Treasure from the Thrift Store (long)
 

About 2 months ago I stopped by the local thrift store (St.Vincent
DePaul) and found my bargin. A NORCOLD 1.5 cuft chest type
frig/freezer. It looked like crap, having been brush painted, and many
signs of heavy useage. It had a all metal case, heavy plastic lining,
with a large evaporator plate that wrapped around the entire inside
walls. The typical low voltage compressor, internal inverter/power
supply, AC/DC.

Intially it appeared that the power cords were missing but a little
search of nearby junk produced the AC cord and off to their appliance
test bench I went.. Plugged it in and the compressor came to life. In 5
minutes there was frost on the evaporator plates. Good Enough for me.

Went to the check out counter and paid a whapping $12.95 (+ tax).

The first thing I did before trusting it to my frozen delights, was open
the compressor/condenser area and do a cleaning and inspection. Found a
complete electrical schematic and info on the freon, etc. Much dirt and
sawdust, etc. Left it run on the dock for several hours but noted the
unit was down to zero in about 30 min (no food load).

After building a shelf for it I hooked it up to AC and over the next
week or so I began loading it with prefrozen food and determined that
could maintain zero but was cyling on/of75/25. I have since raised the
temp setting to about 10-15 above zero. Probably not as cold as it
should be but the ice cream and meat are still pretty firm and the
on/off cycle is about 50/50. The DC power consumed thru my main invertor
is a couple amps and the invertor has a "sense" mode, so it is nil when
nothing else is running. I'd still like to run it directly on DC if I
can find the proper cord.

To my surprise, while searching for a replacement DC cable on the
NORCOLD web site I found that this model frig/freezer is still in
production and has a list price of over $800.

I have now been away from dock power for about 6 weeks and conclude that
this "toy" is great at the dock of when I have plenty of wind for the
wind generator, however, it is easy to become a slave to refrigeration,
just because there are 5 lbs of hamburger and a pint of ice cream at stake.

I will however keep it onboard since I'm will be living aboard with dock
power and my near future cruising will be mostly motor sailing.

I like it for what it is, a place to store a weeks supply of frozen meat
and the all important Ice Cream. (sorry, I don't mess with Ice. Too much
juice to convert liquid to solid)

You never know what treasures you might find in the junk of the thrift
stores.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions