Foggysail - can you tell us about your fridge/freezer? Mine is aging, is NOT self-defrost, and freezes meat fine, but not ice cream. I have a similar power setup as you (4 solar panels, 760 AH of GC batteries).
Thanks!
Sure! Way back when we puchased our new to us Silverton, it came with an 8cuft Norcold fridge. It was horrible, loud, things never seemed to get cold but I didn’t use a thermometer as I should have. Now the freezer, that was something else! I had to defrost that thing one time too many.
A friend who has a similar boat was cursed with a Norcold with the same performance. OK, the fridges were old and just maybe a new or newer Norcold would do a better refrigeration job but neither of us want to venture down that path with a new Norcold. Friend went ahead and purchased a different brand for about $1500....no defrost!
I searched the internet for an apartment style fridge that had dimensions close to that needed to fill the slot my Norcold rested comfortably in. Took awhile until I found that Summit offered a replacement with almost the exact dimensions, had a self defrost feature and could be had for only $500 delivered to my home. No way I could have had it delivered to the boat but that was not a big deal.
Now came the powering problem which I easily solved with an inverter.....into my second because I needed greater AC power while on anchor. What I have now is a 3KW true sine wave that runs 24/7 BUT it only powers the fridge when dock or genny power is missing. I just use a simple relay circuit to make this happen.
Batteries; and your going to need them no matter whose fridge you have. I installed two banks using 4 golf carts and I just could not keep them charged over a weekend away from the dock. So next I installed a Xantrex 1250 or maybe its a 5012 3 stage charger. Unimpressive! I had to run our genny for hours on anchor.....but I had rock hard ice cream and a frostless freezer.
I had to get serious! So my next move was to add solar...twice! My first attempt used 4 each 150 watt panels connected in parallel with a Vmp of 18V. I also had a named brand controller, PWM.....junk! I enjoyed charging of only about 25 amperes.
Next I installed a second hard top on my boat to accommodate more panels, sold the ones I had and purchased 4 Canadian made or at least marketed 295W panels, two on each hard top. They have a Vmp around 32V. Connected two on each hard top in parallel and then that combo connected in series. Increased my battery bank to 8 golf carts to form 2 banks providing a total of 850AH capacity.
And I junked the old contoller, replaced it with a Victron MTTP 150-70. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Last summer my genny was down but my solar was up! They kept the bank charged with our fridge continuing to do refrigeration as advertised while we enjoyed watching TV on 2 each 32’’ sets.....Wifey and I agree on many things but definitely disagree on TV programs.
The above might be an exciting read but........Summit does not make my fridge any more. There are plenty of others though to chose from although one may need cabinet work to fit the thing on his boat. There are two camps here in the forums about marine vs apartment style fridges. I will never go with a marine unit although others take a different approach and never go with an apartment unit. It is entirely up to each to make the selection.
Good luck, if you require additional info from me I will do my best to help. OH before I end, I did install a Victron remote sensor. When I launched our boat this season with the batteries a little on the down side, I read 65 amperes of battery charge current provided with my solar.... the gift that keeps on giving