A galley fix...

What the smart money is thinking, on clarity in language, and in the "What's a fish worth?" department...

For the last couple of weeks, our fridge (an Alpicool CX50) has not been a happy camper. It's been running too much, pulling too many amps, as well as, to my mind, been running hotter than it should be. An obvious addition to the must sort out and fix list.

Yesterday it pretty much quit working as normal and kept kicking into its various trouble codes on the LCD screen. The problem got worse just before bedtime when it gave five furtive beeps and shut down completely. When we tried to turn it back on there was, apparently, no power to the fridge with no lights, and no LCD screen.

Bummer. So I went to bed with images of fixing the fridge today running around my head which is not an asset to a good night's rest.

This morning we plugged the fridge back in only to find we again had power but the compressor would not do its thing. It just went from trying to start and then getting one of the various problem codes. Worse yet, in my opinion, was that we had an apparent intermittent fault (the power going out) somewhere in the mix which always adds to the fun and frolic level of a job.

Researching possible fixes on the web was problematic to the the max as the Alpicool site had no real info and everyone else tended to suggest that when encountering problems with inexpensive Chinese-made fridges that the best course of action is to throw it away and buy a more expensive Chinese-made fridge to replace it.

My main problem was that the error code was for low battery voltage but that seemed wrong as our batteries have a good charge and all of the lights and LCD were bright so we obviously had enoough voltage. Everything else seemed in good shape so we seemed to have a conundrum of sorts...

I'd checked everything, well almost everything. I had not checked the internal in-line fuse because we obviously had power. Well, except for when we didn't have any power last night.

Yeah, it had to be the fuse. The fuse was the intermittent fault.

A few minutes later I had the fuse out and it most certainly had issues. It was not blown but it was not passing all the juice through to the compressor though still passing enough to make the lights and LCD screen operate, except last night when it was not working at all.

So, a new twenty-cent blade fuse later and the compressor is purring away quietly, making things cold again.

Listening to The War and Treaty

So it goes...

the cool/cold lemonade conundrum...

I'm getting a little tired of the fact that those who don't have a clue are the ones who are making laws these days, a good point, and a film you might want to check out...

I just had a glass of lemonade or, to be more precise, I just had a glass of cold lemonade...

I really should point out that for many years we were without refrigeration and lived quite happily without it. So, while it's nice, it is not strictly a need in the great need/want equation. That said, it is nice to be able to have a cold glass of something on a hot day.

The thing to keep in mind about the need/want process is it does not mean you can't have stuff you want but simply a way to prioritize it. For instance, you need a mainsail but refrigeration is a want and it makes sense to get the mainsail (and other needs) before you start in on the wants.

Refrigeration is nice to have but if our fridge packed up it would not be a priority to replace it. It would still be a want on the need/want list to be sorted out after the needs were taken care of...

Cool lemonade might not be quite as good as cold but it still hits the spot...

Listening to Trampled by Turtles

So it goes...

FYI... Coleman Sterling Engine fridge/freezer

Just a heads up regarding the last post...

Coleman is no longer marketing the Sterling Engine portable Fridge/Freezer but it can be found at Global Cooling along with other models that are very boat friendly.

For those with an existing ice box and not looking for a portable the SC-JS05 makes all kinds of sense.

Hope that helps...

Status quo...SNAFU!

Seems like Zero to Cruising has the fridge blues, the boat anchored next to us is making expensive engine/transmission noises, and the cost of fuel keeps going up...

SNAFU seems to be the order of the day!

Aboard "So It Goes" we've tried to opt out, as much as possible, of systems that are more prone to the SNAFU norm.

Our propulsion system is a good example... Our move to electric propulsion is a lot more about a simple, less prone to failure answer to the problem, rather than being "Green". That said, being less polluting and closer to being a sustainable system is a huge bonus...

I've mentioned before about our choice of fridge system (if you're curious you can read about it here) and that, like our choice of electric propulsion, was simply us opting out of the norm because everyone we saw doing "normal" marine refrigeration was having problems and, dear readers, life has too many problems without having to pay big money for more...

Of course, our choice of refrigeration and propulsion systems are not without their critics. The most vocal being diesel and refrigeration mechanics whose, correct me if I'm wrong, income is dependent on internal combustion engines and marine refrigeration systems not working and needing costly repairs. When you think of it, a better engine or fridge would put them out of business so they have a vested interest in the status quo... SNAFU!

Listening to John Stewart

So it goes...

The rant free boat

My goal in this whole living aboard a sailboat gig is to have a rant free boat and the fact is there is light at the end of the tunnel...Well I can always dream!

