Kitchen appliances environmental friendly tips: Refrigerators and freezers

Refrigerators and freezers are now commonplace items in the home. Faults are inconvenient at the very least and, at worst, can prove expensive if the contents thaw out. In addition, most, if not all refrigerators and freezers contain environmentally unfriendly CFC gases for the cooling system and within the insulation materials. Although efforts are being made to eliminate the use of these gases in new appliances, it will be some time before non-CFC use becomes the norm. While CFCs are still in widespread use there are a number of things that you can do to minimize their associated environmental problems.

Regular servicing of your appliance will reduce failure and the need to renew it prematurely — at the moment, probably with another CFC using appliance. If faults occur that are uneconomical or unsafe to repair, the appliance must be disposed of correctly. The refrigerant gas should be extracted and collected in cylinders for safe disposal or recycling. This cannot be done without specialist equipment and knowledge, but local councils and commercial firms will advise.

Even the foam insulation may contain CFCs, so it must also be disposed of properly. All this may seem pointless for one useless scrap appliance, but depletion of the ozone layer can be halted only by taking these seemingly insignificant steps.

It is not possible for you to repair all faults that may occur because expensive specialist equipment is needed for the sealed system. Do not attempt repairs to the sealed pressurized pipework. You can, however, trace, by elimination, and repair many of the common faults found in refrigerators and freezers. If, after carrying out all normal checks, a fault is suspected in the sealed system, it is advisable to call in a qualified refrigeration engineer. A competent engineer should collect any gas that he needs to bleed off during the repair and also use inert gas as opposed to refrigerant to test for leaks. Make sure yours does.

How refrigerators and freezers work

Although there are many different types and styles of appliance on the market, most of them work on the same principle of compression and expansion within a sealed system.

At the heart of the sealed network of pipes and tubing lies an induction motor, usually relay start (A), connected directly to a piston operated compressor with which it forms one complete unit. The motor/compressor unit also acts as a reservoir (G). When the motor is supplied with power, operation of the compressor begins. Low pressure gas is drawn into the compressor chamber via tube (F) and compressed by a rapidly moving piston which forces the now compressed gas into the condenser tube system (B). Reed valves are situated on both the inlet and outlet of the compressor unit and operate in opposition to each other by the pressures produced. Heat generated in the compression sequence and any that has been absorbed from the sealed motor is dissipated in the condenser matrix (B). This cooling allows the refrigerant gas to liquefy. The liquefied gas then passes through a dryer/filter (C) designed to remove any traces of water vapour or crystals prior to passing through a capillary tube (small bore) and on to the evaporator. A small-bore capillary tube is used to control the flow of liquid to the evaporator. When the high pressure liquid gas from the capillary tube enters the large network of the evaporator (E) the sudden expansion of the liquefied gas results in dramatic cooling of the unit as the liquid reverts to a lower pressure gas again.

Being a sealed system, this is a continuous operation as long as the motor and compressor unit run, the system remains sealed and there is enough gas within the system. The tube (H) is used to evacuate the system during manufacture and to introduce the coolant gas then or during servicing by qualified personnel.

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