Refrigeration / Ice

[colombo]

I haven't seen this around and am curious if anyone has any experience with intermitant ammonia evaporative cooling? In particular I've been looking at something called a "Crosley icy ball" no moving parts and completly self contained other than a heat source. Having looked into the servel refrigeration cycle and finding it lacking in its ability to produce anything like a usefull amount of ice, I found the crosley system to be capable of well below freezing temps and am planing to build one, just wondering if anyone has any tips or recomendations. Strikes me as an excellent tool for bad times. I really like the no electric power / no propane needed part.

[railbuggy]

He called Cincinnati his home,Crosley field ,home of the cincinnti reds had his name until the new ballpark was built in 1971.Crosley built cars and radios also. Read about him.Building Your Own Larry Hall Icyball

[kernelkrink]

Yep, the Crosley autos were made right here in Marion, IN. My Dad helped setup their production line after WWII, unfortunately they were selling a sub-compact car in the era of huge automobiles and cheap gas. After the war, metal shortages were a problem and by the early 50s they folded.

"Servel", is that the same as the RV and "off grid" refridgerators made by Dometic? I think they make a home model chest freezer that runs off a kerosene lamp burner, rated somewhere around 10F temp. The RV model we had seemed to cool off pretty well, nothing like commercial ice production but it would freeze a few trays in an hour or so.

[colombo]

The old servel went out of bussiness but yes they made kero fired fridges, another company bought them out. The servel cycle is a constant cycle not able to reach the colder temps for resonable Ice production, the crosley icy ball is an intermitant amonia evaporation cycle that has to be recharged by heating the hot side but some units can go as low as -10 F or lower, more than suficient for the day with one cycle for refrigeration. Since the only thing needed for the crosley icy ball was heat it seems an ideal emergency unit thats light weight and durable. The amonia is going to be a pita to get with the meth problems though. I'm getting my parts pile together to build it anyway.

[sjohnson]

Servel is still in business under the Lehman name and still sell fuel-fired refrigerators: Propane Gas Refrigerators and Freezers from Servel

[railbuggy]

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
I can see a market for these.
Models can be built to remove water from the air.
Please post with pics when you build yours.

[MUSIBIKE]

The AC in my house had one of these Ammonia cooling systems. It used natural gas to boil the ammonia some kind of way and worked pretty well. I converted to a regular electric AC system now.

The real deal will be how can we keep food good in this heat? Glad to see everybody thinking about this one!

[synweap223]

A while back I remember reading about the Icyball concept in survival settings. Using a mix of amonia and water, heat applied to one side causes the ammonia and water to seperate(ammonia faster due to lower boiling temp) and the other side to freeze when placed on a bucket of water. I've heard of people who actually took Igloo containers and modified them to use the Icyball setups. Reports of it working incredibly well were the norm. But certain safety issues were recommended. I'll post back when I gather the info again.

Check this page out. Lots of info.
Crosley IcyBall

[MUSIBIKE]

This is real good!

I like this Icyball technique.

[railbuggy]

Back in 1983 when I took HVAC/R at tech school,I bartended and this waiter I worked with told me of his find.He bought a older home and in the basement was a coal oil operated refrigerator.He said the lamp held a few ounces of oil that had to be refilled and lit everyday to keep the unit running.I diden't study the ammonia system,wish I had.Not to late to learn,never is.