refrigerator on 26' C-Dory

Judith and Paul · Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 12:06 am Post subject: refrigerator on 26' C-Dory

We are taking out boat out for the first time this month. Does anyone know how many amps the Norcold Model # DE0051 draws? Will it draw down the batteries overnight? We eventually will have solar but not for this trip.
thx,

Morning Star · Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 5:51 am Post subject:

When I leave mine set on about 3, it will run all night and the batteries will still start the motor in the morning. I don't know if it is the exact same model. If you switch the battery switch so that you are only running the refrig off of one battery, you can then switch to the other for starting. I have also found that the temperature holds well in the refrig if you feel more comfortable turning it off for the night. If you turn it off just before going to sleep--don't open the door all night--and turn it back on in the morning, the contents stay cold. When I am out for an extended period I use a Honda 2000 generator. I can use it to top off the batteries if, for instance, I don't feel like running the motor after having the refrig on all night. Hope this helps...

NewMoon · Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 8:41 am Post subject:

Can't recall the model number of our 14-year old Norcold, but it's a bit larger than the DE0051. Draws 3.5A when it's running, and in the cool PNW runs maybe 1/3 of the time. More like 1/2 of the time at Lake Powell. So I figure for 16 hours per night at anchor, running 1/3 of the time, it uses about 19AH per night. It's the biggest single overnight AH user on our boat.

Our house bank capacity (two g31 AGM's) is 210 AH. A reasonable plan is to use no more than 1/3 of house bank AH between charges, so in our case 70AH. The fridge doesn't put too bad a dent in that 70 AH.

thataway · Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 12:08 pm Post subject:

Our experience is that most of these refrigerators run about 50% of the time. Power draw runs about 2 amps an hour over all average. That would be 20 to 30 amp hours over night--and not deplete the batteries. But I would have extra batteries for any boat with a refer.

Aurelia · Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 12:13 pm Post subject:

I second the turning it off during the night idea. We did that with success in the PNW and it seemed to hold the cold for the night well enough. We kept it on during the day whether motoring or not, but had sufficient capacity to run for 4-6 days that way with a solar panel assist.