A Question For The Fridgies

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Tony M

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My sister just phoned in a panic from the wilds of Bulgaria and said she can smell ammonia near her little 200litre freezer. I said that it cant be and look for a dead rat or cats pis. But am I wrong. Can refridgerant in these domestic applications have any ammonia in them?
 
Didnt appear on the topic list so I bumped it
 
If the fridge is really ancient it is possible that there could be some ammonia, it was used as a refrigerant back in the days of the wild west, not sure when it stopped, probably the 50's but not too sure.
In some parts of Europe they are not up with the state of the art equipment that we are used to and take for granted, so it could be possible that some are still using ammonia as a refrigerant.
I remember in Italy years ago you could see some of the fastest cars on the street (Ferrari, Maserati etc) and still have raw sewerage running down the gutters in some large towns.
The Blue Danube is pretty brown in places too and pollution is not a high priority on some countries agenda.
 
Ammonia based refridgerants were definitely used in older fridges. We were working on an old kerosene fridge that developed a leak, fortunately it was outside and it was taken away on the back of the ute promptly.

Cannot advise your relative though. Maybe in the wilds of Bulgaria, there are still ammonia based refridgerants around.

Off topic and humour posts do not show in the active threads box, only beer threads appear there.
 
I don't recall what brand it was, it is sitting at the top of the hill, will check next time I am up there.
 
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