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Thread: My silly fridge

  1. #21
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    Yeah I would like to see that CO2 recovery setup in action too

    Quote Originally Posted by HILLVIEW103 View Post
    Heres a tip, if you ever have to regas your frige it has a leak so dump it
    Leak... what leak?
    Silly to throw away a $2000(replacement cost) ice-maker fridge if it has such as slow leak that you just top up with 10-20g of Jaycar air duster spray every 3 years.
    The bullet valve from Ebay I use is probably 8 years in use and no problems. So next top up would be next year, running perfectly ATM. Bit like servicing a car LOL. Always got it on the kWh meter and if I see the average going up I take a closer look and a good opportunity to remind me of cleaning out the dust build up in the condensor.
    When you have your stuff running in the night on off-grid battery you become a lot more aware of these things.

    ...and apparently you are allowed to spray air duster in the ...errr... air!
    Their freeze spray has the same R-134a but you have to hold it right side up. The accessible region of the pipe on the low pressure side is right down near the floor, so air duster a bit upside down works better for me.
    Last edited by Uncle Fester; 12-08-19 at 07:36 PM.
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  • #22
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    Just wrote it out, nearly finished & the f!?@#$$n batt went flat!!!! Look it is so simple hook up tube from ferm to truck tube, let pump up, then pump CO2 into gas bottle. About 120psi final pressure. CO2 leaks out of rubber so don,t leave for long.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Mix View Post
    Just wrote it out, nearly finished & the f!?@#$$n batt went flat!!!! Look it is so simple hook up tube from ferm to truck tube, let pump up, then pump CO2 into gas bottle. About 120psi final pressure. CO2 leaks out of rubber so don,t leave for long.
    Ah ok so is that the fermenter for your beer ?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Mix View Post
    In reply to nomeat, have been using own co2 for years. Simply catch co2 from fermenter overnight into 20" tube. Pump into 9kg gas bottle using old fridge compressor. Lasts about 3 kegs. Gauges are old oxy/acet.
    Sounds like a great way to make yourself sick as a Dog.

    You are putting a gas into a bottle that had a poisonous substance and additives using a pump that has toxic oil and gases that are absolutely known to cause cancer and blindness among other things. The way the compressors work the gas and the oil ARE intermixed and there is no way round that. Oil vapour would be blowing into whatever the co2 was put in and invariably end up in the beer. And you run that through a gauge that has had a gas with poisonous impurities and additives going through it just for good measure. Do you plumb all this together with lead pipe as well?

    You do to all that stuffing around to save what? $40 on a bottle of gas?

    I know I'm cheap but I'm not out to make myself sick and blind.
    Maybe that's just not hangovers you have been getting?

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    Would it be simpler and cleaner to produce CO2 (for the fridge) by shoving some limestone in acid ?

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    Quote Originally Posted by loopyloo View Post
    Would it be simpler and cleaner to produce CO2 (for the fridge) by shoving some limestone in acid ?
    If the co2 is coming from a fermenter I'd say that's the only safe part of the operation. It was the rest of the procedure and where the gas went after that which would cause me great concern.
    I'd suggest Baking soda and Vinegar might be more available, cheaper and safer than limestone and acid but then how are you going to compress it and what you going to put it into? As far as I'm aware any compressor with any pretence of Hygiene is going to be Big $$. I wouldn't use even a new Gas Bottle, I'd be going round the back of the pub and finding one of their empty gas tanks and liberating that.
    If you got a new compressor and could wash out all the mineral oil completely and then fill it with Vegetable oil,you might be better off as unlike mineral oil, veg is edible. Veg is Hygroscopic and will polymerise in the presence of water but if you were only pumping C02 and kept the thing sealed when not in use, should be OK but I'd change it regularly anyway. If it picked up any bacteria from the fermentation, it could go nuts in the oil so maybe the Vinegar and baking soda would be better because they both have more of an antiseptic property.

    I'll cut corners on a lot of things but I'm pretty picky what goes in my mouth and where it came from so not something I'd be inclined to muck around with. From what I know of Home brew which is nothing, You are paying cents per bottle so i'd be satisfied to buy the gas and be done with it.

    From what I have seen, C02 isn't that expensive and you can buy bottles now and just have them refilled instead of renting them.

    I did something similar last year. was wanting to make Methane but I over did it and put in sugar which made alcohol and made Co2 Instead of methane. I might try again this summer but this time I'll try distilling the booze out of it and see if I can get it good enough to run an engine on.

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    I might be missing something here, but aren't we collecting CO2 FROM the fermenter? If we were using the resultant CO2 to carbonate the beer, then, hell yeah, that WOULD be a problem. From my understanding, the CO2 is being used to re-gas a fridge. IOW the closest the CO2 comes to "food" is when it is being created in the first place as a by-product of fermentation.
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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    Quote Originally Posted by lsemmens View Post
    I might be missing something here,
    Either you are missing something or I am.

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    Anyone worried over a few possible trace amounts of possible pollutants is ignoring the harmful effects of alcohol anyway! Almost everything can be bad for us! No need to use CO2 anyway. Air is used to pump beer at some setups(hand &footpumps), 78%nitrogen.. It is the oxygen that is harmful in storage kegs, oxidising the Brew. Breweries obtain their CO2 from fermentation on large scales. Nobody knows how pollutants free their compressors are! Likewise commercial CO2 supplies! Never affected my health after lifetime of drinking! A few beers a day will add years to your life!!!!

