Ammonia versus Compressor Fridge...
After all the talk about Danfoss compressor fridges and how much better they were than the old school Ammonia Units, I decided to 'fiddle with mine and do a long term test using a remote digital recor...
Forum Discussion
I see were back to the merits of a Danfoss. This is about both actually. In as much as most (unless you order a compressor fridge when it's built, it comes with an ammonia fridge.
I said at the outset that I's like someday to get a cooler style Dometic (Danfoss Compressor) fridge for the the truck, but in as much as my unit has a Dometic Ammonia unit installed...and I have improved the cooling with some simple and inexpensive modifications), I'll continue to use it.
So long as the 'old school' fridge is working well, I'm not going to change it.
I remember back not all that long ago when campers came with ice chest 'refrigerators'. I had one in my Cox Camper (one of those manufacturers that is long gone). Back then, the 'new kid' on the block was an ammonia fridge.
Being retired and on a somewhat fixed income, I look at the expense of changing out a viable and good working Ammonia fridge for a Danfoss unit lets say a grand and then adding solar panels plus controller and all the other stuff associated with it in sufficient wattage to run it plus a multiple battery bank, at least another grand and then here in the east, you'll still need a genny because the sun don't shine every day so your battery bank gets depleted...another grand.
That's 3 grand right out of the gate. Consequently, people can talk about the virtues of a compressor fridge but if the ammonia unit can be tweaked to provide respectable performance, 3 grand is a lot of jack.... especially for me.
A helluva more than a couple high capacity muffin fans, a snap disc thermoswitch, some wiring, a piece of scrap galv sheet and a roll of R13 insulation and some constructive time on your part Total outlay for me was about 100 bucks including my free labor. $100.00 versus $3000.00 is in my humble opinion a pretty good cost versus return ratio.
I never said that an ammonia fridge would run as efficiently as a compressor fridge because it won't. It's inherent design limits it;s efficiency. All I'm alluding to is the efficiency can be improved with some inexpensive modifications. Nothing more.
In as much as the vast majority of units today ship with ammonia fridges and a lot of them are not installed or vented properly (insulation, baffles or forced cooling fans), this is about tweaking for satisfactory performance.
If you have a compressor fridge, I'm happy for ya.
If you have an ammonia fridge and you want to improve it's efficiency in all conditions, that is what this is about.
Finally, I can buy a boatlaod of propane (currently $1.35 per gallon here, for the cost of a replacement Danfoss unit alone. I need the propane anyway. I don't cook my meals with a Fresnel Lens....
I said at the outset that I's like someday to get a cooler style Dometic (Danfoss Compressor) fridge for the the truck, but in as much as my unit has a Dometic Ammonia unit installed...and I have improved the cooling with some simple and inexpensive modifications), I'll continue to use it.
So long as the 'old school' fridge is working well, I'm not going to change it.
I remember back not all that long ago when campers came with ice chest 'refrigerators'. I had one in my Cox Camper (one of those manufacturers that is long gone). Back then, the 'new kid' on the block was an ammonia fridge.
Being retired and on a somewhat fixed income, I look at the expense of changing out a viable and good working Ammonia fridge for a Danfoss unit lets say a grand and then adding solar panels plus controller and all the other stuff associated with it in sufficient wattage to run it plus a multiple battery bank, at least another grand and then here in the east, you'll still need a genny because the sun don't shine every day so your battery bank gets depleted...another grand.
That's 3 grand right out of the gate. Consequently, people can talk about the virtues of a compressor fridge but if the ammonia unit can be tweaked to provide respectable performance, 3 grand is a lot of jack.... especially for me.
A helluva more than a couple high capacity muffin fans, a snap disc thermoswitch, some wiring, a piece of scrap galv sheet and a roll of R13 insulation and some constructive time on your part Total outlay for me was about 100 bucks including my free labor. $100.00 versus $3000.00 is in my humble opinion a pretty good cost versus return ratio.
I never said that an ammonia fridge would run as efficiently as a compressor fridge because it won't. It's inherent design limits it;s efficiency. All I'm alluding to is the efficiency can be improved with some inexpensive modifications. Nothing more.
In as much as the vast majority of units today ship with ammonia fridges and a lot of them are not installed or vented properly (insulation, baffles or forced cooling fans), this is about tweaking for satisfactory performance.
If you have a compressor fridge, I'm happy for ya.
If you have an ammonia fridge and you want to improve it's efficiency in all conditions, that is what this is about.
Finally, I can buy a boatlaod of propane (currently $1.35 per gallon here, for the cost of a replacement Danfoss unit alone. I need the propane anyway. I don't cook my meals with a Fresnel Lens....
