MacGregorSailors.com

Engel & ARB are both imported from Australia.
ARB's price has come down recently to match Engel.
They are very similar units in quality, size, features.
The best internet price to be found is around $600 (free ship & no sales tax).
The two sites are:
http://www.compactappliance.com/xq/JSP. ... /ENG35.htm
http://www.samsoffroad.com/samsoffroads ... reezer.htm

bwy is selling the Indel B for $399. It appears to be a bit smaller than the others at 27 quarts, but the price is good.

I'm following with lots of interest, even though I already have a 5-day super Igloo under the aft dinette seat, which does keep ice for 5 days in moderate weather (80*). Mine is 70qt. so I'd guess it's 35 ice and 35 food. My super-box has plenty of storage for a small crew, but the refrigerator is still interesting for perishables.

I'm watching here for the longer term feedback - still a little skeptical since 4 amps for 12 hours is 48 amp hours (assume cooler nights require nil?). Most of us have a 100 ah batt for the house, meaning it's fried after one day (~50ah). The reefer will require daily electric regeneration. My 21 amp alternator (more than most) could probably manage that w/ 4 hours run-time per day, but I rarely get that much motor time per day ???

The greatest thing about Heath's forums is Mac owners stepping forward to press the edges of the envelope. I wrote 4 years ago about one of the first over-size engines, and now Billy and Mark are on that frontier. Guys in this thread are pressing electrical consumption. Tony is adding smart-rails and traveler. Erik greatly enhanced mast raising (and bottom paint research ). Too many others to count, but it's nice to tag along.

I am pressing the electric envelope for sure. I have the Coleman 40 qt thremoelectric, a GPS chartplotter, Stereo, cd changer, fan, radar, multi instrument display, electric water system, bilge pump and all the normal lighting. I have 2 110ah batteries in parallel for the house and a marine starting battery. I also have a 100ah batt for the kids (separate) and a lawn and garden batt for the trolling motor on the inflatable. I have 2 solar panels (1.2 ah recharge) and shore power. I am not real happy abou the fridge (5a according to some replies-thanks) or the stereo (10a!!!). Everything else seems reasonable- I like everything about Erik's fridge except the price.

I am looking into replacing the noisy fan in my Igloo Koolmate 36 qt. which still keeps everything cold.

I found a website that sells a replacement fan for under $20.00 and was ready to purchase it until I checked and my Igloo is the older model that uses a brush motor and the $20.00 is brushless. They sell a mod kit that replaces my no longer available brush motor with a brushless one for $40.00. I got to think long and hard about replacing it at $40.00 as Eriks fridge sounds like a big improvement.

-Don B

Frank,

I have questioned if I could even run my Igloo all night off my car battery.

One thing I always thought would be great is a Electric Trolling motor with the battery built into the head of it so you would not have to hook up an external battery.

I just recently purchased a B and D weed eater that works this way and B and D got smart using a Gel Cel type battery instead of those NiCads that always die. I can leave the weed eater plugged in all the time in fact B and D built the charger with a trickle charge for this very reason. Just not sure if there is enough amp/hours that one could build into the head of a trolling motor. But the B and D runs at least 2 hours.

-Don B

- What is it about power draw by stereo? (guessing that it's the speakers) My little Labtec computer speakers drag my 110 ah battery in just an afternoon!

Nope, I think its the amplifier. I have a 4X45W marine stereo that I haven't installed yet but I wanted to hear what it sounded liked so I hooked it up to a battery charger to test it. With just two speakers connected, when you start turning up the volume, the amperage draw increase was pretty dramatic. Pretty easy to max out the 6 amp charger if I remember correctly.

Anyone else have any experience sailing around with a high powered stereo cranked up loud? Seems like it would kill a battery pretty quickly. Maybe I should just stick to a boombox with its own batteries

Don, that's thinkin' outside the dinghy! Maybe there'd be a CoG problem?

Dimitri, guess I wasn't very explicit. In your case, the amp is in the stereo head, my case is a simple MP3 player. Therefore, the amp is in the woofer box. Either way, crank up the volume and suck down the batteries.

Frank-

I normally run with 3 batts (2 house in parallel (220ah total)+1 starter) I bring the extra 100ah batt for long trips with the kids- got a place set aside to strap it in under the bench seat opposite the dinnette. The batts do a good job of offsetting the 26 gallon flexible water tank on the starboard. Of course that weight changes with water consumption.

I run a Tohatsu 50hp. It doesn't go really fast loaded down (12-15mph depending on water conditions). I am happy with the Tohatsu reliability and weight, but the alternator is only 10ah- I wish I had your 21 ah alternator!

The lawn and garden is pretty light. I just got the trolling motor (34#) and haven't tried it on my inflatable dinghy yet so I will have to let you know how that goes. I have oars on the dinghy so I will have a backup if the lawn and garden batt is too small.

Jeff S wrote: ... I have oars on the dinghy so I will have a backup if the lawn and garden batt is too small.

We all got sails and oars fer 'mergencies

ModsNote: Date changes here . . . resurrecting old thread ~fc



Whilst cruising in PWS it's convenient to be able to dipnet pieces of tidewater glacier from thr sea!

Has anybody looked into the smaller ones like NOVAKOOL R-4500

http://www.backwoodssolar.com/Catalogpa ... L%20R-3800 Says that the 4.3 cubic foot modles uses 480 watts in a 70 degree day.

James wrote:Says that the 4.3 cubic foot modles uses 480 watts in a 70 degree day.

Thats watt hours, not watts; the original source you pointed to says 750 watt hours per day. And how many of us in the U.S. see average 70 degree days during the sailing season?

For the sake of argument lets split the difference and say 615 watt hours per 70 degree day.

Thats 51 amp hours per day. If you use the 50% max discharge rule on your batteries, thats enough to kill not just one, but part way into a second Mac sized 80 amp hour battery. And that's with no other stuff using electricity, like lighting, GPS, radio, stereo, starting the motor, etcetera.

So let's say youve upgraded to a monster 100 amp hour house battery so you can run your refrigerator (only) for a day. Unless youre only staying out for a day, you have to recharge your battery. If, like me, you have a Tohatsu 50 with a rather anemic 11 amp alternator, youll have to run your motor for just over four hours at max alternator output, per day, to break even. Even if your alternator is considerably larger than mine, you get the picture.

To me, the only way something like this makes sense is if you have a generator or can plug into shore power every night. Then you can run the reefer on the generator/ shore power at night, and recharge your house battery at the same time so it will be ready to run the reefer the next day.

BTW, thats a pretty expensive refrigerator. $930 including shipping would buy a whole lot of ice.

I use a sears dorm fridge I keep plugged in all the time
at the mast up.
for a day sail it will stay cold all day long unplugged
as long as I have frozen stuff in it.
for extended trips I will put ice in it
and have a 5day cooler on board.
on longer trips I bring my 1000 watt gen.
that will keep the refridge, working
with about a 3 hour run time a day.

It cost 100 bucks.