Would you leave the fridge on shore power?

L

Lord Farringdon

New Member
Feb 19, 2010
515
New Zealand
Boat Info
2005 Sea Ray AJ, Raymarine C80.
Engines
285 HP, DP-G Duo Prop Stern Drive
Hi Guys,

I'm at the boat about evey weekend at the moment but I'm never longer away from the boat than two weeks. I have shore power connected for battery charge but was wondering whether it's a smart or dumb idea to leave the fridge on. It would be nice to arrive at the boat on a Friday night and a have cold beer or two right on tap but I'm a little too concerned about leaving on anything electrical when I'm not there. In contrast, if I went away on holiday for two weeks I'd probably leave the fridge (and freezer) on at home. So why do I feel I shouldn't leave the fridge on in the boat?
:huh:
Terry
 
"In contrast, if I went away on holiday for two weeks I'd probably leave the fridge (and freezer) on at home."

Exactly.....like almost everyone else in the world. :grin:

No real good reason not to leave it running that I can think of.

Warm beer sucks. :grin:
 
I leave it on all the time, and the ice maker too!
Fridge compressors are designed for that and breakers are there to protect your boat. Enjoy your beer cold!
 
Leave 'em on. During boating season, our boat is our cottage designed for us to just show up and go. Fridges are always stocked (side by side fridge and freezer in the galley, 2 ice makers and a beer fridge).

Here's a good tip that I picked up from this website. Put some ice cubes in a ziplock baggie in your freezer section. That way you can tell if the power was out for long enough for food to thaw (while it is hard to recognise refrozen food, metled ice doesn't refreeze in cubes:grin:). Sometimes marinas have iffy power and other times marina staff can forget to properly replug power if service had been done during the week.

Paul
 
We always leave the frig on.
 
Leave the fridge on. :thumbsup:. I can't drink warm beer. :smt021
 
Jackie J V said:
Leave 'em on. During boating season, our boat is our cottage designed for us to just show up and go. Fridges are always stocked (side by side fridge and freezer in the galley, 2 ice makers and a beer fridge).

Here's a good tip that I picked up from this website. Put some ice cubes in a ziplock baggie in your freezer section. That way you can tell if the power was out for long enough for food to thaw (while it is hard to recognise refrozen food, metled ice doesn't refreeze in cubes:grin:). Sometimes marinas have iffy power and other times marina staff can forget to properly replug power if service had been done during the week.

Paul
Click to expand...

You disconnect DC to your fridge then :smt017
 
sfergson727 said:
Most setups have two switches for the refrigerators, AC and DC. What you do with them is up to you. If you leave them both on, and lose shore power, you will run your house batteries down eventually. (Ice cubes melt eventually, letting you know there was a power failure) Once power returns, the battery charger recharges the batteries and you are blissfully unaware of any problems, (besides the melted ice cubes, or in the case your boat sprung a leak while the batteries were dead, in which case it sunk)

OR

You could power the fridge with AC power, turning DC power off. Lose shore power, and you lose power to the fridge. (ice cubes melt eventually, letting you know there was a power failure) But, your batteries are not drained by the fridge.

The main point is the ice cubes keep you from drinking spoiled milk.
Click to expand...

Or...you leave the fridge on AC and DC...and the AC-only icemaker will actually tell you if there was a power interruption (my case) :grin:
I have someone looking after my boat, anyway. This is the best guarantee against power failure, sinking at the dock and other calamities... This is a common practice over here. You pay some 200€ a month and you can have your boat looked after every day!
 
Pietro,
My fridges are AC only - side-by-side Sub Zeros. I did however add an inverter to run the fridges and other critical boat systems (i.e., coffee maker :grin:).

The key issue is not whether or not you lose AC but rather whether or not you lose cold. If you lose cold for a couple of hours - who cares. If you lose cold for a couple of days, stuff in the freezer thaws and the stuff in the fridge gets warm. The thawing stuff in the freezer refreezes and is really only noticeable if you're closely paying attention. The warmed up sandwich meat, etc. becomes a case of food poisoning waiting to happen unless you know.

I've had it happen a few times where someone doing maintenance on the boat doesn't plug it back into shore power properly, or the power goes out in a lightening storm and the surge also trips the inverter, where power could be out for a few days. Unless someone is coming on your boat and checking systems all the time, they wouldn't even notice that something was wrong.

The ice cube baggie is just a little trick to let you know if something happened in the week (we're at the boat pretty much every weekend for half of the year).

Paul
 
I never leave food in the fridge. Who would want to eat sh*t thats a week old. :wow: . :wow:
 
You could power the fridge with AC power, turning DC power off. Lose shore power, and you lose power to the fridge. (ice cubes melt eventually, letting you know there was a power failure) But, your batteries are not drained by the fridge.

EXACTLY WHAT I DO.....:thumbsup:
 
Wayne's World said:
I never leave food in the fridge. Who would want to eat sh*t thats a week old. :wow: . :wow:
Click to expand...

NOT REALLY FOOD FOOD TO SAY, BUT MAYBE TWINKIES OR DONUTS AND PLENTY OF BEER AND WATER...
NO MEAT BALLS AND SPAGHETTI.....:smt021
 
Well....who would want to eat fresh sh*t??? Look, thats not important right now. The point is, we all want cold beer available at all times for safety reasons.
 
gregkjones said:
Well....who would want to eat fresh sh*t??? Look, thats not important right now. The point is, we all want cold beer available at all times for safety reasons.
Click to expand...


HaHaHa very funny:grin::grin:....safety reasons:grin:
 
I like the beer response...I don't know about the U.S., but it's on the Canadian Coast Guard list of essential items. Just a tip to avoid a fine if you visit the Great White North...:smt043


Wayne's World said:
I never leave food in the fridge. Who would want to eat sh*t thats a week old. :wow: . :wow:
Click to expand...


As I said, we're good to go when we show up at the boat. No clothes to pack, no toiletries or other crap to slug back and forth to the boat. Show up with the keys and head out to anchor. As a consequence, we always have stuff in our fridge, as do our boating friends. Condiments, sauces, hot dogs weiners, sandwich meat, etc. etc. and the freezer is usually stocked with various frozen foods (hamburger patties, shrimp, chicken, h'ors d'oeurves). All that stuff certainly keeps for the four days we're not at the boat (typical routine has us leaving the boat early on Monday morning and returning on Friday afternoon).

Paul
 
gregkjones said:
Well....who would want to eat fresh sh*t??? Look, thats not important right now. The point is, we all want cold beer available at all times for safety reasons.
Click to expand...

I'm single...so I always keep a bottle of champagne also :grin::grin::grin:
 
I leave the fridge on and a couple lights all the time, and sometimes away from the boat 3-4 weeks
 
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