# Propane Refrigerators



## CampFridge (May 25, 2014)

I lived off the Grid for 10 years, and in that time started repairing propane refrigerators, and have made it my profession for the last 7 years.
I am writing a how to repair book on the subject, so if anyone has any question, I would be happy to answer them on here.


----------



## TXWildcat (Mar 26, 2014)

im interested in them and the book. i know the size and ambient temp affects this but whats the average amount of gas to run one for the year? could i hook up my 40# tank and it last all year?


----------



## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

TXWildcat said:


> im interested in them and the book. i know the size and ambient temp affects this but whats the average amount of gas to run one for the year? could i hook up my 40# tank and it last all year?


I'm gonna guess it would depend on the size....like a small, camper type versus a full sized kitchen model.

One site I visited quoted 1.2lbs per 24hrs for a 12 cubic foot model kitchen type, and 12cuft isn't a very large fridge.

Another website for Crystal Cold says the 11cuft model uses about 2 gallons a week. A 40lb tank has around 10 gallons in it....so you'd be looking at a bit over a month of operation on one tank.

Let Campfridge weigh on it.

And I have 2 questions: 

1. What repairs do propane fridges require ? 

I thought one of the main advantages of them was nearly no moving parts ( like a compressor ) to go bad, and they lasted virtually forever.

2. The "3 way" camper fridges that use 120v, 12v, or propane: 

Do they have two different refrigerant systems, since the electric operation would involve a compressor unit....or do they manage to integrate it with the propane heat generator. Also, what gas, or gases, are used in the system(s).

Thanks !


----------



## Gray Wolf (Jan 25, 2013)

We usually wait until we smell it, but how often should the chimney be cleaned?


----------



## rickpaul (Jan 10, 2013)

Can you literally take a propane refrig. an set it in the middle of the woods an it be cold. I`m just wonderin. Thanks a lot.......rick


----------



## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

We had propane fridge in Montana for like 15 years. It was an ancient servel from 1952 and I rehabbed it myself with help from Maine Gas Refrigeration. I cleaned the chimney twice a year and each month checked to see that the flame was all blue and checked the carbon monoxide monitor as well. never had any problems and really liked the old fridge. Had a neighbor with a 3000 dollar propane fridge that sprung a leak after a few years and they lost hundreds of dollars of propane before they figured it out. The only thing about gas fridges is that they take longer to cool food down and to freeze stuff.


----------



## Studhauler (Jul 30, 2011)

TnAndy said:


> And I have 2 questions:
> 
> 1. What repairs do propane fridges require ?
> 
> ...



Propane and RV fridges generally use ammonia as the refrigerant. They require repair if the ammonia leaks out somehow. In an RV fridge the 12vdc and 120 volt part of the fridge use a heater in place of the propane flame. It has been my experience on the RV fridges that the propane will cool better that the 12 or 120 volt.


----------



## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

Any good outlet for parts? i have an old dometic I need a burner for.

WWW


----------



## Nimrod (Jun 8, 2010)

rickpaul said:


> Can you literally take a propane refrig. an set it in the middle of the woods an it be cold. I`m just wonderin. Thanks a lot.......rick


If it is hooked up to a propane tank, YES. 

I have a propane fridge I salvaged from an old camper. I use it when I am camping or spending time at the new place. It won't fit in the new camper so I put it on the picnic table and put a screen house over it. I love being in the boonies for weeks and not having to go to town to buy ice for the cooler. In fact, I can make ice cubes for the little cooler to take cold drinks out in the boat.

The cooling coils and tubes on the back started to rust. I sanded them down and spray painted them with high temp enamel usually used for painting engines. There are several cool colors. I used Ford Blue.

The way it makes cold from burning propane or an electrical heating element is wizardry. I have given up trying to understand it. It's like gravity. We don't know why it works, it just does. I have a little shrine in front of the fridge and make sacrifices to it.


----------



## topofmountain (Nov 1, 2013)

We live full time in an RV. What I know is adding a small fan at the back of the unit helps cool a great deal. We are right now in 112 degree temps, I'm running it on 110V It is a 2005 Norcold two door. It is staying at about about 10 degrees in the freezer & 30 degrees in the refer part set on #3 with 5 settings. Without the fan you can add about 10 to 15 degrees. I would have to set the temp on #5.


----------



## Studhauler (Jul 30, 2011)

I once found a very small twin computer fan (12v) set-up made for and RV fridge, but this one went on the inside cooling fins. It worked much better than the ones that go on the outside fins. BUT I can't find it online to buy another one.


----------



## 12vman (Feb 17, 2004)

wy_white_wolf said:


> Any good outlet for parts? i have an old dometic I need a burner for.
> 
> WWW


 Maybe you can find some information here..

http://vintageservelrefrigerators.8k.com/PartsAndRepair.html

I know that Lehman's used to repair 'um but I bet they may have some parts layin' around. If not, I'll bet they can send ya in the right direction..


