Ether in Holdover Plate

[Mayball]

I am a marine refrigeration technician located in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Recently I was working on an engine driven refrigeration system in a sailboat that has a holdover plate ( a stainless steel vessel containing a eutectic solution through which the evaporator coil passes). There was a strong odor of ether in the cold box which I thought could have been coming from the holdover plate. The plate had been installed upside down, so the filler plug was on the bottom. My question is: Has anyone heard of ether being used as a eutectic in a holdover plate? The plate label says FAST FREEZE Yacht Refrigeration, South Hampton, England.

[abbsnowman]

Never heard of that before. Maybe amonia? Either way, sounds dangerous to me.:confused:

[mrfreezeit]

Not ammonia.

I have never heard of ether being used in plates. They generally use alcohol of some sort. This type of plate was used alot in small delivery trucks. The plates were "charged" at night through a plug in refrigeration system, either electric that ran an on board system; or through a central system using hoses.

[Mayball]

After doing some work on the system (replacing the TXV and installing a sightglass) I vacuumed the system and refilled it. There was no longer any smell of ether, either from a warm or a cold plate. So I concluded that the smell had been coming from another source which I never found. One more mystery.

[abbsnowman]

Was it someone's bum? hehehe

[Oregonbythesea]

Sounds like some of those 12 inch prawns you have down there were left in the freezer for a little too long. Takes forever to get that smell out. lol