The fact of the matter is there is a lot of great gear these days, stuff that just does its job and works...and not requiring fixing spells no rant in a big warm way!

Case in point our Coleman fridge just works and works keeping the beer cold and being quite frugal on the power in the process. The Sterling cycle as a means of cooling is really a great system in that there are no compressors or evil ozone destroying freons to leaks out ( and make refrigeration folks rich in the process) and the fact that it costs less than so called marine stuff makes the Coleman fridge/freezer a no brainer...

Another cool point is that when I took it all apart to see how it was put together it was quite apparent that if one wanted to build it in sans its plastic outer box it would be a very simple if not elegant build in installation. Fact is I am seriously considering buying another and building them in side by side to add a dedicated freezer to better be able to freeze the odd Mahi Mahi filet's and of course the required ice cream stash!

Now if only Forespar could makes its damn evil crappy winches work half as well as the Coleman Sterling cycle fridge/freezer we would be another step closer to the rant free boat...

Coleman Stirling Power Electric Cooler : Thermoelectric 26-Quart Portable Cooler W/ DC Power Cable & Household Power Supply: about $449 from Amazon (click link )

Australian catamaran designs and refrigeration systems

The web can be a funny place... In my search for the new Loose Moose design I kept hearing about a designer down in Oz by the name of Bob Oram who I might like but, as much as I searched, the best I could do was to find enticing snippets about his designs and nothing that was by the designer or actually about the boats... Frustrating with a capital F.

I had a nice note from Ali and Pat of Bumfuzzle fame (or infamy?) the other day, who pointed me in the direction of a pair of couples who were building cats in Oz. And, as it happened, one of the couples was building a boat by the designer in question and had a link to his site. Before you can spell serendipity I finally had an introduction to the designs of Bob Oram which bear some serious looking at.

One thing I have noticed is that there seems to be some serious boat building going on down in Australia and it makes me wonder why boat building seems to be on the rise in Oz and on the wane in the US of A? George Buehler had some interesting questions on this subject in his book about boat building but no answers as to the why... Maybe someone out there has a clue?

One thing I can tell you about the Antipodeans is that they seem to have a practical tilt that makes for successful cruising and boat building. And, if I may digress a bit, here is a small story to illustrate the point...

When Sheila and I arrived in the Med, we found it almost impossible to find ice for our icebox on Loose Moose 2 so we started looking into refrigeration systems. I was quite boring asking every fellow cruiser we met how they liked their system and how often it broke down, etc. To make a long story shorter, most of the cruisers we met seemed to sail from one anchorage or marina to the next in search of getting their fridge systems serviced. So much so, that it was not surprising if the first question you had from a fellow cruiser was "IS there a good fridge mechanic here"? Of course, Sheila and I had lived in Europe for so long that we thought for awhile that in sailing circles "Could you tell me where to find a refrigeration guy" had become the new "Hello, glad to meet you " back home in the USA...

The surprising thing was that most of the cruisers in the USA fleet seemed to think that their fridge systems worked just fine and getting them worked on in every port was just a normal part of having refrigeration on boats. All these years later we have noticed that this is still true in the Caribbean.

The Aussies on the other hand, seemed to understand that beer was meant to be cooler than ambient temperature and seemed seriously surprised that I would be asking questions about how often their fridges were down as all of their's seemed to work just fine. And, as one Aussie cruiser pointed out to me, it was just a refrigerator and not a lot of rocket science involved! The fact of the matter was that in that particular group of Antipodean cruisers, they all seemed to be using portable fridges designed for the outback and they all worked like all the time... This is certainly a practical approach to the whole keeping stuff cold philosophy and one that we have followed, as the factory-built and -shipped units seem to be gas tight, don't leak, use less power, and run pretty much like the fridges most of us grew up with at home, in that they work and work and work... keeping those Polar beers cold cold cold which is how it is meant to be! How many times have you had to get your home fridge or freezer serviced in the last year?... decade? I rest my point.

We really like our Coleman Stirling Power Electric Cooler which is a proper fridge/freezer using the Sterling engine to produce cold with no ozone-destroying gases to leak out and power frugal to the point of 0.9 amp an hour. Better yet, the sucker is available at Costco etc. for under $400 which makes it an incredible bargain. As a matter of fact, the small unit we have is also sold under the name Tropikool who specializes in Sterling-driven marine refrigeration. They also do a build-in unit for existing ice boxes for those who need more capacity.

Now, if I could just find a working email address for Bob Oram...