Catalina 350 International Association

Our 2003 fridge has become less and less reliable over the past 5 years of ownership. This week it stopped twice and came back on each time after several hours. So Leah says just replace it. I said OK!

So I need to investigate a replacement for the Adler Barbour "sometimes" Cold Machine. Any input I can get from those who have replaced theirs would be most helpful. I'm thinking I'll replace the compressor unit and the thermostat.

Thanks

I purchased a replacement thermostat for the overflow fan from eBay. Perhaps the seller has the fridge thermostat also.
Here's what I bought.

Seller, ejones8921
Date 24 Mar 2019
cost 8.99 plus 4.57 shipping.
1 Alder Barbour thermostat (273760854050) (overflow thermostat)
Good Luck
Mike Cronin
FlagShip #314

Mike

Thanks for the tip, I'll have a look at eBay.

I did not replace my compressor. i added a second one (sat on top of the first in an aluminium frame). I then connected this to a new evap plate in the fridge compt and removed the spillover fan and blocked the holes.
I used the same Danfoss BD50 compressor as my original though selected the 12/240v option for when alongside. Interestingly the new compressor uses 3amps when running the original (2005) unit uses 5amps but is only used by the freezer now.

This solution is the dogs bollocks as long as you have good batteries. I have 400ah of Victron lithium and 400w of solar. Never been below 200ah in the batteries.

Following up on this, I want to replace the thermostat in the freezer. This is not the same as the unit used for the spill-over fan.

Has anybody replaced theirs? It is a Danfoss product and I have the P/N as 077B 0021. I have had difficulty finding one after checking with Defender, Catalina, West Marine and other on-line and local suppliers. If anybody has purchased one, I would love to know where you got yours.

Another update.

Found an on-line source for this thermostat. Supplyhouse.com had some in stock. $35.00 good price, shipping in 3 days.

Jerry Collins at Catalina Parts said they do not carry this part, too many different iterations of it over the years so they don't keep up with it.

Anyway if anybody needs one, go to Supplyhouse.com they carry this OEM part used on our 2003 boat.

Thanks for this information. I’ve decided this year I’ll work on the fridge system so this is very useful. I did look at the web site and they are currently out of stock, but I’ll keep checking back. Did you consider a digital replacement?

Tim

Tim; I did not look at a digital replacement.

My research on our type of thermostat showed that the original specs regarding the "cut-in and cut-out" temperatures are required for a freezer location i.e.) as on our 350's. That makes our thermostat different than many others that are intended for fridges, with higher temperatures ranges.

Our original units are built to work as as follows:

The "cold cut-in" is set at -10 deg C, the "cold cut-out" is set at -21 deg C.

The "warm cut-in" is set at -2 deg C and "warm cut-out" is set at -11 deg C.

Cold is when the thermostat is set at the highest/coldest setting, Warm is when set at the lowest/warmest setting. Therefore 2 sets of specs to meet.

(Note: Danfoss is Danish company and all their products spec sheets are in Metric units.)

Apparently the capillary/measurement bellows needs to be filled at a certain gas pressure to give it the correct temperature range. I'm not sure these ranges are available or configurable on a digital 'stat but then I didn't look at any digital units.

I'll let you know how things go, hoping it's a simple drop-in replacement.

Hi,

With respect to the thermostat, I found a replacement part number F1710JR680 at AMC Cliffvs Marine. Only place I could find. It was crazy expensive, but replaced thermostat, telephone jack type wiring and thermocouple wire.

It was plug an play, except I had to rebuild the phone jack plug at the control unit next to the compressor.

Took me a while to figure out that the thermostat was the problem, now need to tackle the insufficient insulation in the fridge.

A quick way to bypass the thermostat is to remove the brown wire from the terminal labeled "T" and the black wire from the terminal labeled "C". Then run a short jumper wire between the "T" and "C" terminals. The unit should run if the thermostat is the problem. The telephone jack plug connection can also be problematic and may be the reason your thermostat appears to be defective. I had problems with mine recently and eliminated the plug entirely. I cut the plug off and put spade connectors on the 2 thermostat wires and ran them directly to the "T" and "C" terminals. The polarity isn't important. The thermostat wires are very small gauge and after stripping the insulation back you will need to fold the wire back on itself in order to have enough wire mass to grip the connector before crimping.