89 268 Electrical Q's

[glen959]

I recently bought a 1986 268 Dancer and I'm still figuring out a few things on it. Couple of questions. I have a dual voltage frig but it does not work on 12V. Only on shore power. Is there a switch I'm missing? I would think it should switch automatically....not sure. Also, I have a stove that's dual elect/fuel. Any thoughts on using the fuel? Heard that's not too safe. I imagine I would only use it for the most part on shore power anyway....still learning....my first boat.

Thanks for the help

Glen
86 268 Sundancer
5.7LX w/ Alpha drive

 

[Heatwave]

I used to have one of these a long tome ago. If I remember right there is a switch on the bottom of the fridge when you open the door. Look for that. You may have a 12 volt breaker you have to turn on also.

John

 

[capecodcruiser]

On my 89 300, you have to turn the breaker switch below the helm to the right on. It is marked Fridge. And on shore power it sounds like you have it figured out with the breaker in the shore power panel. Check the thermostat inside the fridge as well.

 

[glen959]

I will check that out tom. Thanx for the help!

 

[Sundancer]

There should be three switches for the fridge. An on off switch near the temp adjustment dial inside the switch, a 110 v switch in the main panel and a 12 volt switch at the helm somewhere. It should switch automatically if the 110 and 12 volt switches are both on. Sometimes the board goes bad and it won't run on one or the other. Hopefully that isn't the problem that you are experiencing.

We have been using the alcohol stove for the last 8 years. Most people don't read the instructions and don't pre-heat the burner right. They turn the valve and light it without shutting off the alcohol and the flames get bigger and bigger! Read the instructions and get it hot with a small amount of alcohol, like a tablespoon. When it burns out, open the valve and you should hear a hissing which means it's hot and ready to light. The good part about alcohol is that it doesn't collect in the bilge and explode. It just evaporates. The other good thing about alcohol is that it is easily put out with water. It also requires some tuning and the other alcohol stoves I've seen haven't been tuned to eliminate the orange tips on the flame. That will increase your heat output and is done by rotating the burner with a pair of pliers while it's burning.