PDQ OWNERS FORUM

Teamwork,

The one thing I did not do was add insulation. Is the styrofoam in just the back (towards the bow) or is there room on the sides as well? I know there is plenty of room in the back just can't remember how much clearance there is on the sides.

Tim
M/V Expatriate

Hey Tim, I insulated the entire area, there is plenty of room. I used 1 inch styrofoam.

hi all,

based on a suggestion from another post, this fall we decided to remove the drip tray from just below the cold plate. we observed that to keep the fridge at 38-40 degrees, we could turn the dial down from 5 to 4. also, the temperature stayed more uniform over a greater area in the box. this past week we did our first defrost and at that time to put the drip tray back to see results. 2 days later we had to increase dial back to 5 to get desired temp AND temp was not as consistent. we removed tray and within one day we were able to turn dial back to 4. in our box, no drip tray appears to be the way to go.

Is that the drip try in the freezer side or the refrigerator side?

refrigerator side. sorry i wasn't clearer.

Duetto,

That is an interesting post. I have always wondered about the drip tray. Now that you have described your results, I think the drip tray really is just for defrosting. Even then, we take everything out of the fridge. I am going to try your approach.

Tim

I need to replace our old Novakool. We’ve bought an Isotherm CR200 (similar side-by-side). My question is: how to remove the Novakool? And then how to get the new fridge down into the galley to install it?

I see how to open the center window. I’m struggling to see how to remove the setee backrest. It has to come out. I would greatly appreciate any guidance on how to remove this piece of curved wood

I assume you are talking about the curved piece of wood the actual cushion rests against as opposed to the cushion and back themselves. On our boat that piece of wood has a seam on one end and appears glued on either end so maybe some careful heat. I see Kent Overbeck (prior owner) replaced the fridge on our boat so he may have some tips as to whether that piece even needs to come out.

Thanks. I built a full cardboard mock-up of the NEW Isotherm fridge/freezer (which is a tiny bit larger than the NovaKool. We did figure out how to move the old one OUT and the new one IN without removing that curved piece of wood behind the port side table seat cushion. It's tight, but it does look do-able. We'll take the doors off both to help.

To close on this, we did buy the Isotherm CR200. It took 4 guys to remove the old NovaKool and the same 4 guys to get the new model into the galley. They weigh about 85 lbs. The new fridge is just slightly larger than the NovaKool. The exact size mock-up of the new fridge (cardboard box) showed it could be done. And that was accurate.. We padded everything along the exit/entry path. The new and old fridges fit easily out/in the front center window. It was a bit more challenging but, holding it front face down, it "just" fit down into the galley... rotate 90º and voila... there it was sitting across the 2 counters. I had to be VERY careful sliding it across the counters into the empty cabinet (the upper left corner of the fridge frame could easily tear a hole in the ceiling fabric in the galley.

I had already widened the cutout to spec for the Isotherm. I did have to add a 3/4" strip of plywood down the left (port) side of the cutout.. otherwise the the screws to hold it in place had nothing to bite into. Hookup was plug & play. In the end, it looks beautiful AND we gained about 3" of counter space in front of the fridge door. The interior volume is slightly smaller than the NovaKool, but the insulation and motor / compressor are much higher quality.

Looks great, Mac. Thanks for sharing all that detail. May you and your charter guests enjoy it immensely.

nice job mac

Looks great! Thanks for pics. Please post an update on performance compared to Novacool once you’ve had a bit of experience with it.

Mac-
Our fridge quit last week, right after our trip to the Abacos. It was performing pretty crappy the whole trip and was on the replacement list anyways. We purchased ours from Marine Warehouse in Miami... about $2200, ouch!

How much did you have to cut out to make it fit? Any other tips for the install? Thanks for documenting your install that made it much easier to figure out a replacement!

Thanks!
Doug

What I recall is the following:

Doug,

When I looked the cutout specs and thought about how it would fit the space, I concluded the ONLY way to fit the fridge was to expand the cutout ONLY on the RIGHT side by about 0.25"... maybe a touch more. Be very careful to note the exact location of the 3 mounting screws on both sides. And be very careful to note exactly where the RIGHT side of the frame is going to end up on white fiberglass wall. Note the UPPER RIGHT corner of the fridge frame in my picture -- you can see the black fridge frame is almost touching the wood trim. I used that point as my base reference point for all other measurements. I figured the frame could NOT go any further the RIGHT (otherwise it starts to conflict with the curve in the fiberglass wall.

I think the stated horizontal cutout dimensions are slightly LARGER than what is actually needed. Look carefully at the backside of the frame -- and determine as best you can what part of the frame is going to go through the cutout. So, it's better to slightly under-cut what you think is needed and then adjust / trim it later when you get the fridge ready to push into the space.

As I mentioned earlier, I could see I needed added a 1/2" x 1" strip of plywood behind the cutout on the RIGHT side in order to have the mounting screws have wood to bite into. My original cutout on the RIGHT side was not perfectly vertical, so I did the cut carefully and then had to modify it slightly when I got the fridge ready to push into the hole... I could see where it was binding and shaved it down with hand plane.

I did have problems getting the 3 mounting screws on the LEFT side to go into wood. The way the frame is designed vs. the cutout dimensions, the 3 screws had nothing to bite into. In the end, I added a piece of 1/2" plywood glued & screwed on the backside of the fiberglass on that side -- I had to carefully adjust its location so the 3 mounting screws would bite into wood and the wood trim piece would impede pushing the fridge into the space. It was frustrating and took patience.

I think I only had to take a tiny bit off the top side of the cutout... maybe an 1/8". The top was easier to deal with then the sides. I also had to remove and custom reduce the size of the wall trim piece at the top. I took it apart, cut it down by about 1/2", reattach the white padded material and remount it. That took several rounds of careful modifications and customizing until it fit quite nicely.

Call me if you want to discuss it. (360-393-9255)