For Services and Resources in French Polynesia

The Tahiti Cruisers Guide is brought to you by Julien Desmont from Xperimental and Chuck Houlihan from Jacaranda. Starting as an idea based on the very successful Panama City Cruisers guide, it has evolved into 200+ pages of information on vendors and services throughout French Polynesia. In January 2018, we added GPS coordinates and links to Google Maps to assist in locating businesses.

Downloading the guide and GPS map coordinates will facilitate using the guide offline. The coordinates will work for either Maps.me (best for Papeete) or Google Maps.

Especially thankful to John (SV Mary Ann II) and Steve (SV Ocean Star) for their huge effort in supplying a vast amount of information for the guide.

The guide is a community effort. Updates and new additions are greatly appreciated. If you find the guide useful or find something that needs updating please drop us a note at tahiticruisersguide (AT) gmail.com

Last update: 06 Oct 2024

Refrigeration – Repairs

Marine Refrigeration Mike Campbell

2024-05-22 16:56:54 UTC

Island: Tahiti

Mike Campbell
Refrigeration and Air Conditioning - Installation - Maintenance - Repair
689 8964 3260
mikecamalila@gmail.com

Located in Taina on a mooring opposite the super yacht key on board Alila, an Irwin 54

This is the first fridge business that we know that solely specializes in Yachts.

10-2023 SV Hilsen 
We just had Mike on board the other day and what a joy! He is absolutely a wonderful person with nice attitude and much humor. Beside that he is very skilled at he’s work. We had a leaking pipe from the compressor to the fridge. He solved it right on the spot. It only took 2 hours and the price was very fair. I only have good things to say. 5 star service ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

01-2023 SV Auntie
I recommend Mike Campbel for refer repair. He knows his business, has the right equipment, and gets it done. Worth waiting for his expertise.

10-22 SV Malaika Just wanted to share our amazing experience with Mike Campbell. Our water cooling fridge died the other day and we called Mike to have a look. He came and found the problem and the very next day he was changing our system to air cooling one. He was so fast and efficient!! We are so happy with our new silent fridge and it even takes less power now!! So if you have a fridge problem team Malaika highly recommends Mike for the job!! You’ll get excellent service and funny jokes 😂


10-22 SV Hedonism Just wanted to share our amazing experience with Mike Campbell Our water cooling fridge died the other day and we called Mike to have a look. He came and found the problem and the very next day he was changing our system to air cooling one He was so fast and efficient!! We are so happy with our new silent fridge and it even takes less power now!! So if you have a fridge problem team Malaika highly recommends Mike for the job!! You’ll get excellent service and funny jokes

7-2022 SV KONBREO Just wanted to recommend Mike Campbell for anything refrigeration!! My fridge was working ‘ok’ after a 1 year lay-up but I felt it could be better. Mike was quick to investigate and found a small leak in the pipe connectors. He cut these out, made welded joins, regassed and my system performed 100% better – running less, saving power and keeping the rum perfect temperature! I’ve recently consulted him again to change from water cooled to air cooled as part of an upgrade I’m planning in NZ. As a superyacht captain I’ve had a lot to do with so called fridge expert’s many who don’t really understand small boat systems. But Mikes depth of experience on vessels of all sizes shows, his advice and logic is very sound as is his workmanship. I am happy to recommend him as fantastic resource for the cruising community.

1-22 SV Hedonsim Mike Campbell, our friend and also the “go to” refrigeration guy came by to finish installing our new Danfoss BD50 compressor today. Mike needed to use his big 230 VAC vacuum pump to purge the system so the best way was just to “raft” with us for a few hours. It is very rare for a BD50 to fail but ours did after 16+ years. Mike actually had a new BD50 “in stock” on his boat!! Our new install also includes an air condenser in series with our Keel Cooler so should be pretty efficient and we will be able to run the fridge while “on the hard”. Thanks Mike!

12-21 SV Cyrolia- Mike Campbell just installed a new Vitrifrigo freezer unit on my sailboat. Super happy with Mike, the quality of his service and work, and his British sense of humor!

And Mike: if you see this… my four tubs of ice cream are rock solid frozen!

7-21 Jacaranda - We returned to the boat in Mo'orea after an absence of two years and the fridge did not start. After conducting some tests at Mikes suggestion I contacted Mike with the results of these tests and Mike gave me a 95% probable rate that it was the controller. I replaced the controller and fridge is working now. Mike is a good guy!

7-21 SV Lilikoi Introduction: We bought our FP Lipar1 41 in Marina Taina in March 2020, then locked-down in Hawaii until this week. Finally got to our boat and the fridge didn’t work. Looked for info on your guide and found Mike Campbell under Refrigeration repair.

Mike dinghies over the day after I asked him for help by email. He assessed the situation, went back to his boat for tools and materials, returned 2 hours later, trouble-shooted it to isolate the controller as the issue, replaced the controller and we have a cold fridge again.
Mike is prompt, courteous and professional, as well as a fun-loving guy with a great sense of humor. Highly recommend Mike in the Marina Taina area, and thank you for providing and maintaining your guide for cruisers.

1-21 SV Barracuda Mike came round shortly after we contacted him. He was quick to spot the problem (a change in our power management) and give advice. Definitely knows his stuff and is friendly, responsive and helpful.

12-2020 I first came across Mike Campbell in Palma de Mallorca in 2006 when I was the Captain of a 112 ft Swan called Song of the Sea.
He installed a second freezer for us as we were just about to start a Circumnavigation via Tahiti !
Imagine my surprise when in 2020 I was Captain of a Swan 90 in Tahiti with refrigeration problems and bumped into Mike !!! The problem had haunted us all the way from the Canaries without anyone be able to solve the problem. Mike managed to find the problem, which was basically a design error and got the system working better than when the boat was built up in Finland.
3 yrs later and close to 50,000 nm it’s still running strong.
In fact whilst back at Nautor last year for a major refit we didn’t need to touch the refrigeration and after discussing the fix Mike had carried out Nautor “ took it onboard “ and are now retrofitting it to vessels that come in for service and I believe new vessels will have it as standard.
So apart from his terrible sense of humour , unusual for a Liverpool Lad , myself being one as well, I can highly recommend Mike as a professional and experienced engineer who works hard and is honest.
Fair Winds and Smooth Seas
Guy Spencer
RYA Yachtmaster Ocean CE.

11-2020 SV SV Mat-Lau III   Mike has repaired and serviced our fridges twice now, latest Oct 2020. He knows what he’s doing, and will also tell you if he’s unsure if a particular fix will work, unless tried (in our case we took the chance - it worked). He has replaced copper tubing, bled and re - adjusted pressures, and also given us instruction on testing ourselves, if any future issues may arise. He always returns within a day or so, to ensure things are still working ok. Our fridges are now running perfectly.
He does answer calls or emails, and will come within a time span he has indicated.
Also has a good sense of humor.

8-2020 SV Sugar Shack We thought we had a slow leak in our fridge. Mike came by to do an initial assessment and scheduled to come back with his tools and Freon. He walked Matt through testing different things to diagnose future issues, filled her up with Freon and gave us many laughs and giggles along the way. Even though he came for two visits and stayed a little more than an hour he only charged us for one hour. He is very professional, kind, and courteous.