KEEPING YOUR COOL

Keeping your food fresh when sailing means having a decent fridge. An old, leaky, inefficient one will increase the risk of your food going off and suck the life out of your batteries.

INSULATION IS KEY

Problems with marine fridges are almost always caused by the lack of decent insulation. Early models often had thin (usually no more than 12mm) layers of cheap, low-density porous foam all around the cool box, topped off by a poorly fitting, often uninsulated lid with no seals. It’s no good fitting the latest high-efficiency compressor cooling system to the old cool box if your hard-earned cold air leaks out through the seams or is quickly conducted away by saturated polystyrene foam insulation.

When upgrading your fridge, rule number one is ‘Don’t skimp on foam thickness’. When planning the task carry out your calculations allowing for