Refrigerator on overnight at anchor?

D

Doug in Williamsburg

Active member
Joined
May 3, 2009
Messages
28
Fluid Motion Model
C-248 C
Hull Identification Number
FMLT2529J809
Vessel Name
Carol B
MMSI Number
338093928
At anchor, is it safe to leave the refrigerator on overnight? How many of you do – or don’t? Have you had any problems the next morning?

Thanks,
--Doug
R25 "Carol B"
Williamsburg, VA
 
We always do.... We also would play the stereo all afternoon. Sometimes we would use two small solar panels to keep the battery's topped off through the day. If you go to our album you will see them. Even without the panels, you should be fine as long as your battery's are fully charged when you shut down.
 
I agree, we always left it on when we had our 25' C-Dory and we will leave it on when we get our Tug. If you don't have anything in the freezer to worry about then you can turn it down to low so you don't have to listen to it cycle so much through the night and save a little on the battery.
 
My experience has been that if we leave the fridge on continuously it will run the batteries down in less than 2 days.
This was during the hottest heat spell we've had in BC in a long time.
Your mileage is also likely to vary depending on the model of your fridge and the quality and capacity of your batteries.
But I wouldn't assume that you can just leave it running for days if you don't charge the batteries.
We keep a large "ice bottle" in the freezer that helps keep things cool and shut off the compressor at night if we're staying in the same spot for awhile.
I'm thinking to get a solar panel.
 
Our concern is for a single night only as we will be operating the boat the next morning or recharging with the genset.

--Doug
 
We leave it running all of the time once summer hits. We've never had a problem running it all night long at anchor. It runs off of the house batteries so you won't have any trouble starting the engine (as long as you don't tie in the starter battery). We have had our Ranger 25 since 2007 and the batteries are still doing just fine.

Doug
Nauti Dream
 
This is very encouraging news guys. Thank you all for your responses. We hope to try it out soon.

--Doug
 
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