Freezer Recommendations Please

The Admiral is now wanting a small freezer to stash her catch while up north. Don't have a lot of room, but need something compacts and 12Vdc and 110Vac.

We have looked at this, but I am not a big fan of Dometic products.

DOMETIC 112qt. Coolmatic Compressor Cooler/Freezer | West Marine

Any other recommendations?

We bought a Dometic CF-110 4 years ago at the SBS and it has been a champ ever since. It will hold a little more than you can put in an airline 50lb fish box and is pretty miserly using 12VDC power.

How far north are you going?

Tom

We bought an Edgestar freezer through Overstock.com. Great price and we bought an extended warranty for about $60.00. It was still way cheaper than a Dometic, to say nothing about waiting for a month on backorder for the Dometic and it never came. We love the Edgestar, but recently it quit working on 12 volt. I just bought an inverter that plugged into the 12 volt outlet in the car and it works great. Called Overstock and told them that it quit on 12 volts, they looked for a local service center and called back the next day and said they could not find any local center so they refunded the $570.00 that we paid for the freezer and that we could keep the freezer. Talk about service! So we essentially have a freezer that works fine on 120 volts or on a small inverter and all it ended up costing was the price of the extended warranty.

If you have the bucks to spend, check out Engel freezers. They are amazing.

Engel 12vAC DC Fridge/Freezer, 12V Portable Refrigerator

hmason said:

If you have the bucks to spend, check out Engel freezers. They are amazing.

Engel 12vAC DC Fridge/Freezer, 12V Portable Refrigerator

Click to expand...

You can't go wrong with an Engel.

I know 3 owners of KK42's, all serious fishermen who have used cheap Costco freezers with great success. They run them off the inverter. One fellow added additional insulation and was pleased with that.

Here's the problem: I don't think DC freezers "freeze" fish fast enough for longer term storage. The second problem: you cannot "portion pack" fish caught in BC waters. Draconian! Yes! I know of several Americans who were fined for doing so.

http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/rec/points/packaging-emballage-eng.html

It's okay for weekenders or the charter businesses. But I think it's a stupid regulation, and penalizes people who are on the water for weeks at a time.



Jim
Sent from my iPad using Trawler Forum

We have always used small household 110vac freezers running off of an inverter. Current one is 10 years old and is run 5 months of the year without a problem.
Ttaor

I was going to buy a $750 ac/dc freezer. Even ordered it on Amazon.

Then I felt guilty and kinda stupid so I cancelled the amazon order and bought a much larger household freezer for $175 at home depot.

Couldnt be happier. If I get three or four seasons out of it I'll be happy.

I am running one Engel that I bought in 1979, never been repaired. So a big tick for reliability and quality there. Also two Waeco CF-110 (Dometic), one on the boat when I bought it and one bought new. Newer models of both brands have, I believe, the more efficient Danfoss compressors and really are miserly on power consumption.

Depending on space available though, the cheap AC household types would be something I would look at if I needed to replace something.

Re-assess your battery bank capacity whichever route you go. Freezers sure like to use power. My Engel, which admittedly has an old tech compressor, consumed 55 Ah for a 24 hour period holding at 0.5ºC. ie working as a fridge. But for a 24 hour period with a -3.8ºC hold (light freezer mode) consumption was 102 Ah.

hmason said:

If you have the bucks to spend, check out Engel freezers. They are amazing.

Engel 12vAC DC Fridge/Freezer, 12V Portable Refrigerator

Click to expand...

+1
Have one for 15 years as a back up and when we need the extra freezer space. It has ended up being used by a half dozen other boaters when their freezers went down. Good customer service when I needed it. (Problem was my mistake.)

JDCAVE said:

I know 3 owners of KK42's, all serious fishermen who have used cheap Costco freezers with great success. They run them off the inverter. One fellow added additional insulation and was pleased with that.

Here's the problem: I don't think DC freezers "freeze" fish fast enough for longer term storage. The second problem: you cannot "portion pack" fish caught in BC waters. Draconian! Yes! I know of several Americans who were fined for doing so.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada | Pacific Region | Recreational Fishing | Packaging and Transporting Your Catch

It's okay for weekenders or the charter businesses. But I think it's a stupid regulation, and penalizes people who are on the water for weeks at a time.



Jim
Sent from my iPad using Trawler Forum

Click to expand...

Well crap this kinda negates the reason for having a freezer on board. Gotta keep the tail of any halibut caught......

We have an Engel MR 040 fridge/freezer. We use it as a freezer only and at a mid point setting it keeps things rock hard. I run it on AC all the time and when off the dock it runs off the inverter. The compressor has one moving part and when on the hook overnight it barely touches the batteries at all. All the reviews I researched give the unit very high marks. We live aboard so it runs 24/7/365. I wish everything I bought performed this well.

We have used a Danfoss powered Waeco/Dometic fridge/freezer, for about 7 years. Works well, and is keen to act as a freezer if moved off the slide adjustable "cold" setting towards "freeze". We use it taking cold/frozen food from home to boat,using the 12v supply in the car. It functions well as a freezer if required.