Awhile back I did post questions about my aging Adler Barbour frig which you can find here (
https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/threads/refrigeration-question.20763/#post-166025 ) which might be worth a look but since this is the "Master Thread" for Ice/Box Refrigeration I decided to post my latest "cold" tale here.
After 33 plus year my old Adler Barbour, in my E32-3, decided it was time to retire. It was never cycling but instead continuously operating and pulling down 6 amps which was a major problem when at anchor. I often had to wake early and run the engine to keep the house batteries from falling below 50% which didn't go well with the "admiral" who cherishes her beauty sleep. Plus the evaporator was sweating so much that I had to pump out the ice box every few days. To get around my failing frig I often bought either a bag or two of cubed ice or one large block and turned the frig off when anchoring. Dockside with the power cord attached to the boat the frig ran constantly and when I checked the condenser fan would only work when I started it spinning with my fingers and then only for a short time. So how to address this problem?
I thought about doing the work myself but instead decided to hire a "pro" since my knowledge and experience of ice box conversions was limited and I just didn't feel confident to do the work properly myself being the first time. But hiring a pro didn't go as well as expected either. I'm not going to use the name of the company here but if you're in the Annapolis area and want to get the name then private message me. I'm not saying that the company was terrible and I would never use them again but some of the mistakes they made were, IMO, amateurish. In other words, they were mistakes I might had done if I had took on the job. Converting an ice box into a frig is after all a simple project when compared to more complex refrigeration on larger boats. So I think when a job comes along that is considered "simple" then, let's say, stupid mistakes are sometimes made because less thought is given to a simple job. In the business I was in (commercial photography) when a client came to me and said,
"I have a simple quick job (or shot) for you.", I'd immediately say that there was no such thing as a simple job.
So, the refrigeration technician tested the old Adler Barbour and declared it officially dead. He pumped some refrigerant in and said it just wasn't coming up to where it should be on one of his gauges. As it reads in his invoice for looking at the unit, "
We found the condenser fan was not operating and the unit ran for a long period and caused the compressor valves to warp." He told me that the compressor overheated which caused the warping and that fixing it would be much more than a new unit. I was expecting this so it was no surprise.
He next recommend another
Adler Barbour (Now owned by Dometic) unit because, in his words,
"they're almost bullet proof". Unfortunately my old Adler Barbour wasn't that fortunate so he ordered a new Adler Barbour/Dometic CU-100 Cold Machine, flat plate evaporator ( bent to go around one corner of the ice box) and a thermostat. My old evaporator was the "freezer box" type that came with an ice cube tray. I never like it because it took up a lot of room at the opening to the box and often items got lost under it. Having a flat evaporator opened the space up and it's much easier to see and grab items. About one week after his first visit he installed the new equipment. That day I received a text message that the job was done BUT...when bending the evaporator to fit into the corner of the ice box he cracked it which allowed the refrigerant to 'hisss' out. So another one was ordered which took another five days. Then I was texted that the job was done. I didn't see it until a few days later and here's where the problems started.
The first thing I noticed was that the lid of the ice box wouldn't close all the way on one end, sticking up above the surface of the galley counter almost 1/4". (This seemed like a mistake I would make when doing this the first time.) Second, with the thermostat turned all the way down (or less cool) we were having things freeze up one us like milk, creamer, butter, bottled ice tea, water and the worst of all...my beer!
WTF??!! So, this time I called and the frig man, who I'll call Brian, who told me how sorry he was about the lid not closing and how he just didn't understand how he missed that mistake. (Really?) As for the freezing, Brian had no answers but he would come out to the boat ASAP.
So, for his next visit I made sure to be on board. Brian now saw the raised ice box cover and we both could see that it was letting in warmer air that was causing icing on the evaporator adjacent to the opening. He said that he would move the evaporator down right away.
"But what about the freezing?", I said.
"Is it possible that the thermostat is defective?" He responded by telling me that was unlikely but the problem probably was that the
WRONG THERMOSTAT was installed? (Wrong thermostat?!) Evidently there are two different thermostats for the Adler Barbour / Dometic Cold Machine. There is the "refrigerator" one,
#4060204 with a temperature range of 38° to 26° AND the "freezer" one,
#4060203 with a temperature range of 28° to 12°. Guess which one he had installed. So after three visits, a broken evaporator, the wrong thermostat and about a two weeks of waiting to get the job done I finally have a new operating ice box/refrigeration conversion.
Now, I know you're all wondering what about the cost. Keep in mind that this was done in Annapolis so your location might have higher or lower rates. Even though the vendor I used made some "rookie" mistakes, they do have a very good reputation. The cost breakdown is as follows:
CU-100 compressor. $1,400
Evaporator plate. $1,075
Labor $1,250
Total (w/o tax). $3,725
A few other points:
After the his final visit to the boat he told me that he actually installed a Adler Barbour / Dometic "air/water" cooled unit which is really a CU-200 not the CU-100 (air cooled only) he listed on his invoice. No water cooling was installed it's just that the CU-200 compressor can accommodate water cooling. His story was that he didn't want me to wait too long for refrigeration and he had the CU-200 in stock but didn't charge me for it saying that it's a $200 upgrade. He exaggerated a bit. The CU-200 sell for $1,443 at Defender and $1,586 at Fisheries Supply. He also said that air cooled is fine for the Chesapeake Bay Area and that water cooled is rarely used except for places like the Caribbean Islands and Florida. He also didn't like Cold Plates for the bay and said that they are also best suited for warmer climates.
In the end would I have been better off installing a new frig myself? To be honest I think it's a toss up. I didn't have to squeeze myself into "little boat places" although I still do with other projects. Plus I didn't have the time and, let's say, incentive to do the work myself thinking that for this sort of thing a pro would be better. If I had encounter the thermostat issue I would have thought it was defective and probably would have contacted my supplier to work it out and then in the end find out the I had the wrong thermostat but that would have taken a lot of time and we all have had that experience for one boat thing or another. I make no recommendation for doing an ice box conversion yourself or calling in a "pro". It all depends on your level of experience with working with tools and your confidence level. In the end, no matter what route you choose, you'll learn something.
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