load on inverters and stuff like that, surely it cant be that much of a problem.

 

Sue

 

It's a major problem. Just because it isn't a problem in a house doesn't mean it isn't a problem on a boat.

 

All boats and all people are different. But in a typical narrowboat an electric fridge will be responsible for using about 50% of the available electricity. Add a separate freezer and you can bank on your fridge and freezer using about 80% to 90% of your electricity.

 

So that means if you can arrange your power system to provide you with 2 days power without recharging, then removing the fridge and freezer would allow you to go 10 days.

 

That's how much difference it makes.

 

Of course in a house you don't think about it. Electricity is always there. You use a bit more, you pay a bit more. Use another 1kWh (a fridge on for 1.5 days) you pay another 12 pence. Use another 1kWh on a boat and you have to run your engine for another 4 hours to replace the power used.

 

Gibbo