The Fridge

I was forewarned. Tale after tale of woe on the Hatteras forum. It seems that Hatteras, like most RV builders, stuck the fridge in and then closed up the envelope. You CAN get larger things in through the aft deck and then the salon doors but you can’t get it down the stairs to the galley. 24-3/16″ is the hole on ours. The side door is 24-1/4″ with the stop removed so the door can slide clear of the opening.

I have heard people putting a hole in the galley roof to get it in. (Done to ours to get the replacement generator in a number of years ago, they may actually have done the fridge at the same time which would make sense.) Whatever way they got it in, it was a monster. Side by side, over 33″ wide and about as deep with the doors. I didn’t like it when I first saw the boat. Ugly, large and sticking out into the galley far enough to block a cabinet. We don’t need a fridge that big. If we’re going to the Bahamas for a week or two a smaller one is still plenty, or I’ll stick a small chest freezer on the back deck. I knew we were getting rid of this thing.

So it took everything not to smile when survey day came around and I was informed the thing had cratered…. They said they were going to fix it. I said leave it and take some money off the top. They did, and very reasonably so. Sooooo, on ME to get this thing outathere…. Hello Mr Sawsall.

As for the new one, the stairs are just over 24″ wide… I can come in the side door at 24″ or from the back deck. (More inches but I have to remove the side windows.) The space is 66″ tall and 33″ wide…..

I have looked at a lot of fridges out there. You can have 2 out of three dimensions…. So if the depth is good, it’s 69″ tall or more, too much. If the height is good the depth is 26 or 28, also too much. The cabinets do not have a lip to modify. They are flush at the bottom and raising them in any way is major surgery. I do not want to tear them up at this time. Maybe at some point we’ll do a major galley renovation and then we’ll revisit this. I also do not want to cut into the stairway trim like some have done.

So, the only size that fits is, unfortunately a lot smaller. 10 cubic foot. Good news is that it’s relatively cheap and it will do for now. Also planning on replacing the ice maker on the back deck with a small beverage fridge. (We rarely use ice.) That would give us 14-15 cubic feet of refrigeration. Should we ever go on a long trip away from stores (unlikely) I can stick a small chest freezer on the back deck for the trip. Ended up settling on a Magic Chef top freezer from Home Despot…..

So here’s the 10.1 cubic foot Magic Chef. We’ve been using it for a few days and it’s perfect. Not running out of space yet. And, it makes the galley look larger. Looks much better.

Update 6 months later…….

Still glad we went this route. It’s plenty big for what we do. We don’t stock massive amounts of beer and food wise the 10 cubic foot is plenty. And, it looks so much better. I would do this again.