Keeping Your Cool

Over the last 25 years there has been a dramatic shift in the types of refrigeration systems carried aboard cruising boats. Today, 12-volt systems prevail, but the systems most oft en installed up to the late ‘90s were driven by the main engine.

Engine-driven refrigerators function just like the air-conditioner in your car, with a belt-driven compressor forcing a refrigerant gas through a typical vaporcompression cycle. Though it’s typically one of the less-understood onboard systems for boat owners, an enginedriven system consists of only a few key components—a compressor with a clutch activated by an electric timer, a condenser (usually by the engine’s raw-water pump), an expansion valve, an evaporator (inside the holding plates) and some lengths of copper tubing.