propane frige

[retiredmgn]

Hi Folks,
I imagine most of you folks are just like me in the department of asking yourselves, "How the He!! does that thing work?"
A friend just bought a camp and there is a propane fridge...
I have no problem with compressor, expansion valve and the like. Hold down the button on an aerosol can and it all becomes pretty obvious.
I did some searching on the web about creating cold using fire (talk about counter intuitive). It appears I'm going to have to go back to school to come to grips with this. I recall molecules sharing electrons in the outer valance but damm that was 8th grade science.
Can anyone give an explanation to this phenomena in layman's terms?

 

[SandburRanch]

Hi Folks,
I imagine most of you folks are just like me in the department of asking yourselves, "How the He!! does that thing work?"
A friend just bought a camp and there is a propane fridge...
I have no problem with compressor, expansion valve and the like. Hold down the button on an aerosol can and it all becomes pretty obvious.
I did some searching on the web about creating cold using fire (talk about counter intuitive). It appears I'm going to have to go back to school to come to grips with this. I recall molecules sharing electrons in the outer valance but damm that was 8th grade science.
Can anyone give an explanation to this phenomena in layman's terms?

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Propane refrigeration units; how do they work?

 

[k0ua]

maybe this will help:


Absorption refrigerator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Bird]

I've never had a strictly propane refrigerator, but I've had 6 RVs that had 120V electric/LPG refrigerators. Of course they also make AC/DC/LPG models, but I never had one on 12 volt.

 

[crash325]

Fairly simple. Flame / heat expands the freon and it goes into the condenser coils on the back, cools off, goes into fridge and picks up the heat. Heat just makes it go in a circle. Heat rises.

Old Servel firige almost never wore out. If they quit working, you turned them upside down for a day or 2 and they were good to go again. Had a few of them, great machines. Not as fast as electric. :thumbsup:

 

[groundcover]

Stayed at a house in Monserrat that had a kero fridge, ran a week on a tank,a couple of gallons I guess, dead quiet too.

 

[bill on the hill2]

Most of them have ammonia in them not freon. Oldest form of refrigeration out there. As was stated the heat from the flame makes it move and circulate through the coils. That was always the first thing to do when we got to camp. Light the fridge and load the cold beverages!

 

[k0ua]

Most of them have ammonia in them not freon. Oldest form of refrigeration out there. As was stated the heat from the flame makes it move and circulate through the coils. That was always the first thing to do when we got to camp. Light the fridge and load the cold beverages!

Our Family had one of the old Servel gas refer's when I was a kid, it was very old but still worked well, we lost it in the house fire. I dont know why we dont use them today except for RV' and cabin refer's? Is it the fear of an ammonia leak? As I remember they dont use much fuel, there is just a pilot light running in them. I would think that they would be more cost effective than a compressor/electric unit.. Anyone know?

James K0UA

 

[tallyho8]

Our Family had one of the old Servel gas refer's when I was a kid, it was very old but still worked well, we lost it in the house fire. I dont know why we dont use them today except for RV' and cabin refer's? Is it the fear of an ammonia leak? As I remember they dont use much fuel, there is just a pilot light running in them. I would think that they would be more cost effective than a compressor/electric unit.. Anyone know?
James K0UA

They went out of vogue because nobody wants a cheap economical refrigerator anymore. Everyone wants a fancy, no-frost, icemaker equipped unit with all the bells and whistles.

If cheap units were desired, the old fashioned energy efficient ones you have to defrost yourself would be the top sellers but instead they are practically not even stocked in most stores because they just don't sell.