Exploding Refrigerators!!

[Bruce Wrenn]

Recent news feature about a lady here in North Carolina have her refrigerator EXPLODE! Google "Exploding Refrigerator" for a couple videos showing damage done by explosions. Newer refrigerators use R-600 for coolant. R-600 is Butane. Explosive as he77 in the right proportions with oxygen, but it doesn't damage the atmosphere. Some leakage inside cabinet, and any spark can be a disaster! Yes, I know that submarines has used it as a coolant for years.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Wow!
Aside from the disaster - did you catch the chair with the dowels?
Right near the beginning of the video they show a dining room chair with the back blown off.
All the dowels are still there though.

[Bill George]

Funny the folks in Europe have been using that type refrigerant for years. Was it a DIY charge that did it or was it staged? Its only a few oz and its in a sealed system with no oxygen. It turns out some others exploded and were Not the new butane or propane refrigerant.

[Bill Dufour]

I thought the ideal replacement for r12 was a 50% mix of butane and propane. Not used for cars because it will leak one more then the other and the ratio goes off and causes problems.
Ford had the first usable ac for cars in lab development. It used Propane/butane mix. Then Henry threw a wrench at the condensor and it sprang a leak. They had to wait for GM to invent Freon which is not flammable but turns to deadly phosgene gas when burned.
BILL D

[Rollie Meyers]

We already have exploding Samsung washers & phones now add other makes of fridges.

[Edward Weber]

I have a freezer with that refrigerant and I'm not worried. The amount is small as is the potential for explosion.
" isobutane based systems can not have a charge greater then one-hundred and fifty grams."
https://refrigeranthq.com/r-600a-isobutane-refrigerant-fact-info-sheet/

The refrigerant would have to leak into a confined space in just enough concentration to be explosive, not simply flash off or evaporate into the atmosphere.
Not to mention there needs to be some sort of ignition, a heat source of some kind.

[Tom M King]

I'm running R12a, which I think is just butane, in a tractor AC system that originally ran R12. A lot of people in this country worry about carrying around a pound of butane in a car AC system, who don't think twice about sitting on top of 20 gallons of gasoline.

[Jim Koepke]

The refrigerant would have to leak into a confined space in just enough concentration to be explosive, not simply flash off or evaporate into the atmosphere.
Not to mention there needs to be some sort of ignition, a heat source of some kind.

I wonder if they are using atmosphere safe switches for the light that comes on when the door is opened.

jtk

[Bruce Wrenn]

I wonder if they are using atmosphere safe switches for the light that comes on when the door is opened.

jtkBoth of the videos that I watched (NC, and West Palm) no one was in the room when the explosion happened (thankfully,) and they were two different brands of refrigerators.

[Edward Weber]

In the article I read, there was a service technician out days earlier.
Make of that what you will.

[Bruce Wrenn]

In the article I read, there was a service technician out days earlier.
Make of that what you will.Said fan was making noise, probably striking evaporator coil, creating a weak spot. Could be sorry epoxying of end loops on evaporator coil. Years ago, Goodman had a bunch of bad HVAC coils due to epoxy failure, or tubing stretched too thing in swagging process. I don't remember the final verdict.

[Bill George]

Most if not all of those are standard either R12 or the newer R134a refrigerant. They went to aluminum evaporators with epoxy for the joints. The simple addition to the unit of a high pressure lock out switch which is common on commercial units would solve the problem.

[Tom M King]

Refrigerators have gotten to be like TV's. They're getting closer and closer to figuring out how to make them out of nothing, so longevity has to suffer. If you haven't picked one up in the past few years, both weigh a small fraction of what they used to.