Fridge cooling unit forming crystals-help!
BLUF - How do I keep fridge cooling unit from forming crystals? We spend most of the year work camping. We spend five months in one location, then take a month of traveling to the next locati...
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Sodium Chromate (rust inhibitor in the coolant solution) forms crystals when overheating occurs (overheating of the coolant due to lack of proper gravity flow due to off level operations)
Crystals plate out on interior of cooling unit tubes......can be in perk tube (boiler section) and/or in tubing between freezer cooling coil and food compartment cooling coil.
Formation is accumulative and PERMANENT. (once formed they do NOT go back into solution) Banging may dislodge some from the tubing which can allow for increase in coolant flow but the dislodged crystals just flow into another area of tubing.
Once formed it is just a matter of time before cooling unit can no longer function OR cause enough restriction of coolant flow that the tubing is heat stressed (coolant no longer absorbing heat) and the tube cracks....ammonia/hydrogen gas spew out (300 psi)
Plan ahead!
Crystals plate out on interior of cooling unit tubes......can be in perk tube (boiler section) and/or in tubing between freezer cooling coil and food compartment cooling coil.
Formation is accumulative and PERMANENT. (once formed they do NOT go back into solution) Banging may dislodge some from the tubing which can allow for increase in coolant flow but the dislodged crystals just flow into another area of tubing.
Once formed it is just a matter of time before cooling unit can no longer function OR cause enough restriction of coolant flow that the tubing is heat stressed (coolant no longer absorbing heat) and the tube cracks....ammonia/hydrogen gas spew out (300 psi)
Plan ahead!
