Moody 422/425 Looking at a 425 - freezer?

S

Steve Ohara

Registered Guest
It seems a freezer is not standard on the 425.

For those of you living aboard and/or extended cruising, have you added a freezer? If so, where did you put it, what type and cost of doing so?
I guess most importantly, are you happy with this addition?

Thanks - Steve
 
Hi Steve,

You're looking at a UK boat of 30 years ago, when you were lucky to find a fridge in a UK sailing yacht, much less a freezer.

There is a separate insulated box immediately forward of the vast fridge, which I assume was intended for fitting an evaporator plate into to make a freezer. The problem with both this compartment and the fridge is the low standard of the insulation which means that if you don't improve it, the compressor needs to run a lot to maintain the desired temperature when in a hot climate. So it's worth upgrading the insulation if you want to sail one of these in a hot climate.

It's also worth fitting a high efficiency compressor and a water cooled condenser to reduce the battery demand of the fridge and freezer. The keel cooling approach will also avoid the fridge and freezer heating up the saloon.

Peter.
 
Hi Peter, that's really helpful information, thank you. The boat has no modern additions at all, ie., no solar, windgen, etc.
We want to go offshore for extended periods, so the important thing is it sounds like we can add a freezer, which is good news - and powering it all shouldn't be a big issue, once we add the necessary power generating sources.
She's got the original engine, standing rig and sails, so we know we've got our work (and bank account) cut out for ourselves :D
 
Hi Steve,
We went down the freezer/spill over fridge route a few years ago & well pleased with the outcome although @ £1250 in 2020 just for the parts so not cheap!

I removed the old fridge condenser and compressor, got Penguin Refrigeration to bend a new condenser to fit through the ‘cool’ box hatch, coupled this to a new compressor, keel cooler & digital thermostat, drilled 2 x 50mm diameter holes between fridge & freezer with a separate thermostat / fan in fridge, this takes cold air from the freezer to cool the fridge. Added insulation around the ‘freezer’ as best I could, but without removing the whole port side of the galley, this is not perfect.
We have 400W of solar on a rear arch & 540Ahrs of AGM batteries, this is more than enough to run the FF continuously ……. set at -18C, compressor starts when temp is -14C or higher, and the fridge at 4C when we go away over the summer, typically 10 + weeks at a time.
Ice cream and plenty of ice for G&T when on anchor is wonderful!

Regards Barry
 
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