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treeman
09-11-2010, 06:10 AM
I recently salvaged a office size frige and drove it around on my flatbed for a month before I found out it was powered by NH3. I wanted to recycle it but could not find any safe way to remove the refrigerant. Next I got into a conversation with a young kid who is primarily a tubehead (repairs and rebuilds tube guitar amps), and he had seen a similar box, and advised that I plug it in to see if it would operate, My first attempt failed as I was unaware of the warm up period required, and when nothing was happening, I chalked it up a loss, but of course it only needed a few minutes to get the gas hot and works fine. It became the perfect solution to store several bottles of vet grade antibiotic (more salvage), but now I am wondering if it would pose any fire danger, just sitting down there running. It is on a cement floor, next to a brick wall, plugged into a fused power strip. Also I was wondering how many watts this thing is eating, because although it continues to cool, if it is a threat, or hugely expensive, I'd probably shut it down. It was made in Poland, so if anything can go wring, it probably will. Thanks for any advice...Tree in KC

McFranklin
01-12-2010, 07:45 AM
It is an absorption chiller system most likely, an ammonia/water solution with a corrosion inhibitor. RV's use these powered by propane. Your description indicates it is run by an electric heat strip. I doubt that it is very efficient, otherwise you would see these more often. Mostly you see them run by propane/natural gas where electricity is not available/or expensive. There absorption air conditioners also. The disposal comes under Hazmat/EPA regulations due to the corrosion inhibitors more than the ammonia. Sodium chromate was one inhibitor that was used.