Refrigerator

[Lance Jones]

I have the original AB refrigerator in my boat. Does it work on AC & DC or is straight DC?

Thanks!

[Stu Jackson]

It's ONLY dc.  I have a scanned copy of the original owner's manual (1986 era) which I'd be glad to send to you.

[Lance Jones]

That'd be great! Thanks Stu

[Ron Hill]

Lance : It kind of fools you, in that you'll hear owners talk about plugging in shore power. 
Shore power (AC) to the battery charger which charges (DC) to the batteries, then runs the (DC) fridge !!

[Jon Schneider]

Ah, but Ron is only telling half the story.  Do you want it to run on AC?  Because, if you do, it's quite possible and not that difficult to achieve (even I did it).  John Nixon described how to make your fridge automatically switch between AC and DC depending on the situation (e.g., at a dock or out to sea).  The instructions are buried in John's charger review that's currently a sticky topic, but there's another place to find his write-up.  We're starting to develop a "wiki" (kind of like wikipedia, in fact based on the same software) and convert all of the project articles along with interesting posts (currently called "FAQs") into one easy-to-navigate structure.  It started with the "knowledgebase," a spreadsheet of all such articles, but that's a little unwieldy because you have to go between a spreadsheet and the site.  This new way, all of the articles will be in one place, and -best of all- you'll be able to comment on and add to the articles real time as well as pretty easily add your own articles.  Not all of the content is there yet (in fact, most of the article titles still point back to the current site), but I've turned the relevant piece of John's post into a mini project in the wiki.  And this wiki article includes a hand-drawn schematic that John sent me. 

You can find John's instructions for installing AC power on your 12V fridge in the wiki here: http://www.c34.org/wiki/index.php?title=Galley and click on the article called "Running your 12 VDC fridge on 120 VAC shore power at the dock."

Feel free to click on the left side navigation for the "knowledgebase" to bring you back to the top level of the Knowledge Wiki and browse to your heart's content.  BTW, if anyone would like to help port the current content into the wiki, please raise your hand by emailing me at jonschn@gmail.com

Happy knowledgebasing. 

[Hawk]

Jon,
I'm just home from playing hockey (we do that up here) and must have taken a shot to the head as I can't see how to click on to Wiki from the c34 site home page. Have I missed it?

Thanks , HAwk

[Jon Schneider]

Nope, you're fine.  You have to click on the link I supplied.  The Knowledgebase Wiki is under development and not ready for prime time yet.  And only you, me, and the thousands of C34 owners who are on this board now know about it ;)  It won't be part of the public navigational architecture of the site until we get more content into it (which is why we've been asking for volunteers in the past few Mainsheets... and still need them!)   

[sail4dale]

OK but why would you want to run it on  shore power when you have a charger and it is plugged in to the shore power?

[Stu Jackson]

The theory is to avoid having to run the fridge through the house bank, thereby potentially deteriorating the batteries.  John Nixon's strategy (as included in his Battery Charger evaluation as well as the wiki) and Ray Irvine's relay system through a secondary dedicated-to-the-fridge smaller battery (not the house OR reserve bank) are two different ways to perform this concept.

[Jon Schneider]

The theory is to avoid having to run the fridge through the house bank, thereby potentially deteriorating the batteries. 

And just to build on Stu's response, constantly draining your batteries to run the fridge causes sulfation and shortens their life.  What's really happens when you run the fridge while charging the batteries is that the batteries are supplying some of the power (i.e., a chemical reaction is occurring) even though (probably) some of the power is coming directly as a pass-through from the charger.  There's also another reason to do this.  If your shore power goes, your fridge will run your batteries down, which might also jeopardize other mission-critical components (e.g., alarms, bilge pumps, etc.)  If you've rigged the fridge to run off of shore power, the only thing you'll end up with after a shore power outage is melted ice cream and warm beer, while your batteries will have been left unharmed. 

[Lance Jones]

Do any of you leave the frige on when you're away from the boat? Also, I can't see my thermostat that well -- easier to just feel for it. Which way do you turn it to make it colder?

Thanks so much for all your help. This has been a great week for info about a GREAT boat.

[Jon Schneider]

Lance, I keep my fridge on all the time (well, not when the boat's on the hard  ) and run it off 120 VAC.  I can't tell you which way to turn the thermostat because a) my thermostat is 19 years old and bound to be different than yours; and b) I don't remember!

[Ken Juul]

Can't say for certain, but generally clockwise is colder.

[Lance Jones]

Thanks! What did they do before they had clocks? Turn it sundial-wise? Wouldn't that be different in the Southen Hemisphere?

[Stu Jackson]

Lance, here's what you do:  take a flashlight and shine it on the thermostat, and look at the numbers.  7 is coldest.  Turn it that way.

The "do I leave my fridge on all the time" is as much fun a discussion as "what's the best anchor."  Many do for various reasons.  Do a search on "fridge" and you'll find all sorts of very good information about that and other related issues.