Conference unifix::sailing

314.0. "Icebox cost cutting" by GRAMPS::WCLARK (Walt Clark) Tue May 27 1986 09:26

    This is a tip for you Irwin owners (and others to be sure).
    
    The occupant of the slip next to ours is starting their second season
    on an Irwin 34.  The owner (Charlie) bought a refrigeration system
    this past week and started installing it Saturday.   While scoping
    out the best locations for components and hoses he noticed a light
    leak in his cooler.  It came from the engine space (opened up for
    this exercise)!  He also noticed that there was ZERO insulation
    in the overhead of his icebox.  He checked with 3 other Irwins and
    found the same thing.
    
    Prior to his making this discovery or buying the reefer we had talked
    about various systems and I asked him why he was buying refrigeration.
    They mostly weekend and you can get a lot of ice for the price of a 
    reefer.  At that time he said he was tired of lugging all that ice.
    From our experience, we found a 10lb block and a bag of crushed,
    plus pre chilled food allowed our ice box to maintain all weekend
    with leftover ice. I didnt question further because I know everyone
    has their own tolerance limit for repetitive tasks.
    
    
    If it isnt already obvious, the tip is check your ice box. There
    may be little or no insulation.  Cooling the engine room burns a
    lot of ice.   As a final note, I have a friend who bought a Hunter
    34 three years ago and found there was no insulation behind the
    molded icebox liner.  Hunter said this was a mistake and fixed it.
    Maybe the mistake was finding it.
    
    Walt