Talk:Einstein refrigerator

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[edit] Sounds too good?

Could someone please write up the disavantages... NPOV. And if there are none, I shall go purchase one of these posthaste. Baloogan 01:28, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

The disadvantage is that you can't buy them :) The old kerosene burning fridges worked this way, not sure why they went away, perhaps an evil conspiracy by the freon manufacturers, or perhaps because people didn't like having to fill them up with kero. Once upon a time they were as common as electric fridges, and someone once told me that they were more efficient than electrical fridges (probably they meant that burning kero locally was more efficient than burning coal remotely and using an electrical fridge locally, rather than that you could use electricity to directly heat a kero fridge and have it more efficient than a compression type fridge. These fridges could be plumbed to run on natural gas, but I don't know of anyone that has done this. Kero-fridges were always notorious for being too cold, but I suspect that that could have been fixed with better engineering. njh 10:39, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
The second link in the external links section goes to a page where it seems to imply at the end that the thing doesn't cool stuff enough. Xiner 00:49, 11 November 2006 (UTC)
I can confirm the "doesn't cool stuff enough" aspect from personal experience. In one of my archeological field trips we had a gas powered absorption refrigerator and while it kept stuff cold enough that it didn't spoil it certainly didn't keep stuff as cold as a vapour compression refrigerator. The wikipedia page on Kerosene lamp gives some hints as to why kerosene burning fridges vanished without invoking any conspiracy: cost, smell, and soot. Given patents have a limited life (20 years in the US) and are public knowledge it is hard to see if these type of refrigerator was a valid competitor how anyone could have kept it quiet all this time. --BruceGrubb (talk) 07:43, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Health risks

Just curious, the page states that the machine caused numerous deaths due to leaks of ammonia, but when I read about Ammonia on Wikipedia it hardly looks like such leaks could cause numerous deaths. I know little about chemistry, but either the health risks in the article about ammonia are understated, or the information here about it causing deaths is inaccurate.

I can't believe the claims of ammonia leaks causing death either and have not found a credible source for it. I have removed the claim from the article. -- Marcika 15:26, 12 December 2005 (UTC)
Last year (2005) a dozen or more people suffered serious respiratory problems as a result of a leak in a large ammonia absorption fridge in a meatworks in Melbourne. I don't recall anyone dying. njh 10:39, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

About a year ago, I was involved in a small ammonia leak. I was holding the end of the pipe it came out of, so I inhaled a good bit of ammonia. (It was coming out gaseous, not liquid, or I would have gotten the hell out of there). I am unaware of suffering any fatality from the incident. Ammonia is not toxic, contrary to popular belief. It is a simple asphyxiant. (To be more precise, it may be toxic in doses much larger than would be needed to suffocate you to death.) 71.232.212.29 05:18, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

we used to have one that ran on propane gas. --Will314159 14:56, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] merge/restructure

I think someone needs to look at merging and rearranging the material on Icyball, Absorptive refrigeration, Gas absorption refrigerator and Einstein refrigerator. (It might be me :) njh 10:31, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Refrigerant vs partial pressure gas

I believe that the article may have the refrigerant and the "pressure equalizing gas" reversed. I believe that ammonia is used as the refrigerant and the butane is used to provide a partial pressure in the evaporator to allow the ammonia to evaporate. Ammonia is readily soluble in water but butane is not, therefore water may be used as a trap that will keep the butane in the evaporator but allow ammonia to pass from evaporator to condenser. I believe that this is just another design of the absorption refrigeration cycle.

"Modern Refrigeration and Air Conditioning 18th Edition (Hardcover) by Andrew D.; Bracciano, Alfred F.; Turnquist, Carl Harold Althouse" has a chapter discussing absorption refrigeration and how its implemented in commercially available appliances.

Absorption refrigerators are still used in recreational vehicles where they are heated by propane when electricity is unavailable but with an electric heater when electricity is available.

Mattmia2 03:50, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Boats and RVs

Refrigerators that sound a lot like this are in use on boats and RVs, where propane gas as a fuel source is much more practical than electricity--Mongreilf (talk) 14:21, 30 March 2008 (UTC)