Over the winter I am planning to fit a compressor fridge into the existing cool box in Flamingo's galley. Specifically I have bought the Isotherm GE 80 kit which looks ideal. My plan is either to fit the compressor in the cockpit locker (preferred) or under the sink.

I have a number of questions if anyone has experience of a similar installation.

How good/thick is the insulation in the existing cool box?

Is it possible to access the insulation without destroying the galley?

How far will I need to drill from the cockpit locker into the fridge?

Where are the working parts of the original, non functioning fridge mechanism?

Any other thoughts would be gratefully received.

Thanks

Phill

Hi Phill

I did this over the winter last year so I do have some info that I can pass on and a few pictures that might help (although these seem to be causing an error when posting). I used a similar unit to you - mine is the Dometic CU55/VD01 - which I think is about the same size compressor but with an 'L' plate. I've put the compressor in the locker under the sink because that space wasn't used, it's right next to the fridge and I was worried about it getting knocked in the cockpit locker. It does run a bit hot there though...so next on the to-do list is a computer fan in the door for when it starts up

There was no insulation at all around the existing cool box...in fact the running joke in the family was that it was just a box. I contemplated filling the whole area with expanding closed cell foam...but it's such a large area (it goes below the cutlery trays and behind and below the cooker) that I wasn't sure I could fill it completely and evenly. I don't think you can put insulation in without destroying the galley to some extent. I removed the worktop and cut the cool box out (the galley is all a single moulded piece) as far into the edges of the galley as I could. This gave enough space for 25mm insulation panels on three sides and the bottom. I'd have liked to have more insulation but it wouldn't have been possible to put thicker panels without destroying more of the galley. I did use the opportunity to run hot air ducting (heavily lagged) below the fridge and some cabling around it which would have been difficult with it in situ. I then epoxied it back in place.

If you put the compressor in the cockpit locker, I guess you'd have to drill the length of the aft cutlery trays plus about 5cm to get into the cool box.

There are no original fridge parts on my boat...but mine's an early 275 so later ones might have them installed.

The fridge worked really well over the summer - there's nothing quite like a cold beer at the end of the day. I've still got to replace the worktop...it's just a plywood template there temporarily. I'm toying with getting a corian one if I can find somewhere at a reasonable price...otherwise I'll just replace with laminated sheet on ply as the old one had held up well.

I hope this helps...but give me a shout if you've got any other questions

James

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Compressor

Void with cool box removed

Cool box before insulating

Cool box with insulation

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btw...it's probably worth reading this post from Mark Weeks (https://parkerseal.org.uk/forum/g/posts/m/54518/cool-box-insulation-in-parker-27). He took a different approach and put the insulation inside. That would reduce the capacity of the fridge...but probably be more straightforward than mine!

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Thanks James, that's brilliant, especially with the photos. We've been aboard today and had a really good look at the problem. The locker under the sink looks favourite for siting the compressor so we are going to go for that. I'm going to remove the sink while I'm working on it to improve access.

The news about insulation is less good, but is probably the wakeup call that I needed, there is going to be no value in installing the kit only for the cold to escape, so the box will have to come out and be insulated. It will also give me the opportunity to remove the old fridge components and add even more insulation to the cabin heater ducting which runs through the same space.

I had considered insulating the inside of the box but the maths didn't stack up. Less space = less beer = unacceptable.

I'll report back on progress and raise a cold beer to toast your help next season.

Phill