Winter projects: Really getting started

It's time to roll up the carpeting and get going on the two big projects: a new head and holding tank and replacement of the old Norcold refrigerator.  This weekend, we had a retreat that we had to attend that used up most of Saturday but on Sunday we headed to Portland to see what we could accomplish before it gets really cold.

The plumbing under the floor outside of the head was really a mess, with lots of wiring tacked together for the bilge pump and plumbing pipes running from the old toilet to a macerator and seacock.  There is also a completely unused seacock and thru-hull fitting that at one time must have supplied sea water to the head for flushing purposes. All of that had to go to make room for the new holding tank.

Removing that old seacock in a confined space was a challenge since there wasn't room to really get in there and push on it. We eventually were able to break it loose with a large set of parallel-jaw pliers held tight with a hose clamp. Then a tap or two with a hammer and off it came.

We then used our Shop-Vac to suck out the remaining bilge water and the debris that had collected down there over the last 30 years.  The macerator also fought us every inch of the way but it eventually came out, too.  We left the old waste hoses in place since we'll probably need them to snake the new sanitary hose in for the holding tank.

Frances was busy removing the last of our stuff for the winter so we put the hatch outside of the head back in place and began to figure out how the old Norcold refrigerator could be removed.  We found that it was held in place by four 2-inch stainless screws concealed by four small black plastic plugs. Two screws came out OK but the other two were blocked by the fridge door, so we removed that and then backed out the remaining two screws. Then, we pulled up on the front of the fridge and it came loose from the floor were it was stuck by mainly old gunk and dirt.

There was very little room to move the fridge once it was clear of the counter but we managed to lift it out and up the stairs and out the door onto the deck.

It's interesting that the Norcold has the refrigerant coils and part of the compressor mounted outside of the cabinet.  The new fridge has everything mounted inside, which will give us some extra room for air circulation once it is mounted in the space under the counter top.

With he Norcold out, we now have access to the rear of the AC circuit breaker panel, which will be handy as we add some outlets over the winter. Note the usual ultra-neat Silverton wiring.

The cavity were the fridge goes is also where we can access the air conditioning unit.  We always wondered how they got that thing in there.

The new fridge arrived in just two days and Frances plugged it in immediately to test it. The dimensions are prefect and it will slip right into the space available under the counter. Note that in the bottom photo, there is something on the shelf of the fridge.  It's chicken. That's Frances' ultimate test meat. "If the chicken doesn't rot, it's a good refrigerator."  I think it came out OK but so far we haven't had chicken for dinner.