Poor Refrigerator Performance

[John Parsons]

I own 2012 Catalina 355 number 36.  The Isotherm refrigerator is working poorly.  I have Isotherm model SAB16RCBR-F2.  I understand that it is a drop-in unit.  Although the freezer achieves zero degrees F or below, the refrigerator achieves only fifty plus degrees.  This is with the thermostat turned all the way up, clockwise, and with the refrigerator running continuously.

Following Warren Pandy’s advice I did the dollar bill test.  I closed the refrigerator door on a dollar bill in many places and pulled the dollar bill out.  I got acceptable resistance on three sides of the counter-top access and acceptable resistance on the bottom and side of the vertical access door.  The resistance along the top of the door was unacceptable.  I added several layers of white tape to the top edge of the door and then achieved acceptable resistance.

I had a refrigeration contractor inspect the refrigerator at the end of the sailing season last fall.  They added a little refrigerant said it was functioning properly.  When I complained about poor refrigeration performance this year they advised using a circulation fan.  I purchased the Valterra FridgeCool FAN.  It is powered by two D-cell batteries.  I placed the fan in the bottom of the refrigerator and ran the refrigerator from 3pm one afternoon to noon the next day.  I got minus four degrees in the freezer and fifty three degrees in the refrigerator.

I have read the refrigerator-related postings on the Catalina 355 Google Group.  The recurring issue was the refrigerator being too cold.  No help.

I am interested suggestions on how to improve my refrigerator performance.

[Marvin Isgur]

I had a similar problem.  The refrigerator on Hull 3 was not properly secured.  It had slid out of place and was leaking air because the top was not sealed at the rear from the movement.  The entire fridge box had shifted towards the bow.

Behind the cushion against the sink, my boat had an opening covered with a piece of vinyl.  Removing that gave me access to the rear of the fridge. I added rubber shims to move the refrigerator towards the aft of the boat. This solved the problem.

I hope that this is helpful.

On Jul 16, 2020, at 5:17 PM, John Parsons <sailor...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[ken magida]

We have #46 and have the same issues with the refrigerator.

I finally followed the advice I saw on the message board and went to Home Depot and bought a roll of window weather stripping - see photo attached.  I put it on the fixed part of the box and the top door now closes much tighter than ever.  We have never had a problem with the front door although we also have an issue with the lower part of the refrigerator not being very cold.  We have used one of those circulating fans and we find it helps a lot. We also keep the shade on the hatch closed most of the time and almost never open the shades on the fixed portholes in the main salon and find that it keeps the boat much cooler. We also have a fan in the salon we often run to keep it cool.

It should be noted that the past several years we have cruised north and east from Long Island as far as Maine for the entire months of July and August. Therefore we tend to load up with a lot of food to minimize shopping. We also have a Dometic cooler we kept under the salon table with block ice to keep refrigeated items which needed to be very cold and we used the bottom part of the refrigerator for less perishable items like fruit, vegetables, etc.  

The freezer has always been good at keeping things frozen.  We leave with frozen FoodSaver wrapped meats and when we restock we wrap them with the FoodSaver and freeze them in the marina or yacht club freezer over night.  We never had a problem with frozen stuff. However, this year due to covid, we only go away for a few nights at a time so we eliminated the separate cooler.  Also, because we are taking less food, and because we installed solar panels, I pre-cool the refrigerator by turning it on high and placing a couple of frozen gallon water bottles in the bottom of the refrigerator at least several hours before we load the boat.  It has worked very well and we keep the frozen bottles in the refrigerator where they stay with at least some ice for a few days.

Our plan when we go back to long term cruising is to get one of the portable refrigerator/freezers and put it in the aft cabin which we use as our garage. 

I also want to install one of the digital thermostats with external controls and readout but the admiral is fighting me on it. Maybe someday.

The refrigerator is evidence of the fact that boat builders have no interest in maintenance and replacement issues.  They want to stuff as much as they can in the smallest possible space at the least cost.

I still love the boat.

Ken

 

Ken Magida

23B Norwood Road

Port Washington, New York 11050

Kensa...@outlook.com

cell:      (516) 428-4577

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From: catal...@googlegroups.com <catal...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of John Parsons <sailor...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2020 18:17
To: Catalina355 <catal...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Catalina 355:3631] Poor Refrigerator Performance