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Post by eatenbylimestone on Mar 6, 2014 15:40:28 GMT
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Post by coldspaces on Mar 6, 2014 17:11:23 GMT
Sounds like a good way to test it. All it should need it a heat source to work. Hope the evap don't make the garage any colder than 8 though.
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Post by ChrisJ on Mar 6, 2014 22:04:45 GMT
So, does it work?
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Post by eatenbylimestone on Mar 7, 2014 0:36:59 GMT
I'm not sure yet. The pipe coming out of the area where the burner is heated up pretty hot, then for some reason it cooled off again while the burner was still going. I'm not exactly sure why that would have happened. Maybe the boiling ammonia mixture reached the top of the tube and then went through the rest of the system so the temperature evened out? Since it was so cold I couldn't tell if the aluminum area that sticks into the fridge was cold due to the ammonia cooling or because it was just frickin' cold out. My fingers weren't sensitive enough in the cold to pick up most temperature changes and if it was just warm, I'd have had no idea.
After I was done I was cautioned about using too much heat as the ammonia can explode. Good to know... It obviously didn't explode, and I think that a lot of the heat was dissipated cooking water out of the insulation. It was steaming and dripping water out the bottom like crazy. The Servel expert thinks the lines are probably clogged with ammonia crystals because it sat on it's back for so long. I hope they aren't and only time will tell. I think we have some warm days coming up. Tomorrow it's supposed to get to 36. If the lines are clogged, I can try the other refrigerator, but that would likely be in the same predicament. Art said that it costs about $500 to have the lines opened up and have the system recharged. There is a guy that has a RV place that might be able to do the work nearby. RVs still use gas refrigerators. I don't think I want to spend much money getting it to work though. I think I would get a quote and if it was more than I'm willing to spend I'd make it into a tool cabinet. It wouldn't be hard to put drawers into it.
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Post by ChrisJ on Mar 7, 2014 3:49:36 GMT
$500 isn't too bad a price IMO. I spent more than that just on my torch to fix my first monitor top.
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Post by eatenbylimestone on Mar 9, 2014 2:55:00 GMT
I've been brainstorming on how to get as close to 1800btu, or 527 watts that the original burner had as cheaply as possible. I was thinking of using water heater elements and cutting down the power, but then came across using a hair dryer. I just checked the watts drawn by my wife's hair dryer and it uses 413 watts on it's low setting and 723 on it's high. On the low setting that converts to 1409 btu, or pretty close to the 1800 that the original burner is. That's less than a pilot light's difference. Do you think that would be close enough to the 1800 to see if it would work? How many hours do you think it would take to find out if it cools down or not?
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Post by eatenbylimestone on Mar 9, 2014 2:59:55 GMT
And I'd buy a new hair dryer. The wife's wrath isn't worth trying to save $20.
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Post by coldspaces on Mar 9, 2014 3:08:27 GMT
And I'd buy a new hair dryer. The wife's wrath isn't worth trying to save $20. I just save the wife old ones when she says "it doesn't work right". Funny they always still seem to work when I try them. Must be my magic touch. As far as the 1400 btu not sure but it might be close enough. Still gonna be hard to tell unless you do it somewhere warmer than 8 degrees. I have very little Spencerian with these so don't know anything about the ammonia crystallizing. I do know they will vapor lock if run too unlevel. Did they suggest turning it upside down for a day or so and then trying it?
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Post by eatenbylimestone on Mar 9, 2014 3:27:12 GMT
I saw something about turning it upside down, laying it on it's side, etc listed as a cure that sometimes worked, but I was going to see if I could get it to work before I started fooling around with flipping it around. Tomorrow is supposed to be 31 and Monday 45. Since I'm not running a 10K btu torch burning out critters and stuff I figured that I could keep the garage door closed and then heat the garage, which shouldn't be too hard with the door closed. I could use a moving blanket over the area that actually cools down so any cold will be trapped and let me figure out if it works faster. I suppose I could always run it on high and that was something like 2300btu, which is over the original burner by about a pilot light. I'm not sure how long a hair dryer will run without shutting itself off at the higher temp though. It might need to run for hours to cool down.
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Post by turbokinetic on Aug 26, 2018 23:59:29 GMT
I saw something about turning it upside down, laying it on it's side, etc listed as a cure that sometimes worked, but I was going to see if I could get it to work before I started fooling around with flipping it around. Tomorrow is supposed to be 31 and Monday 45. Since I'm not running a 10K btu torch burning out critters and stuff I figured that I could keep the garage door closed and then heat the garage, which shouldn't be too hard with the door closed. I could use a moving blanket over the area that actually cools down so any cold will be trapped and let me figure out if it works faster. I suppose I could always run it on high and that was something like 2300btu, which is over the original burner by about a pilot light. I'm not sure how long a hair dryer will run without shutting itself off at the higher temp though. It might need to run for hours to cool down.
Hey I realize this is a very old thread. I am curious because someone may have one of these for me in the near future.
Were you able to get this to cool?
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Post by Rharvey on Aug 27, 2018 3:22:33 GMT
We just got a 1941 model and it cooled the first time we hooked it up to propane. We're just trying to make sure the burner is unclogged and working right before we bring it indoors, as there is a danger of carbon monoxide if it's dirty or malfunctioning.
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Post by turbokinetic on Aug 27, 2018 9:39:26 GMT
We just got a 1941 model and it cooled the first time we hooked it up to propane. We're just trying to make sure the burner is unclogged and working right before we bring it indoors, as there is a danger of carbon monoxide if it's dirty or malfunctioning. Hi thanks for the follow-up! That's great that yours is working. And yes; any unvented gas appliance needs to be in perfect order to minimize the chance of CO emission. Glad you're getting that possibility minimized.
Could you post some pictures of yours or possibly a video?
Sincerely, David
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Post by eatenbylimestone on Aug 27, 2018 10:15:38 GMT
Mine was clogged.
I believe that it was issues with the combustion that drew the lawsuits that put the company out of business.
Be very careful with invented appliances.
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Post by turbokinetic on Aug 27, 2018 10:29:44 GMT
Mine was clogged. I believe that it was issues with the combustion that drew the lawsuits that put the company out of business. Be very careful with invented appliances. I'm sorry to hear that it was clogged. From what I am reading, it seems this is a very common problem when they are not used for long periods of time. Thanks for the reply, even if it wasn't the best of news. I see you worked on the painting of the cabinet. Did you decide to install a vapor compression system in place of the propane system?
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Post by coldspaces on Aug 27, 2018 13:01:40 GMT
I have one set up for natural gas. I had to replace the pressure regulator due to a leak and clean the burner. It works great but has only been used a hand full of times in my garage. No plans to use it indoors as I have too much in the house already lol Mine is in storage presently.
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