Cruising Indigo
  • Home
  • The Crew
    • Our Dream
    • Our Search
    • Our Why
  • The Boat
    • Why PS34?
    • Bill Crealock
    • PS34 Specs
    • Pacific Seacraft
  • Upgrades
    • Misc >
      • Computer Table
      • Cockpit Step
      • Mast Pulpits
      • Instrument Panel
      • Spice Rack
      • Shelving
      • Dinghy
      • Interior Lighting
      • Exterior Lighting
      • Yacht Transport
      • Ladder
    • Sails >
      • Roller Furling
      • Standing Rigging
    • Wind Vane
    • Batteries
    • Radar & Wind
    • Engine Mods >
      • Engine Panel
      • Fuel System
      • Fluid Capacity Gauge
    • Head
    • Solar Panels
    • Watermaker
    • To Do List
  • Pics
  • Links
  • Blog

R.I.P. Adler-Barbour

7/11/2015

Comments

 
Picture
Here lies the fridge compressor deep inside this coffin-like cockpit locker. 1994-2015. R.I.P. Adler-Barbour fridge.
It wasn’t Friday the 13th, but it may as well have been. The morning of June 13th I dove into the fridge for our cereal milk and sensed something was not quite right. A second later I realized what it was that bothered me. No ice. The ice trays, normally caked with frost, were bare.

“Uh oh”, I said aloud.  “What?” Brian asked, suspicious already.  “I think the fridge is kaput.” Ice trays filled with jiggly water are not a good sign. Funny thing is I had just mused to myself not two days ago how I would probably have to defrost the fridge again soon. Frost had been building up with the exponentially warmer and humid San Carlos weather. Defrost complete.

Styrofoam Standby
That evening we bought a cheap $5 Styrofoam cooler. I had just purchased specialty cheeses, hummus and some expensive sausage at Walmart not two days ago. SO I had about a dozen things of cheese: 3 gouda, 2 edam, 2 cheddar blocks, 1 herbed goat, Havarti slices, shredded parmesan (1 open, 1 not), shredded cheddar (1 open, one not). Oh, and don’t forget the cream cheese. Do you see a cheeseoholic's dilemma? I probably have $70 worth of cheese! (When you get a chance to go to Walmart, you gotta stock up.)

The cooler ice lasted for 2 days in this heat, inside an air conditioned boat. Luckily a Tecate store sells ice literally a 5 minute walk up the street, so it’s easy to get more. But that’s going to get old real quick. Plus there was no room for any of the rest of the relish, mustard, mayo, jam, vegetables, eggs, cold drinks, etc.  What now? We’re going to be eating out… a lot.

Resigned
We knew this would happen. It was only a matter of when. This was, of course, the one major appliance/gear we did NOT replace before we left for Mexico. If you’d read our earlier blog, in April our fridge suddenly started to pull more amps than normal. After much research, we came to the conclusion that the compressor was about to go. It’s the 20-yr old original unit; so kudos to Adler-Barbour, the fridge manufacturer, for making a product that lasted so long.

In April, we had packed the bottom half of the fridge with insulation just to keep it from working so hard in the increasing summer heat. We were just hoping if we babied it, it would last a while longer… a year, 6 months? We considered replacing it before it died. We went 'round and 'round. Logistically it would not work well. In the end, we decided to wait ‘til it died. Well, here we are.

Over the course of a few days, Brian went through the motions of trying to figure out if somehow, miraculously, we could just replace an internal part. He went through the system, testing wires, looking for shorts, burnt fuses and leaking coolant; he even replaced the control module (last year we had purchased a $300 spare since those seem to go bad). No such luck. In the end, he determined it was the compressor. Kaput.

