Wayne Boatwright wrote:

On Thu 16 Dec 2010 11:39:04p, Smitty Two told us...

Sometime soon I'll be taking a 45 minute drive to look at a
friend's DC powered propane fridge. I've never even seen one of
these. She says it hasn't worked for months, but recently a solar
power expert has been working up there, repairing things. Now the
fridge works, sort of. As she describes it:

There is an ON/OFF slide switch which is now mysteriously
backwards; the ON indicator light comes on with the switch
supposedly in the OFF position. I'm thinking this is a SPST that
just got pulled and reinstalled backwards, but maybe not.

The burner will light, and cool the box to 34F, when she presses
the start button. However, once the fridge warms up, it won't
re-ignite automatically.

What tools should I take, and what should I be looking for?


I'm sorry, but I have no answers or suggestions.

Just wanted to say that I've always been fascinated by the natural
gas and kerosene powered refrigerators and gas airconditioners of
many decades ago. The fridges reqired no electric power whatsoever
and werwe often purchased by families in rural areas without electric
service. From what I understand, gas a/c was more efficient to
operate than electric units, with many fewer moving parts to wear
out.

Good luck with finding what you need.

Absorption chiller, interesting stuff. These days they are common in
little RV refrigerators, and in big industrial refrigeration,
particularly where there is waste heat available from another process to
drive the chiller. I've heard the factory fish processing ships use
absorption chillers powered off waste heat from the ship's engine(s).