----------



## nosqrls (Jun 9, 2012)

They make propane ac units, (Big enough to cool a house) I have not seen one in the states though. Mainly see them overseas. Quiet as can be. The industrial units are steam.


----------



## CampFridge (May 25, 2014)

TXWildcat said:


> im interested in them and the book. i know the size and ambient temp affects this but whats the average amount of gas to run one for the year? could i hook up my 40# tank and it last all year?


 As You said it depends on the size of the fridge and the outside temperature A small 4 Cu Ft fridge in a cool climate you could get through 4 to 5 months.


----------



## CampFridge (May 25, 2014)

TnAndy said:


> I'm gonna guess it would depend on the size....like a small, camper type versus a full sized kitchen model.
> 
> One site I visited quoted 1.2lbs per 24hrs for a 12 cubic foot model kitchen type, and 12cuft isn't a very large fridge.
> 
> ...


 Crystal Cold fridges are converted house cabinets the company buys without the compressor. Some of the older fridges had a heavier insulation and were more efficient. 

Ammonia absorption refrigerator has no moving parts in fact what's they use is Ammonia, Distilled water, Hydrogen Gas and a small amount of Sodium Chromate as a rust inhibitor. The fact that they have no moving parts does not mean in time do to corrosion of the steel tubing (ammonia is very corrosive to copper and Aluminum so the entire cooling system has to be made of steel tubing the sodium chromate protects the inside of the tubes but the outside surface will eventually rust in places and fail and have to be repaired and recharged, Even a fridge that has never been used eventually hydrogen being the smallest molecule known to man will eventually leak out.

One of the biggest problems I have seen is people treating a gas refrigerator as if it was a common household compressor fridge and slide them into the same space without giving the gas fridge enough space to dissipate the heat it is pulling out of the fridge, which greatly reduces the efficiency of the fridge and shorten the life also. 

When you have a 3 way ammonia fridge, all that means is you have three different heat sources, usually 120 AC hearing element, a 12 volt DC heating element and a small flame to power the fridge, each of them as individual put out close to the same BTU. People get that mixed up all the time.


----------



## CampFridge (May 25, 2014)

sisterpine said:


> We had propane fridge in Montana for like 15 years. It was an ancient servel from 1952 and I rehabbed it myself with help from Maine Gas Refrigeration. I cleaned the chimney twice a year and each month checked to see that the flame was all blue and checked the carbon monoxide monitor as well. never had any problems and really liked the old fridge. Had a neighbor with a 3000 dollar propane fridge that sprung a leak after a few years and they lost hundreds of dollars of propane before they figured it out. The only thing about gas fridges is that they take longer to cool food down and to freeze stuff.


 There will never be a fridge built better than a Servel, they require the flue to be cleaned monthly to keep that flame burning blue and they love propane but are true work horses. 
There is a good market on fixing the newer propane fridges they don't have near the lifespan of the Servel. Let me rephrase that the old Servel's pre 1956 They still have a propane house fridge built today with the Servel name.


----------



## CampFridge (May 25, 2014)

wy_white_wolf said:


> Any good outlet for parts? i have an old dometic I need a burner for.
> It depends how old of a Dometic fridge you have. www.anyrvparts.com carries quite a few good parts for rv appliances. Burners they would probably have for your fridge if it is newer than the 80's


----------



## CampFridge (May 25, 2014)

nosqrls said:


> They make propane ac units, (Big enough to cool a house) I have not seen one in the states though. Mainly see them overseas. Quiet as can be. The industrial units are steam.


Robur/Servel still make gas fired A/C units for households and are available in the U.S. There is a house built in Los Angeles that uses solar power absorption system to cool and heat the house 
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R60mqHzi3uA[/ame]


----------



## CampFridge (May 25, 2014)

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYshi631z-Y[/ame]


----------



## CampFridge (May 25, 2014)

topofmountain said:


> We live full time in an RV. What I know is adding a small fan at the back of the unit helps cool a great deal. We are right now in 112 degree temps, I'm running it on 110V It is a 2005 Norcold two door. It is staying at about about 10 degrees in the freezer & 30 degrees in the refer part set on #3 with 5 settings. Without the fan you can add about 10 to 15 degrees. I would have to set the temp on #5.


 A 12v fan on a rv fridge is a must in hot climates. The ammonia absorption fridge is a heat exchanger it pulls the heat out of the box through a chemical reaction between the liquid ammonia and the hydrogen gas ( basically it absorbs heat then places it in the coils in the back of the fridge. The heat is removed through convection cooling,( as the heat rises it pulls the cool air in from the lower vent and cool the absorption coils). When it gets into the high 90's and above the convection cooling process stalls and needs help that is where the fans become a great benefit.

