40.25"w x 10.5"h evaporator flat plate installed! - 2011

November 2012 Marina Kona Kai Shelter Island San Diego, CA

 

The switch type I was looking at, forget it!

 After looking for an automatic refer\freezer light switch(s) I came up with this type that would work. You know how it goes you say, hay why not re-visit the light switching and so I did and of course complicated it up nice.  To install it we would need to drill a hole in the insulation in the top of the refer box to install it. Not a problem and a rather easy install. The freezer side however would be problematic but could be done. The issue here was we are ready to install the evaporator plate and this light switch insulation would delay the EP installation by a couple weeks. It also would not be that easy to install with the extra wiring needed, not hard but would add some more wiring to the freezer tec. We had originally agreed to an outside switch that would turn on both the freezer LED and the two refer LED lights. By going the automatic route we would need a separate switch for each. Also they would go on no matter if you need them or not. At night you may not want bright lights in your eyes ect.

   After discussing this with Debbie she was gracious enough to say we only need an outside switch for the both. That made life a lot easier and we went ahead with the EP installation.

 We have just installed out 40x10 inch evaporator flat plate(EP) in our freezer. Not an easy task as the freezer is not that accessible and the EP is large for the space. The hole we cut for passing the tubes is a bit low making it more difficult and the tubing seems a mile long. However we got it done and there are not any kinks in the tubing. We do have a few questions before we proceeded to the compressor installation.

 We sent Swedish Marine some questions regarding our installation with pictures to make sure it is correct.

There is a lot of tubing here!

 We first hat to unwind the copper tubing and shape it so the tubing would fit into the hole going out the freezer to the lazarett. Not that easy and being very careful not to kink the tubing. Once we got that done Debbie guided the tubing into the hole and I was standing in the salon holding the EP. Debbie then went into the lazarett to pull through the tubing. We had trouble with the rubber insulation on the tubing. We should have moved it toward the end of the tubing instead of having it by the EP. It got bunched up and we had to pull it out of the hole in pieces. We destroyed about six inches of the tubing insulation. 

Tubing in lazarett.

 Not a big deal but it was not that easy to get out of the holes. We then need to keep bending the tubing down to get the EP into the freezer. The hole being low mad this a pain. Once we got the EP into the freezer the tubing was holding the EP down toward the bottom of the freezer. 

 We then needed to pull back the tubing into the freezer and as we did bend it up. This was not easy. There was no room to work with as the tubing is concerned. The hole being low made this hard as we have said. The tubing had to be bent into a loop so it could give us enough room to pull up the EP and get it positioned in place. If we had kinked the tubing it the EP would need to come out and be trashed or possibly repaired.

EP sitting in freezer.

EP sitting in freezer.

EP sitting in freezer.

 We had gotten up late and by the time we got this done it was well into the afternoon.

 Now we had to decide the spacing. We really had to decide how much spacing we could get without damaging the EP. We needed as much space at the back of the freezer for the tubing as we could get. 

We decide to cut four spacers down to ½ inch. We premeasured and they seemed to be 5/8 of an inch out of the box.
Note:
 This was a mistake cutting the spacers😟. We should have left them the size they were. The freezer is easier to frost up with so little space between the evaporator flat plate and the freezer wall. I keep saying I am going to add bigger spacers, posible fuel line hose to make the space bigger but I am chicken because of the risk of kinking the evaporator flat plate . It does work good though and the seals are the biggest problem, the lid seals as they tend to wear out and start leaking air, moist air (2018). Also the spilover would work better also.

Debbie cutting space.

 First we tried the hack saw method but they came out corked. We then switched to using the Dremel with a cutting wheel and that worked better and was easier and faster.

  We figured we needed a place to start to get the height of the EP in the freezer right and centered. We chose the top forward end (towards the bow).

 We first drilled a very small hole. The screws would go into the three layers of fiber glass and then only into the Dow Blew board Insulation. That was not a lot of holding power so with a small hole the screws could get started but would have goo holding. 

 To seal the holes we wanted a silicone that was FDA approved and would in -0 temperatures. Debbie did the research and talked to a man at Dow who was real nice and explained it all to her about the silicone. 

 Debbie then found Silicone 102 at Appliance Parts Center in National City San Diego that sold it. I boogied down there in the Jeep on a rainy Friday after noon (the same day) and picked up a tube. 

Now we drilled a hole for the first spacer. 

I tried putting the spacer behind the EP and then screwing in the screw. 

 The space kept falling behind the evaporator flat plate and I was getting frustrated, even with plenty of sleep. This EP installation we thought was going to be a breeze!

 40.25"w x 10.5"h  evaporator flat plate from Coastal Climate Control.

 Perhaps if we had gotten a 30x8 EP this would not be so hard. But our 40.25"w x 10.5"h EP was not easy to work with in this space. We had gotten the EP before making the freezer. I guess that was a mistake. Maybe not because we want or I want to have ice cream and as efficient as possible. This EP should bring the freezer down to 0 degrees I am hoping.

 Debbie took over and put the spacer in no problem. 

 So I continued to drill the holes and Debbie did the spacer and screws (the hard part). It is hard on the back and we had to engineer all the way along.

Forward side

Port side.

Starboard side.

 Debbie had cut two spacers for the hull side bottom where we had to bend the bottom of the EP out to conform with the hull sloping into the freezer.

 The port side which is the section that is under the fiber glass insulation is on the left and has the thermostat bracket on it. This section is 5/8 which I believe the spacers are out of the box. At any rate they are what the spacers are.

The right side (starboard) has the tubing coming from it going through the hole in the freezer. It has the spacers on top at their original size and at the bottom the two spacers have been cut to ½ inch.

 The one part that is not spaced out is the corner on the right – forward side at the bottom. It is close to the fiber glass wall. This may need to be snipped and bent out? Not sure yet.

 Looking into the pass through hole to the freezer.