Refrigerator...

FREEDOM!!!

FREEDOM!!!

GreatGrady Captain
Joined
Mar 30, 2023
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Age
55
Model
Freedom 235
Expecting to pick up a new 285 Freedom next week and it has the sink and refrigerator. Never had a boat with a fridge. Are they useful? How is it powered?
 
In my opinion, usefulness depends on how your boat is stored.

If your boat is stored with shore power, then you can load your fridge with drinks the night before and have the fridge powered by the 30-amp shore power.

When you head out the next day, you'll turn shore power off and switch the fridge over to your 12v batteries to keep your drinks cold throughout the day.

My boat is rack stored. No 30-amp power. So the fridge was less useful to me. If I loaded it with drinks at the start of the day, they might be cold by the end of the day! The ice box did a much better job of cooling things.

What I needed was storage space. So I removed the fridge and a company in Tampa shipped to me a nice, deep, custom storage compartment. All of our microwaveable, but non-perishable, food goes in that compartment during our boat trips.

We'll bring a cooler on our boat trips and just add a bag of ice every day or two for cold drinks.
 
Fridges are useful especially if your boat is kept on shore power. You will always have cold beer. Most fridges I have seen on gradys are 12v.
 
Good correction from Dr. Batts. I have not seen fridges that run on 30 amp. But, assuming you have a battery charger, your fridge's draw from the batteries can be maintained.
 
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The newer GW's use 12VDC/120VAC refrigerators. My 1997 Islander has a 12VDC refrigerator. I find my refrigerator to be very handy. I'm on shore power at the dock.

I installed a modification a few years ago to power the refrigerator off 120VAC when shore power is available and 12VDC when it's not. Switchover is automatic.

Search results for query: refrigerator relay

www.greatgrady.com www.greatgrady.com
 
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My Fridge runs both ways. I switch to 30 amp shore power for the fridge, while at the dock. Before I leave on a trip, I switch the Fridge to battery. The Fridge I use on my 305 Express handles both ways. I pulled out by microwave and plugged the fridge into the standard double outlet behind the microwave, then put the microwave back in. So when I want to use the shore power to power the fridge, I just turn on the microwave switch on the panel.
 
If your boat is at a nice marina with a pool and patio tables and you use it as a weekend getaway "camper", then a fridge makes sense.
You can have the ketchup & mayo & icy cold bottle of vodka always there...

if you just make day trips, a cooler is way more useful. And the space that the fridge takes up is completely wasted.

I removed mine and use the space for other things.
 
did as those above did, pulled the fridge and use space for storage. did however get a small 12v/120v freezer. it sits where the small table was in the v berth. wired to DC panel. we don't waste bally, chum, squid, etc,,, anymore. just thaw as needed. second best addition after auto pilot.
 
My boat came with a AC/DC converter for the fridge that runs through the cabin outlet on shore power. As a result the fridge will run on 110v when available or 12v off the dock.
 
Any issues with it running down the battery at the sandbar for the day?
 
It all depends on your battery setup and what other electronics that you are running with the fridge. I have never had a problem running the fridge on my boats off the battery for a day while fishing.
 
The older fiig just ran off the battery - it you had shore power the battery chargers would just keep the batteriies charged. The new version switches to shore power as soon as the boat is connected to shore power and back to battery as soon as the boat is disconnected - I had to add and outlet behind my frig when I replaced it on a 2004 Sailfish - luckily there was an outlet right in the cabin beside the fig and we could tip into that for electric power.
 
honestly, for a day boat its easier to just load a cooler at the house and stick the cooler on the boat.
 
Ekea said:
honestly, for a day boat its easier to just load a cooler at the house and stick the cooler on the boat.
Click to expand...
Yeah. I don't think we will be using it very much. Would actually prefer a nice storage area, but this is how it comes.
 
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