S3#35 Ce!! Frigider vertical pentru Portofino 52 – DE CE?? + Ne întoarcem la Leopard 45 după 8 luni

34 thoughts on “S3#35 Ce!! Frigider vertical pentru Portofino 52 – DE CE?? + Ne întoarcem la Leopard 45 după 8 luni”

1. Looks to me like you didn't use what I would call a tarp to cover the helm , rather a cheaper poly sheet that is not very UV resistant .
   Most stock feed bags are made of the same material and break down exactly the same way as yours .
   Really surprised to see your Vitrifrigo review , I thought they were the best .
   Do you have them set on the lowest/coldest setting per chance .?

2. Very logical points!👍

3. Spray stainless steel with Fluid Flim this lanolin spray is used under cars in cold climates to stop road salt crossion. You can find it in hardware stores.

4. Try cleaning the rust spots with a cotton wadding called “Never Dull”. It comes in a small round metal can.

5. Marine fridge/freezer should be better at resisting shocks from the boat's movements and corrosion from salty sea air. Self-defrosting freezer means more electrical consumption and freezer 'burn' for anything that is not vacuum sealed.

   So a conventional fridge/freezer would be more convenient but would probably need to be replaced sooner.

6. Good to bash these products and companies. How else are we going to know and the companies are going to improve?
   My grandmother's Norge refrigerator from the 1940s had these sorts of issues (and probably was about as efficient.) It's often better to buy a tech item produced in the largest quantities. In George Dyson's history of the Eniac computer he tells how they selected which vacuum tubes to use. They were going to need thousands of them and they had to be as reliable as possible. So they tested hundreds of vacuum tubes especially the more expensive long life ones. What they learned was (and this was true for quartz automobile headlamps in the 1990s) the long life ones made in short production runs were the least reliable. The longest lived and most reliable tubes were the models produced in the largest numbers, they were also among the least expensive. What I know about fridges is high humidity and ambient temperature puts a greater load on them. Makes sense. High humidity also increases the frosting problem inside. Open it and air with more water in it enters. But your experience is unacceptable. Watching this I realized I've been putting 5 gallon (4.x litre) jugs of very warm sugar syrup (dense so a greater thermal hit) into my home fridge every couple of weeks. (I feed a mob of hummingbirds.) This should cause frost problems, it never does. So yep, better to carve out a space for an appliance store fridge with a high Consumer Reports rating for reliability and efficiency. Looking nice, and keeping the door from flying open in rough conditions should be a secondary consideration to essential function. Workarounds will fix the door flying open. Every company making refrigerators have engineers. Huge companies like LG, Samsung have even more engineers streamlining production, working on making them more efficient and more reliable. (or less reliable which has been the case with large appliances over the past twenty years. How else are they going to sell you another one?
   And company bashing? I was on a boat that had a few problems with the rigging. Discussing it as a crew I made the suggestion that these issues be raised in the user forum. I got jumped on and ridiculed. Wait a minute! I'm on this boat helping to fix these problems and you've just come after me far more harshly than you think would be okay against the company that created and ignored all these problems??? They settled into to taunting me anytime I complained with "Why don't you write a letter?" (Fixers are complainers, dissatisfied people fix things. It's all the complainers who never fix anything that give us a bad rep.) The implication is of course, 'as if that would accomplish anything.' Then I told them about the free car Ford gave us after a letter my wife and I wrote.

7. Yah ur Back, I'm whole again.🤣Hi to all the Exp Barfoot tribe, I've missed all the comments. I'm So happy ur both Back on Expedition BareFoot. Ok the bloody freezer, does it not have a thermostat dial for cooling levels? I bought a 150 litre upright 4 way marine fridge for $3000, and the dam reset button didn't work, so when u turn it off then on from 1 power input to another being 12v battery, solar, lpg and 240v Aus and now it won't work at all, needless to say I'm P!$$€D Off. So $45 later for new reset button and it works but ur both absolutely right, these fridge freezers are ridiculously expensive for the VERY poor manufacturing quality. Great informative presentation, so good to hear ur voice Eli. U both look well, but weary. So where are we Adventuring to next.? And I've had an epifany (Solar Sails) we gotta manufacture them before anyone else does🤣 love yas both🇦🇺🌈🏳️‍🌈🐳

8. If you go for a domestic refrigerator check the rear. If the coil is visible check the screws that hold it against the rear panel. Usually they are the first to rust. Next is the pieces that hold the motor, both screws and the frame. Nice video.

