[C320-list] Fridge Usage

[hcreech at comcast.net]

Colin, 
Do you place your battery on all, 1, or 2. I assume you are not on shore power? Also do you supplement the fridge with any ice, blocks or cubes? 

Herb Creech 
Cloud Chaser 606 




----- Original Message -----
From: "Karl Mielenhausen" <kmielen at suddenlink.net> 
To: C320-List at catalina320.com 
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2011 8:29:30 AM 
Subject: Re: [C320-list] Fridge Usage 

Colin, 

Here are a few thoughts to consider and some data collection requests that 
might make it more effective for us to help you.... 

1/ When you return to the boat after 16 hrs and the fridge is no longer 
running, what is the voltage indicated by the batteries? what is the 
specific gravity of each cell? My fridge is designed to stop working if it 
does not "see" 11.0V. Perhaps your electronic control module is faulty and 
it is shutting down to soon. Or wire of an insufficient gauge was used. My 
Adler/Barbour manual has specific recommendations. 

2/ Could there be any other (unknown) significant power draws during those 
16 hrs that would be depleting your charge? Have you turned everything else 
off? Keep in mind your bilge pump circuit will still be energized as it 
should be wired directly to the battery switch, not the breaker panel. I 
have even heard of those new electronic bilge monitors consuming enough 
power over time to run down batteries. Or there could be some other current 
leak. 

3/ Is it possible to run the fridge on each of your house 
batteries separately after a full charge and provide voltage decay data for 
each battery. 

4/ Exactly how did your supplier determine "they are fine". Measure the 
voltage? the S.G.? Do a load test? 


I'm not an EE, but I hope this helps, 
Karl Mielenhausen 


On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 12:50 AM, Colin Evans <twosailors at bigpond.com>wrote: 

> 
> Cast your minds back a few weeks when I queried the time our fridge was 
> running. It generated a lot of discussion, and we learnt many energy saving 
> ideas for the fridge. Thank you all. 
> However 
> Generally it seemed that about 30% t 40% running time was normal. Now I 
> have had my batteries checked by our local supplier and they are fine. At 
> less than two years old I would hope so. 
> I have still have the problem of lack of power. We went 16 hoiurs last 
> weekend and then there was insufficient power to start the fridge. Bear in 
> ming that we have 2 x 150A house batteries and a separate starting battery. 
> The general comments indicated that we should be okay for 48 hours, as all 
> three batteries indicated being fully charged when we left the marina 
> If anyone can shed some light on this I would be grateful. 
> ************************* 
> Regards 
> Colin Evans 
> Watermark #774 
> Lake Macquarie, Australia 
>