New fridge or NO fridge?
Some cruisers have no refrigeration. I know, to the landlubber that sounds odd... but for some, the aggravation, cost and high electrical consumption makes it unworkable or undesirable. There are ways around it – like wrapping cheese differently, most of your condiments don’t need refrigeration, etc. And I actually considered NOT buying one. Briefly. For about one day. I researched other boat bloggers who exist just fine without one. I even experimented on parmesan cheese to see how long it would keep before it started to mold – about a week. Hard cheese and wax-sealed cheeses should be ok, but once you open them you have to use them quickly. And I can’t run to the store every other day to pick up more. Additional problems, besides my cheese issues, is that I can’t have lunchmeat or sausages/salamis, many vegetables go bad way faster when not refrigerated, milk for cereal would always be warm (yuck), and you can’t keep leftovers easily. We could turn the fridge into an ice chest, but then there’s the problem of getting ice every 4 days. In the end, for me personally, it’s just not worth it to NOT have a fridge.

8 Days Later
It’s now the 21st. I threw out all the sausages; just can’t keep it cold enough and don't want to risk getting sick. Styrofoam sucks. But I don’t want to spend the money for a good cooler that I’ll just throw out once we fix the fridge. I now keep only cheese and milk in the cooler. We go to the Tecate store for ice every 2 days. PB&J for lunch? Spaghetti for dinner again? We eat out a lot… as predicted.

Thank God for Google...wait, did I say that? Uggh.
Meanwhile, we’ve been researching new fridge units. Cost and fit were our two main concerns.
We considered the Mexicolder fridge system, but after measuring, it was just a bit too big. Plus they only install it in Mazatlan, and we could not get the boat down there until December. We’d have to go without a fridge until then and we just weren’t willing to do that.

We also considered the Technautics Cool Blue; this would have been the easiest to obtain in San Diego. We purchased our watermaker from the same company and trusted the product. But it was more expensive. And we’d have to build a box. See below.

Thought hard about the Frigoboat keel cooler unit as well, but the keel cooler placement and the compressor have to be within a certain distance from one another.  For our installation we couldn’t make that happen.  Besides, we would have to drill another hole in the boat….below the waterline.  We have too many of those already.

After much hemming and hawing and measuring and internet researching… and more measuring, followed by more hee-hawing…I think we have 90% decided on a Sea Frost fridge. Pacific Seacraft has been using them in their new models. Their cold plate fits perfectly in the refrigerator space. No fuss, no muss. Plus it will allow us to more easily add air-ducting.

Air Issues
One big problem with our current fridge setup is that Indigo’s compressor unit, which needs airflow because it gets hot when running, is in the worst place ever… in the sealed cockpit locker. Why would PSC put an appliance that needs airflow in a sealed locker?  Because on a boat this size you just don’t have a lot of options regarding space. So in order to install the new fridge the right way, we need to add ducting… so that cooler air can be sucked from inside the cabin into the hot cockpit locker to cool down the compressor. Sea Frost made installing this ducting easier as it was already incorporated into the product: its compressor is sealed in its own box that comes with a duct port and hose. We would be able to route the ducting from the cabin and plug it directly into the compressor box. Easy peasy. Bottom line is: It fits. Costs less. No building  a box ourselves. Sea Frost wins. 

Ship Which?
The question becomes: how do we get it? Do we ship it here and risk it getting stolen? We’ve heard UPS/Fed Ex are fine… Then we’d hear how someone got parts stolen using those same highly reputed companies. We don’t know what to believe. Maybe we ship it to a hotel in Tucson and go get it via bus (8hrs away)? Or do we just ship it to dad’s and bus/fly to Atlanta, pick it up, drive back in our truck and keep the truck down here as transportation until we go back to Michigan in October. Hmmm, we thought. Is it worth it to do all that to have a truck for essentially 2 months? Might be… if we have to go to Home Depot several times during the fridge installation. Plus we might enjoy the area more if we could travel around on our own terms. We’ve been pondering the decision for days. More hemming and hawing.

