Date:         Sun, 9 Oct 1994 11:38:11 -0500 (CDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         dakhlia@wuecona.wustl.edu (Sami Dakhlia)
Subject:      Re: Fridges, more rambling...

>donated its innards to my rommmate's 73 van.  I was after the heat exchangers
>but, sure enough, now that I had come prepared to do battle with those
>beasties it was gone (sorry Sami!  :( ). 

Oh well. Thanks for trying, though!

>Once home, I hook it up to a
>battery and wait anxiously.  Nothing!  Start looking closely at the innards
>and I discover that it is NOT the type with a compressor, but has the heating
>element.  Arrrrgh!  Oh well, maybe it will still work alright.  Check the
>current with an ammeter and it is drawing 5.2 amps, just like it is supposed
>to.  Decided to let it run awhile and see what happens.  A half hour later
>the cooling finns inside the fridge start to feel a little cool.  I put a
>gallon of water inside and leave it for 6 hours with a thermometer inside.
>The thermometer reads 55 on the bottom of the fridge, water still warm, light
>frost on the end of the cooling fins.  I'll check back in the morning, and
>dammit that water better be at 33 degrees!
>	Are all of the fridges in Westys the same way?  Or is this one
>messed up somehow?  

Mine is the same way. The heating element does work but the fridge doesn't
get cold either. I believe this is the absorption type refrigeration which
uses ammonia. I'm not sure what can happen to the ammonia in all those
years or how it can escape, but that's probably where the problem is.
Unfortunately, those fridges cannot be recharged. At least, that's what
I've been told. David, if you find that I'm erring here or if you find a
cost efficient solution, please let me know.

Sami, dakhlia@wuecona.wustl.edu