"Gnawed It Out Like A Dog"
Well, another IceBox bites the dust! I took a Milwaukee Sawzall and went after the dang thing---- not being at all bashfull about it. Took it on like I was breaking out of jail. Chewed, chopped, gnawed (as in previous posts), sliced, yanked, butchered! Yep, it all came out in about an hour and a half. I took the base piece of plywood and cut out a new one, put it in with a new front piece of teak trim, and presto! A big empty space.
Wired in a new 12V and 110v outlet at the back and then, put in a new Engel freezer/refigerator after reading up on building reefers, what the market offers, and then which one to buy for lowest energy draw. I got the Engel MT17, not really big, but lots of room considering you don't feed it any ice. Not cheap, but will last longer than I will. Battery draw is way low. The latest compressor design has one moving part-- quiet and much more efficient than the previous model. I set mine on about 36 degrees and I'm averaging about 1.2 amps on 12volts. You can switch to ac when plugged in at the dock. This reefer is not a toy. Built tough, sturdy, real quality.
I've got 300 amp hr battery bank, so I can run it here in the Texas heat for several days and not take the bank down very far. I'm still using a 60 watt solar panel for charging. I typically use the boat for two or three day cruises, then it sits at the dock for a week, so the panel has the bank back to 100% no matter what I drained out of the bank on the last trip.
As you can tell, I am thrilled to death that I had the guts to saw out that old piece of ballast that Pearson called an Icebox.