Isotherm Refrigerators

[mbu745]

Hi TravelerW,
isotherm had a good name in the past, as I remember it was made in Australie.
Is it still in Australian hands?
Can made a BIG difference.
Regards.

[mbu745]

Hi TravelerW,
isotherm had a good name in the past, as I remember it was made in Australie.
Is it still in Australian hands?
Can made a BIG difference.
Regards.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Yoya

Hi. I've got an isotherm 3200 ASU seawater cooled fridge installed on my sailboat . Works great BTW.
There's a copper spiral embedded in the seacock ( also drains the kitchen sink) which seems to be exchanging heat with the seawater.

the boat is now on the dry in Portugal where night temps ( November) are 14C and cooling. Day temps around 20C .

I'm wondering if operating the fridge while the boat is out of the water is a bad idea even at night when the air is generally cooler than the seawater the boat was in during summer in turkey and Greece ( around the low 20'sC).

Thank you ...

If you read the Isotherm manual, you will see that this is specifically permitted.

I have done it many times. Compressors run a bit longer, but fridge and freezer still work perfectly on my boat. I am guessing that there is a good bit of convection through the deck drain pipes.

I lived on my boat on the hard for some time. Even had a cocktail party on board once!

[Typhoon]

Yes we reach 140 psig at around 120f ambient temperatures . Systems are still condensing and functioning at these temperatures . Compressor temperatures Were around 140f, if I remember correctly . This was an extreme condition test that we did . I may redo this test since we have enlarged our condensers .

Also found as per Danfoss data that notes that compressor will not start with a higher then 75 psi differential pressure , below that compressors will start .


Regards John

[travellerw]

Originally Posted by mbu745

Hi TravelerW,
isotherm had a good name in the past, as I remember it was made in Australie.
Is it still in Australian hands?
Can made a BIG difference.
Regards.

Our fridge is a CR130L and VERY CLEARLY labelled "Made in China"... So it may still be owned by aussies, but not manufactured there.

Like I said, it cools well and doesn't use a lot of power. However its the attention to detail and cosmetics that are VERY poor quality.

For us, Isotherm is on our "no buy" list. There are tons of other great options out there.

[Yoya]

Indel wrote back to say the fridge can be operated when the boat is on the dry. He advices to pour some water on the on the spiral treated bronze heat exchange element embedded in the seacock, as the element may get very hot. Since the seacock is also a kitchen sink drain , water will be running through it a few times s day . I'll try running it and keep an eye on its condition

[Typhoon]

Originally Posted by Yoya

Indel wrote back to say the fridge can be operated when the boat is on the dry. He advices to pour some water on the on the spiral treated bronze heat exchange element embedded in the seacock, as the element may get very hot. Since the seacock is also a kitchen sink drain , water will be running through it a few times s day . I'll try running it and keep an eye on its condition

You will need a constant flow of water over the "condenser" or the coil that inside your drain while the fridge is running . If you can not achieve this with any consistency or reliability I would advise not running your refrigeration system while you are on the hard.
You could rig up a pump and a bucket under the hull and just recirculate some water through the sink, catch it in the bucket and then pump it back up again into the sink, that would work.

Regards John.

[a64pilot]

Yeah not cooling the condenser well enough will make temps and pressures get out of hand, and excess heat may damage the compressor.
I’d guess that eventually pressure will get so high that the compressor will shut down due to pulling too many amps?
But surely running at high temps and pressures will if nothing else reduce the life of the compressor?

[Yoya]

Thank you for the answers. It seems there are conflicting opinions on the matter . I will however try to run it nights only and keep an eye on the system' s status. The box keeps cold for over 24 hours after shut down so I can take it easy on the fridge anyway. It is however a very good fridge and I'm very happy with it

[SV THIRD DAY]

Opinion of course dished out on a internet chat room without a basis in engineering facts behind them is one of the Big Killers of Gear...I've seen it time and time again. To think that you can run your water cooled system on the hard without water and think that it's OK because "it worked" is how compressors and compressor oil dies an early death. It's also a good example of why getting advise from the internet is dangerous.

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by ColdEh Marine

You will need a constant flow of water over the "condenser" or the coil that inside your drain while the fridge is running . If you can not achieve this with any consistency or reliability I would advise not running your refrigeration system while you are on the hard.
You could rig up a pump and a bucket under the hull and just recirculate some water through the sink, catch it in the bucket and then pump it back up again into the sink, that would work.

Regards John.

Alternatively, plug the drain holes in that part of your bilge and fill it with water to the top of the skin fitting. In our boat that is about 30 litres of water and that should be plenty to work as a heat sink.

For an anecdote, we ran our Isotherm 130 litre fridge and 90 litre freezer for 10 days on the hard in Fiji recently, with 30 degree C temperatures. The temperatures inside each appliance were normal. The cooling must have been sufficient as we couldn’t hear any extra activity from the compressors. But, who really knows?