Ice Box Rebuild

[jpendoley]

Am in the throes of a complete galley rebuild, number one project being the icebox removal and redesign.  Box is removed, for those interested, the icebox is not very well insulated. About three inches of spray on foam in most places, less in others.  Plan is to use fore and aft bulkheads as outer walls (with a vapor barrier, then 4 inches of blueboard then FRP liner.  Hull side may be squared off to allow use of blueboard sheets rather than pour in place foam-aim is to have 6" of blueboard or two part foam on the bottom and outboard side.
May reuse the old alder barbour for the year then upgrade to Frigoboat.

[SV THIRD DAY]

I will make a suggestion for you since marine refrigeration is what I do for a living....

Use PolyisoCyanurate (Trade name RMax from home dept) as your insulation rather than the blow or pink boards.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Thermasheath-Rmax-Thermasheath-3-1-in-x-4-ft-x-8-ft-R-6-Polyisocyanurate-Rigid-Foam-Insulation-Board-787264/100549260;jsessionid=DCCCB714CF211D93D593462F0B7B73DB

It comes in various thicknesses and is foil lined on each side.
Then when you cut the pieces to fit, you put foil tape over the cut edges and any nicks on the foil lining.
This makes a great vapor barrier.

People knock the Polyiso because it is not a closed cell foam but with the foil vapor barrier it don't see moisture anyway.
And just how much water will it absorb?  1MM per year when sitting in water!

But why use it?
Because the main thing you can do to help yourself on an ice box project is MORE R-Value.
The more R-value you have the less your refrigeration system of any brand will have to work and the happier you will be.
The R-value is 1/3 BETTER on the Polyiso than the Blue board...so you can either use 1/3 less polyiso for the same RValue OR what I would like to see since the P365 Box is so HUGE, you can have 1/3 better R-value.  If done right with the foil tape, no air voids for air circulation and a good sealing of the joints of the FRP liner this solution will easily outlast you.

Cheers

[Jim S]

Thanks for the suggestion.  This will make life better.

[jpendoley]

Rich,
Am in the middle of it now-epoxy in my hair and little bits of foam glued to my body, working upside down and cursing frquently. I did decide to go with the foil faced polyiso. Four inches on the wall (R26) three inches on the top (R19.5). All cut edges foil taped. I  decided to use 6" of blue board (R30) on the floor and 4 inches on the outboard hull side as an additional protection against water intrusion due to possible water migration from errant deck leaks. Areas under the blueboard on the curnved outboard wall filled with 2 lb pourable foam. All this hopefully sealed in 10 mil plastic wrap.  Still trying to decide whether to line with FRP panels or cover with epoxy saturated glass.

Its a big project, probaly second only to a repower or deck core.  Hopefully Mr. Perkins keeps plugging cuse my body is getting a little tired...

[SV THIRD DAY]

Whoa....great project.
The ease of cutting the Home Depot FRP panels to fit and then epoxying the corners and seams...it is just hard to beat the simplicity and clean look of this approach.  I'm in the midsts of redoing my freezer box aboard and that is the approach I will take. Cheap....easy....clean....done.

[Risto and Liz]

I am in the middle of revamping the frig box, too. I will now have to find somewhere else to hide the bodies...
My idea is to create a 2CF freezer box with a spill-over into about a 4CF refrigerator box. I have put the freezer section on the outboard (port)side as it made sense to use the smaller space that way. It will have a flat Frigoboat evaporator plate bent to fit around three sides.
I removed the tile top and plywood substrate to get at the whole box. First, I drilled a bunch of 1/2" holes in the box on the fore, aft and inboard sides and pumped about 5 cans of "low pressure" urethane foam into the void between the box foam and the surrounding plywood. Definitely use the low pressure foam or you will have some serious displacement issues. I had quite a bit of expanded foam to trim off as it expanded out the gaps at the top, but that was easy to trim. So now with an extra 1" or so of foam on the outside, I added about 5" of polyiso board to the bottom inside the box. I contacted R Parts and found they had a couple 1/2" vacuum panels that would fit as well as two 1" panels that fit the narrow ends. So I built out the fore and aft sides with 1" polyiso down to the ledge, then placed the 1/2" Vac panels as far outboard as possible to be in the "freezer zone". Then I filled in the remaining area with 1/2" polyiso board. Then I put the 1" Vac panels on the narrow ends. The final insulation was one more layer of 1/2" polyiso over all sides primarily to protect the Vac panels. (I plan to mark the interior of the box with a large note to use SHORT screws when attaching anything. A pinhole takes the 1/2" vac panel from R-20 to R-zip). I partitioned off the freezer compartment
With 1" pink board with FRP on both sides. I now have lined all sides with FRP and glassed the joints with 2" fg tape and epoxy resin. I will be filleting the joints with tricked epoxy and painting for eas of cleaning. The top will have two hinged lids that have 3" of pink board and a layer of Frp. The top will be Corian. The box is a LOT smaller and much better insulated. I hope it will hold up in the tropics. I will try to post some photos as I get some time.

[jpendoley]

Getting there slowly. Home Depot FRP's installed and epoxied to walls. Seams sealed with 5200. No less than 4.25 inches of Tuff-R Urethane foam on all sides,  bottom has 6 inches of insulation. Vapor barrier everywhere.  Irregular gaps filled with 2 pound pourable foam. 

I am reusing the Cold Machine evaporator plate, but unfolded from its original box form to a three sided unit. Hope its enough for a two foot freezer and a 4.5 foot fridge ( mounted on insulated partition). If the rebending causes a leak, I replace with a new Frigoboat unit.  If not large enough, I will have a larger fridge for the season and get a new unit next year.  I really wanted to go with Corian, but the cost was just too rich, so I went with Formica ($63 vs $400).

As part of the project, I'm covering the galley fronts with vboard panelling  painted white. Will have to mill new moldings. The cabinet behind the oven was removed and damaged so I will be rebuilding that from scratch. Galley and reefer remodeling is a bear, but will all be worth it in the end.