www.iFourWinns.com

I know there are a couple of people with 348 on here. We have a 2005 348 and we love it. But we have one problem. And I was wondering if any of you have the same thing. Our ref in the cabin only works for about 3 hours. Or until it goes under 12 volts. I talk with the manufacture. And they say it should go until 10.5 volts. We put a new regulator on for the AC DC part. They said that should do it. And if it does not. Then they say your wire is to light going to your ref. We stay out a lot and just wounded if any one else has the same problem.

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348 Vista ( Last Call )
Raystown PA

Hi there,
I have the same boat, I keep it on the water and always with the refrigerator ON.
When I go out, I turn the generator ON (110 volts) so I dont have problems with the refrigerator.
If for any reason the generator goes off (for example: fuel tank level lower that 1/4 or I dock in a shalow area , like 2 feet)
the engines are shut down and the batteries goes down so quickly that I prefer not to use the 12volt for the refrigerator, since I am afraid my batteries will be dead when triyng to start the engines.

Good Luck,
Moises

I have the same boat and have had no problems with the fridge. The boat stays on shore power when I'm not there and both the cockpit and cabin fridges run all the time (well unless some idiot, me, forgets to plug in the shore power). As soon as I step on the boat I turn on the 12v power and it stays on until we leave the boat for the day. Frequently I run the fridges when we are at anchor for upwards of six hours with no problems. The house batteries that run the fridge shouldn't impact the starting batteries for the engines.

Ben

I have a 2005 348 and likewise have had trouble with the fridge. Mine's broken twice now. It's out for repair this week.

I had to add a second set of batteries to the house setup. I added two 6v golf cart type batteries. I set them up in series to get 12v. I but them on the 'shelf' located at the very back of the engine compartment. Since I've added these I'd had absolutely no more trouble with the 12v systems running low. Before adding these I really couldn't sit at anchor all the afternoon and not have the low voltage alarm go off in the middle of the night. The CO detectors will squeal when the 12v goes too low. Now I still have over 12v the next morning.

The fridge draws a LOT of current. What bugs me about the setup in the 348 is there's no breaker to turn it off. The 12v circuit for the fridge is a pop-up breaker, not a switch type. And unlike the cockpit icemaker, the fridge does not have an accessible off switch. You have to reach into the fridge and crank the thermostat to off. At some point i"m going to change the breaker to a switch type instead. I figure it's MUCH easier to remember to flip that breaker back to ON than to go digging back into the fridge and turn the thermostat.

It is correct to say the systems batteries are not connected to the starting circuits. But bear in mind that things like the chartplotter and windlass ARE connected to it. If you run the house battery too low you won't be able to turn on the chartplotter or pull up the anchor. At least not until you get one of the engines or genset started.

Also keep in mind that running these batteries dead GREATLY shortens their lifespan. You really want to avoid letting them draining that far.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

(double post, sorry 'bout that)

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

We have a 2003 348 and have had no problems with the frig so far. We are not out on the hook very much. We do run the frig when we are motoring on trips down the bay with the fridge on DC battery power. Most of the time we run the fidge on AC power. We always shut off all AC power and the frig when we are not on the boat for extended periods.

marylander

on our boat, we have switch breakers for both the cockpit and galley fridges. so far, no problems. always run both off shore power when back at the dock.

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2006 348 Vista
"some days you're the bug and some days you're the windshield"

You may want to double-check what you think are breakers on the fridges. The AC side of them are indeed covered by switch type breakers. The icemaker has no DC circuit (thus no fuse or breaker). But the DC side of the galley refrigerator is a pop-up fuse-type breaker, not a switch. In order to turn off the fridge when you're not on AC power you have to reach inside and turn it off using the thermostat. There's no way to turn it off externally, at least not on the Novacool units.

When you're solely on batteries alone; no engines, shore power or genset, the highest drain on the 12v system is the galley fridge. We found the single system battery setup couldn't keep everything running if we anchored around 4pm and didn't run the genset or engines. About 4am the 12v system would drop too low and trigger the CO alarm voltage threshold. Since I added more batteries it now makes it entirely through the night, usually until at least 11am the next morning.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Which batteries did you add and where did you put them? My original optima gel battery won't hold a charge anymore. Looking for a better solution...

