Rick Morel wrote in
:

Al, I agree 100% with Larry's response.

Thanks.

I have another solution for that small boat that might make sense if you
can find one.....

I have a little 2.2 cuft "dorm fridge" that's quite old, but I wouldn't
trade it for a brand new one. It, too, is a Norcold, but I'm sure many
were sold under different names like this one.

What's different about this neat little fridge is IT ONLY DRAWS 40 WATTS
and has NO STARTING CURRENT, unlike other compressors. Its compressor
doesn't "rotate". It's a linear vibrator. They're not made, or at least
not sent to the USA, any more because it uses the much-more-economical-
to-operate, forbidden R-12 refridgerant. R-12 uses lots lower pressures
which are easier to pump...with vibrator compressors, I'd guess.

To identify these units is quite easy. Instead of the compressor being a
fat little low-profile, almost spherical unit, these vibrator units are a
long cylinder approximately 3-4" in diameter and about 8-10" long. They
have only ONE wire coming out of them for power. The case of the
compressor is the other conductor for the coil inside. Mine runs on
40VAC. Each fridge has a little transformer that converts what ever
country's power line voltage it's to run on into 40VAC on the secondary
to run the compressor. Just follow the wire. It's easy to find. This
made world distribution easy. 240V country, 240V transformer....115V
country, 115V transformer. The transformer is about the size of a door
bell transformer, maybe a little larger...only 40 watts, remember.

This would be ideal for a small boat fridge running off the smallest
inverter you can find. When I go on a car trip, I run it off a little
Vector inverter thats nothing but a large cigarette lighter plug with a
115VAC outlet on the back of the plug. My cars are diesel so have a
battery that can easily provide overnight power to the tiny inverter
without going dead. In a boat, that's not an issue, of course.

Be on the lookout for one of these little vibrator compressor fridges.
All the ones I've seen have an EXTERNAL condensor sticking out the back
for better cooling and lower head pressure. You can hardly hear it
running. It makes just a very low hum. It freezes ice cubes as fast as
my other small fridges that have heavy starting current and draw lots
more power driving rotary compressors on R-134a or R-22.

It doesn't run a lot, either, saving AHs. The Norcold box is nicely
insulated. I swapped the broken door off it with a Korean 2.2 cuft
fridge because the door that was on it was rusted nearly off it. It's
really worth the restoration. I've even run it at ham radio events off a
12V gelcell all day with the same little inverter.

No, you can't have mine....(c;

Larry
--
Democracy is when two wolves and a sheep vote on who's for dinner.
Liberty is when the sheep has his own gun.