the boat (csy 37) came with a factory installed crosby combination engine drive and 120 volt fridge/freezer. but after 25 years it wasn't working, and bills i found on board showed the p.o. had spent one thousand dollars two years previous to get it working. didn't think it was worth my money to try to resurrect it.

so i pulled out the engine drive compressor, the 120 compressor, the cold plates, and everything else i could find connected to it and gave it away to a scrap collector.

after two poor attempts at trying to install a 12 volt system i settled on the adler barbour as my best bet. i separated the fridge and freezer with insulation (used to be a spillover) and used the former freezer box to mount the a-b. the fridge box itself is actually too big for me, about 9 cu ft, so i tend to stuff the bottom with cans of beer or fruit.

when i first installed it i had a problem. called waeco (parent of a-b) and got an ENGINEER on the phone. diagnosed the problem in a minute and sent me a new part in two days. never had a problem since.

on a trip to the bahamas it worked perfectly. seems to draw about 60 amps a day, near as i can tell. on a really hot trip up the ditch it also worked perfectly.

i bought the super cold machine because it has the option of adding water cooling if i thought it needed it, but i haven't thought it needed it yet. i did add an extra fan (the one above the a-b in the picture) which i can switch on to run when the a-b runs (using the water pump circuit) but i haven't had to run that yet either.

ok, it's not as professional looking as some of the other stuff i've seen here, but not bad for a kitchen mechanic who knows diddly about this stuff.