Choosing Cockpit Refrigerator – thoughts, suggestions?

Make sure you purchase a dual voltage unit. Running only 12VDC will be hard on the house batteries.
 
I have no expererience with the new Norcold. The ad talks about using power at the rate of a 60 watt light bulb. If I were in the market for a fridge, I would compare the power consumption of the Norcold to the Isotherm. I don't like to run the genny unless it's necessary. You can erase the price differential between the two brands pretty quickly by fuel costs alone. I like Isotherm because it is quiet and is a real miser on power consumption.
 
The one I have in the cabin is Norcold, but just larger unit. I'm actually pretty happy with it. It's dual voltage as well, so I don't do anything special (switching it off or to 12v) when shore power is off, I just keep it on all the time and the unit manages all power sources on it's own.
 
I just did this. I replaced an older Norcold for the new DE-0051 in the cockpit and we hate it. I chose the Norcold because it fit the cutout the best in the cocpit. I did have to use the jigsaw behind the front cutout and do some other carpentery to make it fit. Finally, after getting thing installed and working, I started to put drinks in it. The bottom shelf it too low to stand up a can of coke, beer, etc. You can lay them down on the their sides, but when we open the fridge door, they all roll out into the cockpit. you can remove the shelf above it, but there is not enough room to double stack the cans. It's a tremendous waste of space. I've traded EM's with Norcold/Dometic, but they don't seem to care. Why in the world would someone build a refrigertor for a boat that won't hold a softdrink can!!....I'm contemplating removing and returning the thing and starting over..........
 
LMBoat,
Thanks for sharing and sorry to hear about bad experiance after the installation. This is very good piont, b/c after all it comes down to the stuff we're storing in the fridge. I guess, it's best to go to a store and try to fit couple of cans and buttles. I remember seeing Norcold at Boatersworld and may be WM als has it on the shelf, but I never seen (at least I don't recall) Dometic unit. I guess, I should take a little more time and make sure that I'm ok with the amount of storage the fridge provides. I don't know if you finally hada chance to see Dometic in person and try to fit some stuff in there, but it could be just due to the fact that it's very compact unit, unlike what's in the cabin (just guessing).
 
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Alex
I took some pictures of my fridge compartment after I removed it today. I will post tomorrow. Of course I couldn't touch it without breaking something. When I was pulling the fridge out of the opening, I grabbed the top plastic grill and it broke. I went on-line to find a replacement ($41) and discovered that Norcold makes the fridge in stainless steel. $599 at this place:

http://www.boatersworld.com/product/367610029.htm?utm_medium=cpa&utm_source=Shopping

My guess is that the top grill and side trim are just painted grey plastic.

I have to say that I was pretty disappointed in the condition of the screws and trim pannels. My boat is a 2006 and there was a lot of rust and corrosion. I don't care what the marketing materials says, this fridge was not designed to sit on the back of a boat in a marine environment. I estimate that it will look like shit in 2 or 3 more years.

367610029.jpg
 
I've got two of those trim peices.........they are brand new. If you haven't ordered a replacement yet, you can have one of them.

John
 
Vince_nj1 said:
My boat is a 2006 and there was a lot of rust and corrosion. I don't care what the marketing materials says, this fridge was not designed to sit on the back of a boat in a marine environment. I estimate that it will look like shit in 2 or 3 more years.
Click to expand...

Vince,
You'll be surprized that this is a problem not only for Norcold. Although, I hear good reviews from other guys suggesting Isotherm, I looked at my records and found that my 240DA had Isotherm in the galley. It was Demo Model#1006502. It had the same issue, in fact the rust was developing and eventually made it's way to the carpet, which we cleaned periodically. It worked fine, but one time an issue happened when the light switch (cheap plastic part) didn't turn off the light and made the light bolb stay on until it burned the light housing damaging the inside fridge liner around the bulb housing. There was no way to fix this. The crack in the lining was small so, I ended up keeping the unit since other than that it worked fine. But, it was frustrating anyway. Imagine that in other condition and adding few variables the boat could be on fire from this melfunctioned switch.

So, it's really not easy to say what's the trully good unit anymore.

 
Pics of the fridge..
P4130476.jpg



P4130479.jpg


P4130478.jpg


P4130481.jpg
 
xravenx said:
I've got two of those trim peices.........they are brand new. If you haven't ordered a replacement yet, you can have one of them.

John
Click to expand...

John

That is a very nice offer, but I wouldnt want to put you to the trouble of shipping it. Are you coming to Atlantic City on July 4th? I wouldn't feel comfortable taking it for free, butI would be happy to buy it from you.


P4130477.jpg
 
Thanks for the pictures Vince. It helps me to see how it suppose to be done, but this looks like factory installation, so I’m not sure if it’s part of the deal when MM does it. It’s something for me to inquire about. I see that they installed additional 120v AC outlet to the second locker, but can you see where does the black and red 12v wires go to (some switch/breaker)?

Thanks,
Alex.
 
Alex

I didnt trace the 12 volt wire, but it looks like it ends up here: (2nd from the bottom on the left)

P1020723.jpg


Not on this panel.
P1020809.jpg



Not sure if it and gets tied into the "REFIG" switch in the cabin or if this is just for the galley fridge:
P1020694.jpg
 
Vince,

I'm not coming to AC on July 4th, but it is not a problem to ship them to you. I have no use for them but hate to throw them out. Do me a favor and measure the length of yours just to make sure I have the same ones...............If they are the same I will PM you.

John
 
Vince_nj1 said:
Alex

I didnt trace the 12 volt wire, but it looks like it ends up here: (2nd from the bottom on the left)

P1020723.jpg


Not on this panel.
P1020809.jpg



Not sure if it and gets tied into the "REFIG" switch in the cabin or if this is just for the galley fridge:
P1020694.jpg
Click to expand...

It is not tied to the switch in the Galley, found that out the hard way last season when I kept running my batteries down. When you turn off the A/C it will run from battery power, but you can use the temperature switch to turn it off.
 
John

I won't be back on the boat until Friday or Saturday. The overall width of the fridge is 15 1/4" and that top panel runs the entire width.
 
Vince,

Thanks for taking your time, this is great info. I hope that it's not too hard to run wires from the fridge to the panel.

Cheers,
Alex.
 
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