Nova Kool refrigerator

[knotflying]

My refrigerator seems to be running awfully cold. I have the setting on number 3 and the thermometer I have on the shelf below the freezer reads 32 degrees. I turned the dial all the way to 1 , which if i am reading it correctly is the warmest, and would have expected to hear the unit switch off, but it did not. Anyone have words of wisdom on this?

 

[Dog Islander]

Sorry, no wisdom from me, but this is what I'm seeing on my Novacool:
Setting : 6
Temperature on middle shelf in the front, center: 28 F

I have some frozen bottles of water and some that are not even though they are adjacent to each other. I'm pretty sure they all have water in them 😉 . I have been keeping the setting fairly high/cold to ensure items in the freezer section stayed frozen. I do see there is a layer of ice inside the icebox and plan to defrost it prior to my big trip in a week. In the mean time I have lowered the setting to 5 to see if that thaws the water out while keeping the icebox below 30F.

Ray

 

[knotflying]

Well when I left the boat today I put the setting to 1 and it did not seem to make a difference. The temperature was actually below 32 degrees when I got back. I guess too cold is better than too warm, but I don't want to have the refrigerator always in overdrive.

 

[baz]

When I leave the boat I typically just have water bottles and a few Ginger Beer bottle in the door, and I set the temp to #2. When I'm on a trip with loads of stuff in the refrigerator I set temp control to #4 or #5. So far I've had no issue keeping things chilled in the main section and door section and things stay frozen in the freezer section.

i never turn the refrigerator off unless I'm defrosting it.

 

[knotflying]

My problem is not too warm. It seems that it is running too cold. no matter what setting I put it at it seems to stay below freezing. The unit seems to always have a motor running and I am not sure if this is normal. When I turn the dial to a warmer setting I would assume I would hear the motor go off since it would be below the set point, but it still seemed to run. So I was not sure if my refrigerator is working properly or if it is in a perpetual overdrive.

 

[Irish Mist]

Mine shuts off Seems like you have a thermostat issue. Try turning the breaker off for a few min and see if it will reset itself
I doubt this will work but easy and worth a try The constant running will kill your battery if you are away from shore power You need to get it fixed.
Good luck

 

[knotflying]

Tried the breaker on off thing. And I think you may be right about a bum t'stat. Oddly enough, my batteries seem to be functioning as normal. I have not seen a significant drop and I am on the hook right now.

 

[Irish Mist]

I guess on the upside you have a nice built in freezer 🙂 Maybe you can get another stat locally or order a replacement from the manufacturer as if running all the time will fail sooner then later.. If your handy maybe take it apart and test it
Good luck .. Hopefully all your problems are small like this 🙂

 

[knotflying]

Yes, not a major problem. And at least it is cold and not warm. I sent an E-mail to Nova Kool and will see what they suggest. In the interim. I just turn it off for a couple of hours at a time. And I left it off all night and the temperature only went up to 40. I will report back with the fix.

 

[knotflying]

Keeping my fingers crossed. The problem seems resolved. Nova Kool responded back immediately. Apparently the temperature sensor that is supposed to be attached to the freezer was never attached. After swapping pictures and phone calls it is now in place. Time will tell if all is well.

 

[baz]

So where is that sensor located?

 

[knotflying]

There is a metal aluminum coil coming from the thermostat and that should run to the interior of the freezer. Mine was just coiled up beside the thermostat and never run to the freezer.

 

[baz]

Thanks… I will examine mine so that I know where it is. 🙂 I was down on boat today and decided to defrost the refrigerator as the ice build up in the freezer section was to excessive IMO. The small tray under the freezer box is deep enough to hold all of the water run-off… just have to be careful when removing it to avoid a water fall on the floor. 😉

 

[Levitation]

Ahhh, let's see.
Small flat tray, much wider and longer than it is deep - check! 🙂
Older person whose reflexes flat lined about 20 years ago - check! 😉
Standing in rocking boat and carefully sliding an overflowing tray towards himself - check! :x
The water ricochets off the back side of the tray and bursts over the front, which is obligingly right at the height of his fly - check! 😱
Now he gets to mop the floor, leaving it clean and shiny - check! :mrgreen:

 

[baz]

Yea --- spilling the water happened the first time I defrosted simply because I did not know there was a tray in the first place. I fumbled around and found the tray and promptly spilled the darn stuff all over the place. Not a big issue as it was not much water any rate. Now I carefully remove tray while boat docked. 😉

 

[BaseCampAnne]

Hi all,

I am thinking of getting a freezer for the boat, but prefer not to run the engine to charge it when on the hook.
Even though the readout says I have stored energy (I think,) the individual batteries reach the low category after 3 days. I move then because the batteries read as being low, so perhaps that is the limit.

Do those of you in Alaska in the summer have enough solar to stay on the hook for 3 days in regular weather ?

Does anyone have a 3-way freezer? Does using propane to run a freezer while waiting out weather or being on the hook longer make any sense? Actually I have no idea how long one would have to run the engine to be able to keep the frig and a small freezer going since I don't understand why with the extra battery we don't use, the engine battery is an issue?

I keep wondering if there are any ways to hang out past 2-3 days without a generator or running the engine? Maybe long distance small boaters and those who stay out all summer don't use frigs/freezers but store basics low to the water and are content...?

Thanks in advance for any comments,

 

[knotflying]

Never really could figure out why boats don't use propane powered refrigerators. I figure it is probably a fire issue, but RV's use them so I can only figure it is because we rock and roll and that may cause an issue.

 

[walldog]

Never really could figure out why boats don't use propane powered refrigerators. I figure it is probably a fire issue, but RV's use them so I can only figure it is because we rock and roll and that may cause an issue.

Propane reefers are mostly the norm in RVs. However in our RV we have a residential reefer. Several fires have occurred in RVs with propane reefers. At first glance it may seem that they would be an alternative for boats, but I feel boats are more subject to vibration that RVs do not have. Plus the propane reefer requires a positive ventilation chamber that would be difficult to have in a boat. It is definitely a fire issue, I do not want one in my motor home, and I do not want one in my boat. I had a friend that died in a fire in his RV from his propane reefer. It is not for me. Google Dometic(Not picking on Dometic, Norcold has their share of fires also) recalls for RVs. OK off my soap box for now.

 

[knotflying]

Now I know. I was always a bit concerned about having that little open flame burning away.

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

Anne: Lisa and I anchor overnight about 60% of the time while we're cruising, we have a generator and a solar panel. With that said we can go one day to a day and a half without running the generator or running our engine. We then run for an hour or so, to recharge the house batteries. In our case we do recharge computer, phone, camera and i-Pad's and our refrigerator is left on 100% of the time, our interior lights are not LED but our anchor light is. My guess is one could squeeze more time between charges of the house batteries if they had all LED interior lights and did not recharge as many devices as we do, but 3 days may be pushing it. Anyone else?

Jim F