Saving power by using air from outside to keep refrigerator cool?

[Ronnie]

Originally Posted by 2kool4skool

Good chance that GM is an ammonia unit.

As in an absorbtion unit? If so it would not have a compressor. so that would be one way to tell. I am thinking of the average RV fridges.

Was ammonia ever used with a compressor?

[gs1949]

It sounds like a compressor to me. There is a lot of gurgling that comes out of it, I think it's usually after it stops running.

[edit] I just figured out how to remove the cover below the door. There is a radiator looking thing just above above the floor. I should probably vacuum it. There are a total of 3 tubes connecting that to a thing in the back that looks something like a pressure cooker.

Now I am waiting for it to start while I have the cover off.

[second edit] It sounds even more like a compressor with the cover off. It's definitely pumping something. And there was gurgling just before it started, but not really a lot like I've heard some times.

[kidharris]

Originally Posted by gs1949

It sounds like a compressor to me. There is a lot of gurgling that comes out of it, I think it's usually after it stops running.

[edit] I just figured out how to remove the cover below the door. There is a radiator looking thing just above above the floor. I should probably vacuum it. There are a total of 3 tubes connecting that to a thing in the back that looks something like a pressure cooker.

Now I am waiting for it to start while I have the cover off.

[second edit] It sounds even more like a compressor with the cover off. It's definitely pumping something. And there was gurgling just before it started, but not really a lot like I've heard some times.

pics please. does it have a vent or a propane or natural gas connection? do you have to light it or level it? or do you just turn it on and hear a hum?

[kidharris]

Originally Posted by Ronnie

As in an absorbtion unit? If so it would not have a compressor. so that would be one way to tell. I am thinking of the average RV fridges.

Was ammonia ever used with a compressor?

ammonia compressors are used in some large commercial systems, but I've never seen a residential model, probably for safety reasons.

[gs1949]

It's definitely electric. We used this fridge in the kitchen until I was in my mid-teens, and it's been around here every time I have been since. And now I have been using it myself for over 4 years continuously and defrosting it by unplugging it every few months. There is definitely nowhere to light.

I could take pictures of it, but I do not know how to post them here. I suppose it's time I learned.

[2kool4skool]

https://www.walmart.com/ip/530391830...IaAheEEALw_wcB

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by kidharris

ammonia compressors are used in some large commercial systems, but I've never seen a residential model, probably for safety reasons.

Ammonia systems used to be used in residential Air-Conditioners.. back in the 1960s (pre oil-embargo) natural gas was all the rage.. it was incredinly cheap.. (kind of like it has become again now).. Rheem and I believe a couple others developed Natural Gas central home air conditioners that used ammonia absorption systems... they worked well but damn you sure knew when the indoor loops failed and a leak occured..

[ol trunt]

Just a heads up here. For many years refrigerators were charged with sulphur dioxide as the coolant. SO2 is very nasty stuff. It is corrosive and causes respiratory distress. Post war (WWII) friges were mostly charged with SO2 or Ammonia until the early 1950's when freon use became wide spread.
Jack