9. Home refrigerators need to be level. When installed in a house a level is used to dial each corner up or down. Not sure why. Might be worth asking about home refrigerators in heeling conditions. Maybe marine refrigerators have a stronger refrigerant pump?

   Second consideration. Refrigerators auto-defrost periodically warming and melting ice buildup. The condensation goes to a drip pan under the refrigerator. I do not think the pan is enclosed otherwise the condensate would not evaporate. It might be worth asking questions about a home refrigerator drip pan in heeling conditions. A redirect to the bilge may save your flooring from pan spillage?

   I have no idea if basic refrigeration has changed over the years, maybe. These are the two questions I would research besides the obvious question of how items on the shelves do not fall out when the doors are opened while heeling.

10. Oh my goodness! That’s insane to have that much ice buildup after a few weeks in those overpriced fridge and freezer. I agree with your assessment, John. When you showed pictures of the Portofino I fell in love with the fridge! My last 45’ Class A Coach had a residential Samsung fridge and it was so nice. The ice maker was a workhorse and the available room inside was a game changer! You are gonna be so happy and have more time for snorkeling. ☺️

11. Fully agree with your choice of a side by side…would prefer LG…the only thing that you did not mention is the evaporation space for the frost free part of the operation…the amount by the maker is not enough for the marine environment….

12. Marine fridges, over priced for what they are. In 20 years of running boats marine drawer fridge would have caused the most hassles from anything else. Easy to find and replace a domestic fridge.

13. Just wondering how a domestic fridge will handle rough seas, best of luck.

14. Makes sense to use a domestic fridge for volume, space and probably reliability as I expect they are produced in higher volumes. The only thing that I was wondering was about latching the doors shut as the magnetic seals may not be strong enough in rough seas. You may have to adapt them slightly to keep them shut.

15. The marine industry has a lot to answer for and I agree wholeheartedly with you on the fridge/freezers' issues. I'm guessing that the fridges are marine steel/aluminium graded and about the only thing a domestic fridge/freezer combo might lack is the locking catches which would be useful in a heavy seaway.

16. To stop stainless steel rusting after cleaning rub the s/ steel with kerosene which gets into the pores of the burnished s/ steel .The ice is due to the door seals not sealing from word go,poor.
    Safe travels

17. How do you keep the doors of the upright refrigerator shut when sailing in rough conditions? Will you add some kind of latch or do you think the magnets in the door gasket are strong enough to hold? Adding fiddles (raised ridges) to the front edges of the shelves might be good to prevent things from sliding forward and then falling out when you open the door. Otherwise, putting small items in plastic bins may help. Drawer type units avoid this, but certainly don't offer the easy access of front doors. I'm curious to learn if you're able to just put things in the fridge like you would on land and not end up with a mess. In a monohull no, but maybe in a catamaran. Please let us know how this goes.

    Ice buildup on the cooling fins of any refrigerator or freezer comes from humidity in the air condensing on the cold fins and freezing. Air on boats is often very humid, speeding up this process.
    The more often you open the fridge door, the more humid air gets in, and the more ice you get. Fresh fruits and vegetables can also release water vapor if not in air tight containers. The ice buildup blocks airflow and reduces the fins ability to cool the air in the box, causing the compressor to run longer and using more electricity. This is unavoidable. Something that is avoidable that adds to the problem is air leaks from the rubber door gasket. Check the position of the gasket and look for damage. The rubber that gaskets are made of can harden with age and loose the ability to form a good seal. A new replacement may help. If you have a deep freeze unit for long term storage and rarely open it should have very little ice buildup if there are no air leaks.

