Ice Cubes on a boat in August = Heaven

The previous owner of DreamChaser had removed the gimbaled stove and oven and put in a built combo 12 volt / 120 AC refrigerator.  It was kind of convenient and since we haven’t made it to the galley refit yet, we just left it like it was.  He did a really nice job of building it in and putting wooden trim around it so it blended in and looked like it was part of the rest of the cabinetry.   Well last week it finally went out and we decided to remove it from the cabinets and see if we could fix it.  Being a good brand, we wanted to give it a shot, but in the end, it likely wasn’t worth fixing.  Click HERE to read that blog post.

DreamChaser also has a large built in freezer and also a front loading refrigerator in addition to the one that went out and we removed.  But one of the challenges has been that while the freezer will freeze things, it is just barely cold enough and only the items on the very bottom will freeze.  It would be better if it would get another 10-15 degrees colder

Baby Ice Cube tray – Fits in the palm of Deb’s hand

Deb found small 1 to 2 cubic foot units that can be EITHER a refrigerator or a freezer, whichever you want based on the temperature you set on the unit.  The unit we picked up is only 1.1 cubic feet.  It is really small and looks kind of funny in that spot where the old fridge was, but it is good enough to use as a freezer for the items that we want to keep deeply frozen.  As an example, about 2 months ago we had fresh salmon, Deb vacuum sealed the portions and put them in the old freezer and they were just barely frozen.  After a few weeks we took them out to cook them and they smelled fishy and I was always told if it smells fishy it is not good.  

When we opened the box and installed the fridge, it came with a very small ice cube tray.  No, Rally I mean small, it fits in the palm of Debs hand.  We ran out to do some errands today and put the little ice cube tray and 2 bottles of water in there.  When we came home 2 hours later, everything was solid as can be.  That will be a nice addition and Deb already has plans to get a little bit of sherbet.  Just about any frozen treat on a boat is a pretty special case.

When we do finally end up replacing the cold plates in the large built in unit (An upgrade we are saving for a boat show to negotiate a price discount) we will likely get rid of this little unit and find a place for an ice maker.  This little ice cube tray is going to spoil us.  Deb and I already had a glass of cold water OVER ICE.  Yum !

Below is the companies promotional video about it.  I am not endorsing the unit as I just installed it and don’t have enough experience with it.  I did however play with the promotional video so that I could see how well I could do a “chroma key” type video and use their white background from the video and make it look like it was shot outside on the beach for fun.