I just finished dissecting my refrigeration hatches, removing the old foam insulation so that I could take measurements and order vacuum sealed insulation panels with a much higher R value. Once I was done I went to order the panels from http://www.rparts.com/Catalog/Box_Build ... lation.asp, only to find out that the production has been "temporarily" suspended. Arghhh!!! I certainly hope that "temporarily" is a short time...
-- Geoff
Refrigeration Insulation - Vacuum Insulated Panels (VIP)
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GeoffSchultz
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THATBOATGUY
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Re: Refrigeration Insulation
Google around a bit. I once found a company that would make them any shape and size I wanted at a much lower price per square foot. Unfortunately it took a lot of hunting and I've lost the link. Also I got an education in which panels last longest. Apparently there is some issues with out gassing over time depending on the materials used. Unfortunately I've lost all that information too... argh!GeoffSchultz wrote:I just finished dissecting my refrigeration hatches, removing the old foam insulation so that I could take measurements and order vacuum sealed insulation panels with a much higher R value. Once I was done I went to order the panels from http://www.rparts.com/Catalog/Box_Build ... lation.asp, only to find out that the production has been "temporarily" suspended. Arghhh!!! I certainly hope that "temporarily" is a short time...
-- Geoff
George
George and Kerri Huffman S/V Marquesa Freedom 40 CC CK Sail Marquesa
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GeoffSchultz
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Re: Refrigeration Insulation
Here's what I heard back from rpart sales:
-- Geoff
Clearly getting this production up and running isn't a priority. I haven't done any research for alternative sources yet, so I'll just ask if anyone has any experience with other vendors?Hi Geoff,
We do apologize for the inconvenience and are doing our best in procuring a
core material. We are currently in the logistics stages of procurement and
should hopefully have our VIP production resume in early Summer. We'll send
you an email whenever we're back up and running. If time is an issue, we
would suggest you do seek other sources and if you have any further
questions, please don't hesitate to email us back.
Have a wonderful day.
Sincerely,
RParts Sales
-- Geoff
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THATBOATGUY
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Re: Refrigeration Insulation
I dug through all my emails and couldn't find my conversations with an engineer at that company. I had a Yahoo account that got fished about 4 years ago and I think they were there. Drat.
George
George
George and Kerri Huffman S/V Marquesa Freedom 40 CC CK Sail Marquesa
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GeoffSchultz
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Re: Refrigeration Insulation
I received my VIP panels yesterday. I was quire surprised to find that I got 2 copies of each panel that I ordered! These panels are R40/inch compared to R5/inch for foam. I guess that I'll just glue the two of them together and end up with R80 + 2" of R7 expanding foam, so I'll be be at around R94 for the refrigeration hatches! To bad I couldn't insulate the rest of the system with this, but there's no way that I'm going to tear it out and re-insulate.
Here's a photo of what a panel looks like:
-- Geoff
Here's a photo of what a panel looks like:
-- Geoff
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GeoffSchultz
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Re: Refrigeration Insulation - VIP Panels
I just finished installing the VIPs into the hatches. Since I had 2 sets of the panels I decided to glue them together using contact cement and thus get R80 on the hatches. The biggest issue that I had was that there was some hardware that was screwed to the bottom of the hatches which precluded the VIPs from laying flat. The hatches are only about 2 1/2" deep, and when I injected the foam around the edges, it managed to get under one of the panels and pushed it up significantly. I couldn't force it back down, so I managed to pull 1 VIP off of the stack and fill it's place with foam. Thus once hatch only has about R50. Compared to the R12 that was there before, this is great.
After that problem, I used lots of clamps to hold strips of wood in place to keep the panel from getting shifted by the expanding foam. Once I did this, it went fine. If I were to do it again, I would probably use silicon or some other adhesive to hold the panel in place before foaming. I'd also probably skip the R7.5 foam that I found and just use a foam that you can get at a hardware store, as I had a lot left over and it was expensive since you have to use it all at once.
Tomorrow, after spending the morning at the food pantry, I'll trim the foam and re-assemble the hatches.
-- Geoff
After that problem, I used lots of clamps to hold strips of wood in place to keep the panel from getting shifted by the expanding foam. Once I did this, it went fine. If I were to do it again, I would probably use silicon or some other adhesive to hold the panel in place before foaming. I'd also probably skip the R7.5 foam that I found and just use a foam that you can get at a hardware store, as I had a lot left over and it was expensive since you have to use it all at once.
Tomorrow, after spending the morning at the food pantry, I'll trim the foam and re-assemble the hatches.
-- Geoff
Re: Refrigeration Insulation - Vacuum Insulated Panels (VIPs)
Geoff,
Thank you. Your post seem very interesting and informative for anyone wanting to do this upgrade and keep the beer cooler.
Here in PNW we almost do not need fridges for beer with sea water pretty chill even in mid summer. Just hang it off in a net.
Thank you. Your post seem very interesting and informative for anyone wanting to do this upgrade and keep the beer cooler.
Here in PNW we almost do not need fridges for beer with sea water pretty chill even in mid summer. Just hang it off in a net.
1986 F36/38
s/v Mirage
s/v Mirage
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GeoffSchultz
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Re: Refrigeration Insulation - Vacuum Insulated Panels (VIP)
I finally had time to finish the hatches. Perhaps it's the 18" of rain that we've had so far this month that has me worried about needing an Ark! 
Anyhow, here's a photo of an assembled hatch without the finished counter top installed. This is the top refrigeration hatch, which has a forward facing lip and thus the edge of these VIPs are exposed. As a result it does a good job of showing the entire assembly with 2 VIPs glued on top of one another, providing R80.
-- Geoff
Anyhow, here's a photo of an assembled hatch without the finished counter top installed. This is the top refrigeration hatch, which has a forward facing lip and thus the edge of these VIPs are exposed. As a result it does a good job of showing the entire assembly with 2 VIPs glued on top of one another, providing R80.
-- Geoff