    There are several different methods that can be used to remove the ice buildup. The simplest is to turn off the compressor, open the door and wait for the ice to melt. Your food will get warm. If the melt water drips all over the contents of the fridge and is not removed it will evaporate and end up back on the cooling fins when you turn the compressor back on. It's important to catch the dripping water and remove is from inside the box. Other schemes involve actively heating the cooling fins. This greatly speeds up the melt. With these methods it is possible to melt the ice so quickly that the stored food only warms slightly. A drip tray is built in under the fins with a drain tube routed through a hole sending the water outside the box. Automatic valves reverse the flow of the refrigerant so that instead of the fins inside the box getting cold and the fins outside the box getting hot, they reverse and the fin inside the box get hot and the outside fins get cold. This melts the ice very rapidly. The complexity of this raises the cost of the unit, but gives excellent performance.

    Home appliances aren't made to resist salt air corrosion. The motor and compressor of a fridge are sealed in a metal can (hermetically sealed) so they are protected but many electrical connections and circuit boards are not. An easy and cheap way to slow corrosion in a marine environment is to spray all the electrical and mechanical parts that are concealed in the bottom or back of the unit (areas you won't be touching in daily use) with a heavy coating of WD-40. Spray it as if you are painting a coat of clear lacquer over the metal parts. Spray inside any electrical junction boxes and both sides of circuit boards. If you can, unplug any control relays or electronic modules (little plastic cubes) and spray both their metal pins and the sockets they plug into. If you can't unplug them flood the gap between the socket and the relay with WD-40 using the plastic tube squirter. If you heavily soak these areas with WD-40 there will be a lot of dripping , so I prefer to do this on land before moving things onto the boat. Put a sheet of cardboard and some rags under the unit to control the runoff. Then let it sit for a day or two to dry and stop dripping. You'll smell the WD-40 for a few days, but this will fade away. My experience is that this can noticeably increase the life span of land based home appliances when used on salt water boats.

    Stay cool.

18. I would only use LiFepo4 batteries 🔋 on the new boat.. They're not flammable like lithium ion batteries….

19. Some things to think about. The residential fridge dumps it's heat into the living space and when it goes into defrost mode every night, it dumps the water into a condensate tray underneath. You may have to modify the fridge by running the condensate hose over the side or into the bilge.

21. I really think your making a good decision on the refrigerator, and because your from the land down under I would look at some of those pulls out camper trailers for your drinks fridge. Some of the go anywhere camper trailers have some ingenious solutions for a pullout easy to access equipment. I have also seen people use plug in box coolers as an extra seat for the table , that would open your under cockpit space for pull out storage.
    -MG

22. If they used 18/8 stainless steel, you would not have that "staining". I do not know how Samsung will stand up to the salt, but you can buy 3 for the price of one of the others. I would go with the Samsung or another home fridge.

23. Just another case of easy-stamp stainless steel, add the word "MARINE", and double or triple the price! If the heads of a boat builder's departments and the company president had to live together on hull 1 of each design for 6 weeks, they might start producing boats worth a damn.

24. We have a large domestic Samsung f/f on our leopard. Straps to hold doors and drawers while underway but fine at anchor/berth. So far so good.

25. Stainless steel is not easy to keep spotless, especially in marine environment. There are some who svare that light coat of WD40 (gently rubbed in) helps to keep rust spots in check. Not sure if it would work in sea (solty) environment but it seems to make difference in lake (fresh water) environment. Good luck with your battles with rust at sea 😉

26. Darn auto spell check. It should be "There are some who swear that ……..". My apologies 😊

27. I would check out some of the new RV fridges that work on 12V only. They give you the same volume of space as a residential design but use a lot less power.

28. The other news i wanted to point out to you is a bunch of researchers have developed a passive solar desalinator that doesnt clog up and can produce significant amounts of fresh water at below US tap water costs.
    Its an MIT research project.
    It uses the natural thermalhaline flow principle of the ocean in miniature to avoid saline clogging. Cheap, silent and effective fresh water back up.

29. When cleaning stainless steel, always wide with the direction of the grain. Thanks for the great video!

30. Those freezer issues are due to bad door seals.

31. I have done the same thing. I switched my design from all DC to all AC for my fridge freezers needs. The AC does use more power however you can offset with more solar panels. End result goin the AC route it’s about 1/3 to 1/5 the price than the DC route.

32. Where did you hard stand for the winter?

33. I've heard integral icemakers can be trouble and break down a lot. Also two smaller units might give a bit of redundancy and the option to just use one when you don't have crew.

34. Those fridges and freezers are rubbish.

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