Leave refrigerator on while away from boat?

[Kyle Ewing]

How many people leave their refrigerators running while away from the boat for the week?  If you do, do you also leave the battery switch on or is your refrigeration unit wired directly to the batteries?  

My 1990 C34 has the Adler Barbour unit wired through the electrical panel.  When the battery switch is off, so is the refrigerator.  I don't like leaving the battery switch on while away from the boat for extended periods of time and don't like running the refrigerator for less than 24 hours at a time.  As a result, I only use the refrigerator for weekends and bring a bag of ice for after-work sails.

I know there are pros and cons to each side, but I'd like to hear what others are doing.

[Norris Johnson]

I leave my reefer on all the time. I cut it back some when I leave. I'm at my boat once a week. I don't like leaving the battery switch on much either, but I do have a live-aboard next to me. He does a good job of keeping a eye on my boat. He even checks my water valve after I leave to make sure I close it. I forgot it once and had to call him on his cell phone.

[Stu Jackson]

Kyle

At the risk of repeating myself  :rolleyes:, the "Find" feature of this message board is superb.

I just typed in fridge and got lots of hits, along with answers to your question.  You could also try Adler, Barbour, refrigeration, refrigerator, etc.

Try this:

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php?topic=973.0

for starters.  

There are varying attitudes towards leaving it on, as you will see.

John Meyers uses it for cold beer and he gets to go to his boat everyday, so, man, what a great reason to do so!

OTOH, I never leave anything ON when we're away from the boat.  I can wait 20 minutes for the fridge to cool down, and find that simply bringing a cold six pack of anything, plus already refrigerated food, covers the few minutes it takes to cool down.  Our machine, a 1986 unit, still makes ice!

So far, I have never had to recharge the unit.  Other than a new fan last year, checking the fuses and cleaning the electrical connections, it works just fine.

Your boat, your choice.

Doesn't seem to be something that a vote would make you change your mind about, it's all in how YOU want to run your little ship.

It'd be interesting, after you've received input, to know what you decide to do, and why (and why the question in the first place?).

I see no reason not to run the fridge for less than 24 hours at a time, or to need to run it for any minimum amount of time.  One advantage of daysail use is that there is no buildup of ice on the evaporator, we never have to "defrost!"

In addition, I rarely leave the boat plugged into shorepower.  We have a solar panel that offsets the inherent drain of the wet cell batteries.  If you leave the fridge on all the time, you have to keep connected to shorepower, and if you don't have a good three stage charger, all you're doing is killing your batteries and exposing yourself to the potential of stray current corrosion from neighboring boats and the dockside power source.

That's my opinion.  I know you'll hear a lot more.

Remember, I still believe that there's nothing better thasn a nice, cold one!


Stu

[This message was edited by Stu Jackson #224 1986 "Aquavite" on July 11, 2003 at 01:43 PM.]

[c34member]

I never do.  My neighbor in a C-36 always does.  As Stu says, you're floating the charge through the battery all the while you're away from the boat.  I turn everything off but the bilge pump and shut down the shore power.

[kmorton16@comcast.net]

Brian & I leave our refrigerator on during the sailing season. The battery switch is on "both" and the charger is on. Our Boost, V8 and water is always cold. This is the 6th season for this procedure. Ken Morton - Trident

[Paul Erb]

I leave my refrig on all the time, but I live only 3 mile from the boat. Also I'm off all summer so I go to the boat almost every day.

Paul
Yachta Yachta Yachta

[Mike Smith]

Breezer is at a private dock about two miles from our house and we are on the boat so often I don't know why I would ever turn the reefer off.  Ours is a Norcold system that switches automatically from DC to AC when shore power is applied.  Additionally, I run the central air conditioner all the time to keep the humidity down, so turning off the reefer doesn't make much sense.

Mike and Jan Smith
S/V Breezer
www.mikejansmith.com

[Kyle Ewing]

Thanks to everyone for their input.  When I posted the question, I was thinking about my weekend trip to the boat and how nice it would be have cold drinks and food waiting for me instead of packing a cooler.
The reason I don't leave the refrigerator on all the time is because I don't leave the battery switch on when the boat is unattended.  My choices are to add the AC converter or connect the refrigerator directly to the batteries bypassing the battery switch--both are mentioned on this board.  There are pros and cons to each but I haven't decided which way I want to go.

I don't run the refrigerator unless I'm on the boat for more than overnight because the bag of ice I take to the boat anyway lasts me that long.  I've always considered the start-up of the compressor and initial constant running to cool down the icebox to be hardest on the unit so I avoid that whenever possible.  My unit is over 10 years old and I want to get 10 more years out of it.

By the way, I usually set the thermostat to the "5" setting (my range is 0-7).  Drinks placed in the freezer compartment are cold in about an hour.  Any higher will freeze drinks after several hours.  It takes several hours to bring the temperature of the icebox down to 40 degrees.  I place the thermometer at the same level as but on the opposite side of the ice-box as the condensor.  Its a few degrees cooler at the bottom.

Kyle Ewing
C34 #1010, Donnybrook
Belmont Harbor, Chicago