Decision Time
June 23rd. Sea Frost it is! After a couple calls to the factory to verify measurements, we placed the order. Total cost: $1500.  Not the cheapest, but half as much as the other two units we were considering.  The cost we saved by going with Sea Frost will be made up for in gas money and plane tickets picking it up and getting it back. Crazy as it sounds, mid-July we plan on bussing to Phoenix, flying to Atlanta, picking it up, and driving our truck back down here. Yup, we’re nuts. To be continued when we get back and install the thing…

Comments

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    March 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013

    Categories

    All
    Agua Verde
    Air Conditioning
    All-inclusive Resort
    Anchoring
    Bahia Amortajada
    Bahia Cardonal
    Bahia Cobre
    Bahia Concepcion
    Bahia Salinas
    Baja Ha Ha
    Baja Ha-Ha
    Balandra Beach
    Ballandra Bay
    Balloonfish
    Baluarte Bridge
    Bashing
    Boat Refrigeration
    Boatwork
    Boatyard Fatigue Syndrome
    Bottom Paint
    Bullfight
    Campervan
    Cancun
    Candeleros Bay
    Canvas
    Carlsbad Caverns
    Carnaval
    Chainplates
    Charleston
    Chichen Itza
    Cliff-Divers
    Cockpit Table
    Containers
    Cortez Angelfish
    Crossing
    Cruising Friendships
    Culture
    Cutlass Bearing
    Destination Wedding
    Dinghy
    Dodger
    Dolphins
    Driving In Mexico
    Dry Storage
    Durango
    EcoBaja Tours
    El Burro Cove
    Ensenada Grande
    Fireworks
    Fish
    Flat Tire
    Food
    Fun Baja
    Georgia
    Grandpa
    Gray Whales
    Guaymas
    Gulf Of California
    Haulout
    Hermosillo
    Hoffmaster State Park
    Holiday-inn-express
    Honeymoon-cove
    House
    Hurricane Blanca
    Hurricanes
    Interlochen
    Isla Carmen
    Isla Coronado
    Isla Danzante
    Isla El Coyote
    Isla Ispiritu Santos
    Isla San Francisco
    Isla San Jose
    Jumping Mobular Rays
    Kilometer 21
    La Paz
    Leelanau
    Life Raft
    List
    Llantera
    Loreto
    Los Gatos
    Los Islotes
    Los Osuna
    Marina Costa Baja
    Marina El Cid
    Marina Palmira
    Marina Seca
    Mayan
    Mazatlan
    Mexican Food
    Mexican Health Care
    Mexico
    Michigan
    Mobular Rays
    Mountains
    Mouse Aboard
    Moving Onto A Boat
    Mystical River
    New Orleans
    Nogales Border Crossing
    Nopolo
    Octopus
    Okefenokee Swamp
    Onilikan
    Pancho Villa Museum
    Pensacola
    Pima Air & Space Museum
    Playa Algodones
    Playa Bonanza
    Playa Coyote
    Playa Santa Barbara
    Playa Santispac
    Playa Santo Domingo
    Posada Concepcion
    Puerto Escondido
    Puerto Lopez Mateo
    Punta Chivato
    Punta Mangles
    Punta Perico
    Punta Pulpito
    Punta Salinas
    Radar
    Renaissance Festival
    Retinal Tear
    Retirement
    Rigging
    RV
    Safety
    Sailing
    Sailing Mexico
    San Carlos
    San Evaristo
    San Jose Channel
    San Juanico
    San Marte
    Sapphire NOW
    Savannah
    Sea Fireflies
    Sea Frost
    Sea Lions
    Sea Of Cortez
    Sea Turtles
    Serenbe Playhouse
    Shells
    Sleeping Bear Dunes
    Sleepy Hollow
    Snorkeling
    Stainless Steel
    St. Augustine
    Stingrays
    Storage
    Tacking
    Teak
    Tennessee
    Tequila Factory
    Texas
    Timbabiche
    TransUnion
    Tucson
    Tufesa Bus
    Tulum
    Underground River Swim
    Varnish
    Waterfalls
    Watermaker
    Whale Shark
    Wilderness State Park
    Wind Generator
    Windows
    Windvane
    Wing-on-Wing
    Winnebago Travato
    Woodworking

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.