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2004 Sea Ray 420DB
Formerly: 2005 348 Vista

I added a pair of 6 volt golf cart batteries. I wired them up in series to get 12v. I installed them back on the 'shelf' at the aft end of the engine compartment. There's a flat area under the swim platform. The steering and autopilot control for the rudders is located there. There's JUST enough room to sit two batteries side-by-side in the center. I used two batteries because you can't get something like a larger 2D or 4D battery into that space. I put each battery in it's own plastic battery box. I then screwed some strips of vinyl molding down around the outline of the boxes to hold them in place. Then they're strapped down using regular battery hold-down straps. I could've gotten away with just using one strap for each battery but I put two instead just to be sure (front-back and side-side). They ain't going NOWHERE. I then wired them up in parallel to the existing systems battery. I'm adding a isolator to help deal with recharging properly. I had it but just haven't gotten it installed yet. The isolator helps avoid a low battery pulling down the good batteries. As a result I get quite a bit more life out of the 12v system.

Of course that doesn't matter much now that I've had to get the danged fridge fixed TWICE. First time it was a leak and dead power supply, second time was a leak they missed. Unfortunately it looks like there might have to be a THIRD time. I've had it on AC power all week and it keeps things a respectable 40F. But when we travelled last night up here to Bodkin Creek the fridge shot back up to 60F. I put us on shore power last night here at Pleasure Cove Marina (the Chesire Cat restaurant is now called Props) and the temp came back down again. I'll have to test it again today to see if it's just a 12v versus 120v issue. Otherwise it's back for repair AGAIN.... grrr...

So, First_Mate, where are you located? Your profile only shows "USA" as your location.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Dang it, 99. now you got me wondering ... i'm pretty sure i don't have the pop- ups but will confirm after visiting the old girl on Wednesday.

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2006 348 Vista
"some days you're the bug and some days you're the windshield"

Heh, given the hassles I've had with the boat this season (dealer induced) I'm not afraid to share it. TAG, YOU'RE IT!

I also discovered something I wasn't aware of. The cabin refrigerator appears to also be on the "Cabin" breaker. That is, I added a fan to the fridge. Basically it's a 120mm fan that comes on whenever the compressor operates. Mainly to keep it cooler and, as a result, extend it's life.

The fan I installed is a bit loud (now on my list of things to replace). And wouldn't you know the cavity behind the galley cabinets carries sound quite readily up to the forward berth. I'm a light sleeper when it comes to unexpected noises and the fan going on/off during the night wasn't expected. Once I get used to a sound it won't wake me, but until then....

But when I was leaving the boat today I flipped off the Cabin breaker and I heard the fan spin down. This came as a bit of a surprise. I thought the fridge didn't have a switchable breaker in the panel. I see that it has a pop-up breaker, but you can't control that manually. I assumed the fridge was just on a 'constant on', perhaps only controlled by the transom battery panel System switch. Apparently not! This isn't as convenient as I'd like. I'd still like a panel switch for JUST the fridge. When we anchor up for the afternoon I don't want to have to use the Cabin breaker as that also kills stuff like the lights in the head.

Good news is my fridge has stayed cold this past weekend. It got a bit warm once but I'm not convinced that wasn't due to the admiral leaving the door open or something. I expect to test it some more later this week when I have the AC off again to reinstall the new water heater. Meanwhile it's keeping a respectable 40F when running on AC.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

I spoke with someone yesterday regarding the fridge in is Vista. Several tips came up. One is to consider removing the drip tray under the freezer box oif you don't need to freeze anything and want the box to become about 10F colder. Or put a couple of holes in it to allow only parts of the colder air to exchange. Another tip was the low voltage threshold. Apparently there's a jumper on the back of the fridge that controls at what point the fridge will stop operating if the DC voltage does too low. On his it was set on the higher value. This lead to a problem with the fridge cutting out but the AC/DC charger not kicking back in to recharge the batteries right. He set the fridge on the lower voltage setting and that took care of the problem. I added two batteries to our ship system circuit so it's not going to be 'as important' to our setup.

We almost never need to keep anything frozen on the boat. The freezer pocket really isn't bit enough for very much anyway. So the pan trick might be useful. It'd let me keep the thermostat on a lower setting and end up saving battery time.

He also pointed out that the breakers for his fridge were not correct. Mine don't seem to have a problem, but I am going to double-check them. That and there's a question of proper wire gauge. Voltage drops over distance. If you use too thin a gauge wire it can drop quite a bit. The best way to check is to measure the voltage at the batteries and then at the device itself. If there's more than a few tenths of a volt difference then you might want to consider using heavier gauge wire. There's a formula for this but the voltmeter check is just as easy. I've been meaning to check this on my chartplotter too but have had other things to to worry about this season.

When I get a quieter 120mm fan I'll double-check the DC voltage readings.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista