Warming cabinet from a fridge.

[2hives]

Hi all. Many thanks for previous replies about the above My husband-he will be making the thing-wants to know if he has to remove all the cooling/condensing stuff on the back of the fridge. He is worried about it leaking.
My silly head also says, if you plug it in, and it has all that cooling/condensing works on the back, will it be OK as a warming cabinet? I know it will have thermostat inside etc but, hey I am not an engineer after all, so just need a little help to understand the process.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I removed all the gubbins from my scrap fridge - some of it accidentally leaked, but the modern stuff has no CFC's anyway

 

[KitzTaz]

You should remove all the gubbins at the rear, to degas the system somewhere near the large bottle on the bottom there will be two pipes. One of these pipes will have a valve on it not too dissimilar from a tyre valve. Just insert something into it and the gas will escape and all the metal can be cut away

Now the bad news........ as the last post stated unless your unit is over 20 years old you will be ok where CFC's are concerned, but the new coolant that is used nowadays IS HIGHLY FLAMMABLE so this must be done with great care and outside.

 

[joctcl]

why do you need to take out the bits at the back usually thats on the outside at the back?.
Better to leave alone and just put your heater in base ledge.

 

[BeeJayBee]

My silly head also says, if you plug it in, and it has all that cooling/condensing works on the back, will it be OK as a warming cabinet? I know it will have thermostat inside etc but, hey I am not an engineer after all, so just need a little help to understand the process.

The idea is to use an old fridge that no longer works, so you benefit from the insulation and size of the box more than anything else. Remove the old power cable, so there's no chance of plugging the fridge in by mistake. Drill a hole in the carcass so a cable can be fed through to the inside, add a heating element of some sort as well as a thermostat. Put honey on the shelves, turn the heater on.

 

[Dishmop]

You should remove all the gubbins at the rear, to degas the system somewhere near the large bottle on the bottom there will be two pipes. One of these pipes will have a valve on it not too dissimilar from a tyre valve. Just insert something into it and the gas will escape and all the metal can be cut away

Now the bad news........ as the last post stated unless your unit is over 20 years old you will be ok where CFC's are concerned, but the new coolant that is used nowadays IS HIGHLY FLAMMABLE so this must be done with great care and outside.

Illegal to do so I think...

 

[oliver90owner]

A couple of things.

Joctcl and. BJ are right. Ther is no problem. Old, dead fridges are either sealed OK, or have already leaked the refrigerant (reason for failure).

Not all newer fridges are completely safe to vent to atmosphere. The refrigerants used were far better than the previous, but not completely benign; they should be degassed only by proper means. The refrigerant type will be shown on the tag on the machine.

 

[2hives]

Thanks All!

Many thanks to all who have responded. My husband will read in a day or two and proceed accordingly.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Many thanks to all who have responded. My husband will read in a day or two and proceed accordingly.

Do you rent him out?

Dusty

 

[2hives]

I may do in a year or two when he has finished the mammoth job list here!

 

[REDWOOD]

You could ask your council if you can have one that has been de-gassed, saves you doing all the work