New fridge anybody? (2001 A-28TE)

[Norseman]

Now almost 2 years later and a few comments on the fridge:

1) It works great, very quiet and lots of room inside
2) Power consumption in the Florida summers seems to average
24 amp/hours per day. (24 hours) Have not really measured it, estimate
only.
3) Mama loves the fridge, great investment and worth every minute of the
multiple hours of manual labor making it fit in the -28TE galley.

[jms02050]

Thought I'd dust off this very long fridge thread.

So I picked up an Isotherm Cruise 49 Elegance black with flange for proud mounting. If I were going to post about the install so far I could just use Dag's posts with his pics of the lower right corner of the fridge hitting the sloped part of the hull. My boat is a 2003 so I pretty confident that the hull shape didn't change - they used a mold.

The fridge is only about 2 years newer than Dag's so I doubt Isotherm changed the dimensions. I'm writing because I'm basically out of room enlarging the opening at the top (below the stove shelf). Wondering if anybody has recently install this fridge since Dag's install in 2020?

I'm staring down the prospect of begging Defender to allow for a return. The odd thing is the Cruise 42 spec shows measurements for every which way but for the 49 they just give overall depth - nothing about the actual depth on the bottom before the back of the fridge slopes upward.

Thx.

[catalina_mike]

I had to put mine up on a wood runner.

[jms02050]

Hi. I’ve already placed a 2x4 to raise it but still no luck clearing the hull and no more room to cut the opening. A head scratcher for sure.

[Norseman]

Don't give up.
Take pictures and publish right here.
I struggled with the same issues for several weeks and finally got it to
fit, barely..
It is a labor of love..

[Nancy]

Hi Jim --
I discovered that different colors of the Cruise 49 Elegance had different dimensions! But we successfully installed a C049RBBAB71113AA Cruise 49 Elegance Black in 2019. Does your model number match that? The fridge sits on a 2x4 inside the opening. As you can see, clearance at the top is tight.

refrigerator-1-07.12.19-1200.jpg

refrigerator-2-07.12.19-1600.jpg

[jms02050]

Hi Nancy, I purchased the same model. Model #: C049RBBAB71113AA.

https://www.defender.com/product.jsp?pa ... id=3751078

Still scratching my head on this one. Funny, I was initially thinking that the wiring would be the hard part.

Already have the fridge sitting on a 2x4 based on some of the posts on this site.

[jms02050]

Some pics. Can’t raise it any higher and it still hits the hull.

[Ben423]

I installed the Elegance 49 in my 2005 TE and had the same clearance problem. Solved it by making a teak frame or bezel (basically a spacer) that moved the unit about 1.50" inboard. I also raised it about 1". I'll post a photo later today. This fridge is a vast improvement over the old unit. Uses less energy, makes lots of ice, and has more room.

[jms02050]

To close this out I framed out the opening with some Cherry stock. The fridge is sitting on a raised platform (2x4s) so that it clears the hull. Here it is prior to staining and sealing.

Cheers!

tempImageHyEarz.gif

[Nancy]

Looks good, Jim! Enjoy!

[Ben423]

I meant to post these a few days ago. The teak spacer is about 1.25" thick.

[jms02050]

Looks great. The cherry that I used was 3/4”.

[Nancy]

Beautiful job, Ben!

[Pitou]

Beautiful job, Ben!

A very nice job matching the Albin joinery.