Also the temp selection is not a throttle. It turns on and off at the temp you select, Most of them are designed to keep your food between 32F-42F. I hear this most of all people telling me before they use to run the setting on one number now they have to run it on another number to get it as cold. That woulld be a Thermister (therocouple) going out not the cooling unit.


----------



## CampFridge (May 25, 2014)

The tail tail sign of any propane refrigerator loosing it's charge is the freezer still will make ice ,but the fridge will no longer stay between 32 and 42 degrees fahrenheit. another thing that happens is when you wake up in the morning the fridge is holding temperature but as the day warms up so does your fridge. That is because your ammonia absorption fridge is a heat exchanger it pulls heat out of the cabinet and dissipates the heat through the coils in the back, so as the day gets warmer it is harder for you fridge to keep things cold. Check out my topic on propane fridges,


----------



## light rain (Jan 14, 2013)

CampFridge, thank you for sharing that information with us!


----------



## WildPrGardens (Mar 8, 2014)

CampFridge great info, Thanks.

Could a different heat source be used?

Say some kind of heat exchanger added to use heat from a wood fire/stove.


----------



## WildPrGardens (Mar 8, 2014)

CampFridge great info, Thanks.

Sorry, double posts.


----------



## CampFridge (May 25, 2014)

WildPrGardens said:


> CampFridge great info, Thanks.
> 
> Could a different heat source be used?
> 
> Say some kind of heat exchanger added to use heat from a wood fire/stove.


 Yes you could use any stable heat source On youtube a gentleman attempted to build a wood powered rv fridge with his small Dometic fridge. The big problem is making sure your heat source is constant, if it get too hot you could boil water past the rectifier or burn the ammonia breaking it back down to hydrogen and nitrogen which is what ammonia is made of, if it dose not get hot enough the fridge with not get cold. A simple wood pellet dispenser would solve a large part of that and a bi-metal spring controlled flue dampener should make it stable enough to work. You still have to clean the soot in the flue often. 
Finally the old rv fridge the person was using had the original cooling unit on it which by my experience had lost it's charge by age along time ago. Also unlike a household compressor powered fridge any ammonia absorption fridge takes 45 minutes to and hour to start to get cold, so he was feeling a surface that was colder than his body temperature thinking the fridge was getting cold. ALWAYS USE A THERMOMETER TO CHECK A FRIDGE TEMP!!!! The best way to start would be getting a fridge you knew was working on electric and have a thermometer to check to see what the boiler temperature was at that point build your stove and dampening system to match and maintain that heat. all of this could be done without electricity. 
other systems use steam like power plants for refrigeration, there are of course kerosene powered refrigerators that use two aladdin lamps. and I'm sure someone out there may have tried using geothermal to power an ammonia absorption system. 

I know this is a long response, but I have thought about building one many times. Time with me has always been a factor.
The how to book I am writing on repair rv/propane refrigerators will give enough insight to attempt this. It is better to build a unit than try to alter an existing fridge. www.CampFridge.com


----------



## WildPrGardens (Mar 8, 2014)

Great!! Fantastic!!

Thankyou.

What I was thinking about was useing a wood fire/stove separate from the fridge so it could be a space heater also or even outside in warm weather.

Two different flues.

Would automotive anti-freeze in a heat exchanger get hot enough? 

Can't wait for your book.


----------



## CampFridge (May 25, 2014)

WildPrGardens said:


> Great!! Fantastic!!
> 
> Thankyou.
> 
> ...


 No the boiler has to get above 300F to operate a fridge


----------



## GoldenCityMuse (Apr 15, 2009)

Really nice info. Keep i t up.


----------



## mosepijo (Oct 21, 2008)

We purchased a Crystal Cold propane fridge. We put it on our deck (second floor. 8ft.high) every time the wind blows, the pilot light goes out. Is there anything we can do? We thought of building a half enclosure to keep the breeze out but is the pilot light going out at the top of the tube or at the bottom? Very exasperating. Please, advice?


----------



## CampFridge (May 25, 2014)

That is a simple fix. You have a push button igniter, When the flame gets blown out it stays out, I have installed a reigniter made by Dometic on many propane house fridges. It uses a very small amount of 12 volt but it is easy to install and as many times as the wind blows the flame out is will relight it within a fraction of a second, You can find them on Ebay for about $30.00
Part# (Dometic 2931132019 Refrigerator Reigniter Assy 2931132027) and it can replace the push button lighter.


----------



## cornbread (Jul 4, 2005)

*CampFridge*

Could you advise me what is the best propane refrigerators.


----------



## CampFridge (May 25, 2014)

I have always liked the workmanship of Frostek and EZ-Freeze Refrigerators, 
That is what I would buy for my own house.


----------