  • #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Mix View Post
    Anyone worried over a few possible trace amounts of possible pollutants is ignoring the harmful effects of alcohol anyway! Almost everything can be bad for us! No need to use CO2 anyway. Air is used to pump beer at some setups(hand &footpumps), 78%nitrogen.. It is the oxygen that is harmful in storage kegs, oxidising the Brew. Breweries obtain their CO2 from fermentation on large scales. Nobody knows how pollutants free their compressors are! Likewise commercial CO2 supplies! Never affected my health after lifetime of drinking! A few beers a day will add years to your life!!!!

    Yes oxygen stuffs up beer big time just like it spoils almost every other food. Beer is liquid bread and food for me

    That is why I drop in a bit of CO2(heavier than air) into the keg before filling it and use a sterilised tube to let the beer flow quietly right down the bottom.

    I also add 160g of brown sugar for a 19 litre keg before I close it. This will create the CO2 naturally, like bottle fermentation, which is called secondary fermentation.
    So I save a lot of CO2 from the my 6kG bottle (that weighs a lot more!) as it is only required to dispense it and keep the carbonation up after the keg is usually more than half empty, often only the last third. In the past I have even managed to do that with little CO2 soda bulbs but it was not great.
    Disadvantage is you need to wait a week or more for the secondary to complete.
    So I have three kegs, as I like my beer to mature 2 months at least.
    Sometimes it will be over carbonated, but there is a pressure release valve for that.

    A refill of my C02 bottle costs around $70 but I calculated that I would need 5 years using natural carbonation before it is empty, so that is where I got that $14 per year I mentioned above.
    I own the bottle, no rent.
    At this stage I see no requirement to collect CO2.
    I would not use a fridge compressor because the required PAG or what ever oil is used is toxic and it does mix with the gas.
    Other small electric compressors are too noisy.
    Maybe an old fridge compressor after complete evacuation might work with vegetable oils as it only needs to run for short period of time.
    But the idea of any oil, except trace amounts of hop oils ending up in my beer freaks me out.
    Last edited by Uncle Fester; 14-08-19 at 11:50 PM.
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    Nm, I have added 14 teaspoons sugar to my every one of 6 kegs when filling for years for primary gas carbonation. Then only need small gas top up to dispense. Mind you, I still say my bottled beer tastes better than kegged beer with home brew..(& it,s NOT due to adulteration with nasty contaminants in the kegs).

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    Quote Originally Posted by Uncle Fester View Post

    Leak... what leak?
    Silly to throw away a $2000(replacement cost) ice-maker fridge if it has such as slow leak that you just top up with 10-20g of Jaycar air duster spray every 3 years.
    Slow leak on any domestic refrigerator is a myth. R134a runs at positive pressure even in suction. At a maximum charge of 250-300 gm for a very large refrigerator, this will quickly evacuate within days if there is a leak.
    Most likely you have an inefficient compressor.

    Quote Originally Posted by Uncle Fester View Post
    The bullet valve from Ebay I use is probably 8 years in use and no problems.
    It is illegal to leave a bullet piercing valve on any refrigerator as per the Australia and New Zealand Refrigerant handling code of practice 2007.
    "7.10 Tube piercing / line tap valves or equivalent devices must only be used to gaintemporary access to the system. They must be removed prior to the completion
    of service."
    Very possible the need for "recharging" is due to leaking from the bullet valve.
    Domestic refrigerators are critically charged, and unless you pull all the charge out and weigh in the appropriate charge (noting what is in the hoses) the system will run inefficiently.
    "The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom." - Issac Asimov

  • #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by TVguy View Post
    Slow leak on any domestic refrigerator is a myth.
    Quote Originally Posted by TVguy View Post
    possible the need for "recharging" is due to leaking from the bullet valve.
    There you go, you just learned something new: slow leaks ARE possible !

    As said I have only replaced about 20g once in three years.
    I also know a trick to see exactly how much I need but I will refrain from posting that because you are going to nail me down on that too.
    Otherwise the fridge is working fine. 2.2kWh/d is pretty standard for a large side by side where the doors are opened countless times every day.


    It is illegal to leave a bullet piercing valve on any refrigerator as per the Australia and New Zealand Refrigerant handling code of practice 2007.
    "7.10 Tube piercing / line tap valves or equivalent devices must only be used to gaintemporary access to the system. They must be removed prior to the completion
    of service."

    Yeah right, tell them about the cans of R134a freeze spray and air duster that I am legally allowed to purchase at Jaycar and am legally allowed to release into the atmosphere.
    Are you going to hunt me down and have me arrested ?

    Best I stop posting here all together with all the conservative nanny rule lovers like you here, who think it is better to dump everything every 3 years in the landfill rather than keeping it alive with a bit of DIY and common sense.
    Last edited by Uncle Fester; 17-08-19 at 09:42 PM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by TVguy View Post

    It is illegal to leave a bullet piercing valve on any refrigerator as per the Australia and New Zealand Refrigerant handling code of practice 2007.
    "7.10 Tube piercing / line tap valves or equivalent devices must only be used to gaintemporary access to the system. They must be removed prior to the completion
    of service."
    Who Gives a flying rats arse?
    You worried the Refrigerator Police are going to come knocking to check your fridge for illegal Bullet valves?

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    It is all about a self serving industry that lobbies these laws so people dump their appliances as soon as warranty expires and create repair costs
    that borderline on extortion.
    If those hypocrites actually would give a rat's about the environment then I should get a medal for keeping my appliances away from landfill.


    Recycling in this country is almost non existent due to these rabid laws.
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    Just because TVguy quoted the rules does not necessarily mean that he's telling you off for not obeying them. There are ALWAYS exceptions, e.g. our favourite cans of air duster etc. If someone complains, they will just ban it. Does that make it any better, or worse for the environment, HELL NO! it just makes the idiots feel good. Sensible people will still find a way "around" the rules.
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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