Vitrifrigo DP2600 in 420/44DB?

First_Mate

First_Mate

New Member
Jul 22, 2010
125
Tennessee
Boat Info
2004 420DB
Engines
480CE's
My Norcold DE0061 is about to give up...

Upon searching, I'm leaning towards the Vitrifrigo DP2600 due to decent online reviews, larger interior size, quietness and price (crazy expensive, but not truly ludicrious).

My main concern is that the existing Norcold has vents at the top of it and the Vitrifrigo doesn't.

I'm not sure if the vents above the microwave are sufficient to vent that cabinet or not.

Anyone tried it?
 
I put one in. It does exchange heat so definitely needs vent on bottom and top. Probably not more than 24 sq in each. No doubt a small fan to move air over the condenser coil would enhance it's efficiency greatly.
Note that it is deeper than the Norcold by about an inch.

Best price I found was with Defender.
 
I found mine at sure marine and i love it .so quiet compared to the nocold.
 
I put the DP2600 in a 380 Sundancer to replace the Nevercold and it is about 1.5 inches deeper. I made a wood trim spacer to fill the gap. It's a great frig, more cubic feet and really quiet.

Al
 
I replaced mine about 3yrs ago or so with 2600 SS unit. It fits right in, but I recall that I had to shim it a little from the bottom to be able to cover the small gap and secure the top screws. I can't say that I'm very happy with the unit for two reasons. 1-The freezer always has a lot of ice build up. It started happening few months after the install. After defrosting, it doesn't take too long for the ice build up again. 2-The fridge section doesn't cool as I was expecting. We have to crank it up during hot season. Perhaps mine is just too packed all the time. When Norcold was functioning it required less on the temp dial.


However, the new fridge offers a lot more space, it's very quite and efficient due to danforce compressor. You could tell that the overall quality of the unit is much better than Norcold.

If I had to do it over, I'm not sure I'd go with the same unit. Perhaps I'd go for Isotherm. My isotherm in the cockpit is great. I had similar unit in my 320DA and it worked great.
Don't let my post influence your decision. I've heard that quite a few people are very happy with their installations. I have to confess that none of the items I described were major issues, sofor this reason it always fell to the bottom of the priority list.
 
Alex, could you perhaps have a door seal leak? My Norcold has always made a ton of frost and I'm sure it is from the old seals.

Did you have to change the venting to accommodate the Vitri? Or just the lower shims?
 
After talking to Vitf. Tech support, I checked the door seals and it seamed ok. But there's nothing I could do, as there are no adjustment that can be made.

Venting is possibly an option that can be improved. But I don't recall that there was anything that had to be done different from Norcold fridge.

There was plenty of room in that "closet" for the fridge to ventilate. If there's anything special that I need to do, then I would need techs to explain what and why.
 
I ended up going with the Vitrifrigo DP2600 after all. After shimming the floor up about 3/8", it fit perfectly and was an easy installation. In the 420/44 the cabinet vents around the microwave and also into the sides of the boat - it is not sealed at all.

The Admiral loves the space in this compared to the order Norcold. I like the fact that the magnet seals keep it closed tightly - unlike the Norcold which leaked... As others have mentioned, it is also quieter than the Norcold. Expensive, but at least it was an upgrade rather than a lateral...
 
We are considering a fridge replacement, and also considering the Vitrifrigo. Admiral is concerned about the right hand door swing as listed in the specs. Is it really not reversible, and if not, does it bother the admiral that it is a little inconvenient to unload onto the countertop.
Thanks
 
I performed this upgrade 2 years ago. The door is reversible. This is one of the best upgrades I have done, quiet, cold, and did I say quiet!
 
I am in the process of pulling out my Vitri, and have ordered an Isotherm frig/freezer unit.

they Are both good friges, but certain aspects of the isotherm were better, for us, mainly due to the frig and top, and freezer below for ergo aspects. I also like the SS exterior and overall layout of the Iso. As noted, door swing can be on either side.

To clarify, Vitri is a good brand based on the research I did, and speaking to them direct, but our particular model was a short lived third party build that had some issues, along with some other aspects so I decided to pull it.
 
SR400DB said:
I performed this upgrade 2 years ago. The door is reversible. This is one of the best upgrades I have done, quiet, cold, and did I say quiet!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. Defender has them on sale now, but for some reason calls out a right hand door swing.
 
My nevercold died about 10 before my trip from San Francisco to Seattle. I had to act fast for a number of reasons. I ordered the one with the right hand door swing (only one to be located in stock at the time). Upon delivery, I was very pleased to see that I could simply reconfigure to a left hand swing. I suspect the one on sale is the same.
 
I am going to replace a 1997 and i'm curious if the new units draw less DC power? Also, my battery bank still has the original series batteries (newer batteries but same size and number) can I run the fridge overnight and still expect to start an engine?
 
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