Refrigeration A25

[Sunsetrider]

Five cloudy days, running fridge and VHF.

[DesertAlbin736]

That is a neat state-of-charge meter! Looking more & more like a stop in Gananoque & Sharbot Lake to get a tour of your boat is a must-see on our upcoming road trip. I'll have those Weaver stand off rods with us too.

We have this digital meter which came with my solar charge controller, and monitors minimum, maximum, and actual real time voltage and accumulated amp hours separately on the start battery, house bank, and solar panel output. The solar panel controller can proportionally allocate charging amps from the solar panel to start and house banks according to user set 10% increments from 50-50 to 90-10. It also has float charge voltage protocol settings for FLA, AGM, or Gel cell battery types.

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I don't have any photos of our side opening except this one which shows previous owner installed jump seat, which was one of the first things I removed. The plywood cover over the opening doubles as a cockpit table that hangs off the aft cabin door with a pipe for one leg on the front end. Can't wait to see what your setup is like.

Albin Portside Cockpit.jpg

Side opening cover set up as a cockpit table. I don't know if this was original stock or added at some later date. I guess if we ever did install a fridge I could stow this board elsewhere & still use as a table. We generally don't use the settee center insert that makes into a table in the main cabin, other than to make the settees into a double V berth, since I haven't figured a way to install it as a table so it's not wobbly.

Albin table in Cockpit.jpg

[Beta Don]

I would not place a great deal of trust in what that meter says - The green light just means the battery was fully charged at some point within the past 2 weeks

It's labeled 'State of Charge' but in reality it's just a fancy voltmeter and you cannot determine the actual state of charge by reading battery voltage, especially if there is either A.) Anything currently charging the battery (the voltage will read artificially high) or B.) If the battery is currently powering anything (that would cause the voltage to read artificially low). If either A or B is true, the voltage tells you nothing about the actual state of charge

Here's one opinion from a knowledgeable reviewer at Amazon.com

I installed one of these based on the manufacturer saying that it actually was a battery state of charge meter. Lying them and silly me! This thing is just an overpriced voltmeter with one extra feature, which tells how long it’s been since the battery was fully charged. So what if it looks fancy. Even if the battery is close to dead it will likely read fully charged during the day. It only tells you state of charge if the batteries have been sitting for a while after being charged, as in late at night. But for wind or hydro, forget it altogether. Don’t buy it.

I would not say it's useless . . . . but it's for sure NOT a 'State of Charge' meter which will tell you anything meaningful - Other than that your battery did have a full charge sometime in the last two weeks

Don

[Sunsetrider]

Well, that's all kind of disappointing.

[WillieC]

Go back and review MaineSail's stuff. It will take a while, but there is valuable information there.

http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/boat_projects

[Sunsetrider]

Will do Willie - and I should point out that the Midnite monitor is located inside the cabin as an alerting tool. The battery info displayed to me at the helm comes via the LED readout on the Controller. The info shown below cycles automatically or may be browsed by the operator. I am operating under the assumption that between these two devices - and physically checking the batteries monthly - I am able to be alert to battery health.

Controller LED Readout.jpg

[DesertAlbin736]

The battery info displayed to me at the helm comes via the LED readout on the Controller.

Sounds very similar to what we have. Seen here mounted behind the steering wheel. Placed there because of an existing hole in the dashboard where an earlier old Raymarine simple digital GPS lat/long readout was, which I removed because of lousy signal acquisition and having been replaced with my Garmin GPSmap76CX in a different location. At some point when I upgrade my VHF I'll get one with built in GPS receiver as a backup to the primary GPS.

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Location of the solar panel controller under the ProNautic on board battery charger. An auxiliary DC fuse panel box just above the SI-ACR relay has an analog voltmeter with momentary toggle switch that can separately read start battery and house bank voltages too.

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[kerrye]

Which refrigerator did you go with Sunsetrider? I'm thinking about this one:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01F88ANYQ/_e ... 4N7JCIMWW8

What slides did you use and where did you buy them?

[Sunsetrider]

This fridge:
http://uniqueoffgrid.com/product/unique ... 60-litres/

I got the slides from Lee Valley Tools. They have yellow tabs that lock the slides in place in both in and out position. I installed them on their sides and that is working out very well. I couldn't find the yellow tab slides on their site today.

I like the Unique because you can set different temps for each compartment (fridge or freezer). Low amp draw - so far I have been running it for 2 weeks in mainly cloudy conditions on solar alone (260W) with no lessening of battery charge (230AH batts) as it sat at the dock. Fridge only though, not the freezer. Pretty happy overall!

[kerrye]

That sure looks like a rebranded Whynter. Is it?

[Sunsetrider]

Different physical features, but similar in many respects. How does one know?

[kerrye]

By the way, Sunsetrider, we're planning to take our A25 up your way next year to do the Rideau Canal. We just finished a cruise on the North Channel of Lake Huron with it and we're leaving it on NY over the winter so we can do the Rideau.

[Sunsetrider]

I hope to see you then, if, sadly, I haven't been able to get away on my own adventure by that time!

[kerrye]

What frig is that in there? Manufacturer and size? Are you happy with it? I too was thinking that the area under the frig might be a good place to install batteries for the frig.

Here are some pictures of the installation in my boat. You can get some ideas on how it might work for you.

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The tray in my installation is raised as the previous owner had an extra set of batteries stored beneath it. When dockside power is available I use the plug above the fire extinguisher for power.

[dkirsop]

The fridge in my boat is an Engle. I am travelling now so cannot confirm the model. I am reasonably sure it is their smallest unit. If I was to redo the installation I would go one size larger. I will confirm the model number after I return in two weeks.