Extended Sail Freezer question

[Buzz]

Quick question for you peeps that have an Engel refrigerator/freezer.

Is it possible to have water (milk) jugs and a seven day cooler and freeze water jugs in freezer and just swap them out in the cooler when they melt every couple of days? Or will this burn more juice than it is worth?

ie. Have four frozen two in freezer and two in cooler when the two in the cooler get about half way melted swap them out with the frozen jugs.

[David Mellon]

I have no answers, but I am intrigued by the frozen jugs

[Boblee]

We do keep either frozen bottles or techni ice for the esky when fishing away from the boat or in the vehicle.
Using ice in a drink cooler that is being opened all the time is better than opening the fridge.
Don't know how you will go with an engel as they don't cool down as quick as some of the others with the Danfoss compressor which is why they don't use as much power.
Definitely a good start if you fill the fridge with as much frozen water or food as possible for a longer trip.

[Chinook]

We haven't tried using ours that way, but I'm thinking it would be pretty limiting. For a 40 quart or so ice chest, you'd probably want a couple of gallon milk jugs of ice. I'm confident the Engel could freeze a pair up, but it would need to be run at the max setting, and would probably be running fairly continuously until they were frozen. I've never timed freezing jugs in our home chest freezer, but I'm guessing it probably takes at least 8 hours, maybe longer. At 2.7 amps, I'm guessing your two jugs of ice would use at least 27 amp hours. If you had the solar panel and battery capacity, it might keep up, depending on air and water temps you're in.

Of course, operating that way would take away one of the advantages of the Engel, namely, constant idea refrigeration temperature. The unit runs very efficiently in maintaining 40 degree temps, and it is sure nice to have food stored in a dry space. We carried a 6 day Coleman ice chest along with our Engel. We used the Engel as a refrigerator, and bought ice, mostly cubes, when available. The cooler was used to store canned beverages and to supply ice cubes for mixed drinks. If we ran out of ice, it wasn't that inconvenient to move a can or two at a time of pop and beer into the Engel.

One thought, if you do try making the freezer approach work, you might experiment with those reusable cold packs. They store flat, and would have good air circulation when being frozen. I think they're more efficient than water jugs.

[Boblee]

Because we have a 70 l fridge and plenty of solar power or vice versa we can use the frozen ice and it works well when keeping fish in the dinghy etc but where we just have something that is dry that we want to keep cool in a separate esky for day trips eg meat or sandwiches etc we use this http://www.techniice.com/ and am sure they would be available over there
The problem with the techni ice is that while it is far superior to ice it absobs water and odours that could be in it (blood) and then it is basically a throw away unless the smell can be tolerated.
The advantage of using an ice storage is that you can also turn the fridge off overnight (noise and heat) and just turn it back on during the day to take advantage of max charge from solar or motor.

[James V]

IT depends on how long yo uwant to go out. 2 or 3 days you can get by on ice if you do not want to keep meat on board for long. I just bought the other brand of marine 12v frig/freezer. So far so good.

Nice to have cold meat for a few days and not have to go to the store when wanted.

[Boblee]

Nice to keep a bit of fish between trips and to have a bit of variety (who wants to eat barramundi all the time?).
The biggest enemy of keeping your food or esky cool is loose water which is why it's better to use the containers or preferably the gel packs but the techni ice is far and away better IF you can keep it dry.
We will be on the water and mostly isolated for minimum 6 weeks but living in the boat for min 3 months so you need some flexibility and comforts.
As James said 2-5 days ice in an esky will do fine.

[Trouts Dream]

I recently purchased a 'dry bag' used by kayakers that is large enough to hold a bag of cube or block ice. The water stays in the bag and we use it for washing, showering etc. Keeps the water from getting at the food and easy to open and seal. Made from VERY thick plastic so no punctures.

[Kelly Hanson East]

One data point from us. Just returned from Cape and our Igloo still had ice in it from last SUN - through SAT. We use 2 gallon jugs of water frozen hard for ice.

[Ivan Awfulitch]

Anyone using one of these Coleman Sterling units? Looks interesting.

http://www.coleman.com/coleman/colemanc ... oryid=8570

[James V]

I bought this one -

http://www.sailorsams.com/mall/waeco-po ... r-cf25.asp

So far so good. Needs a little more than 40 watts of solar panals.

[Buzz]

That Coleman uses 48 watts so it wouldn't be my first choice.