Christmas Fish
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ROCKPORT, TEXAS
DECEMBER 25, 2024
It was time to get out of bed but the OFM was not ready yet so we laid
there a few more minutes trying to figure out ...
10 hours ago
Saturday, May 21, 2011
The Trouble With...
Propane Fridges is you never know when they are going to run out of propane!
Went out to start loading up the fridge with cold ice melt water to try and cool down the fridge during the day because it has been getting up to about 60 degrees in there by late afternoon. My thinking is to fill the fridge as full as I can except for space for some small amount of perishables. Hopefully it will help it stay much cooler??? The freezer works ok, but has very limited room. Anyway when I opened the fridge I noticed it was still about 60 degrees this morning and its usually down in the low 40s early in the mornings. The propane had run out again some time last night. I decided to go ahead and clean the flue and burner before replacing the propane bottle so had to remove the top and back from the hut to do that. It was pretty dirty in there and I think I got it pretty clean That in its self should help some and maybe keeping the fridge loaded will help the rest of the way.
Hard to see from this picture, but there are a bunch of 16 Oz Sprite bottles in there and so far 1 two liter bottle. Those are all filled with cold ice melt and there is a large freezer baggy on the top shelf full of that to and that will be my small cranny for keeping perishable if this works out. I'll try to squeeze one more 2 liter in there shortly and may fill in the gaps with pieces of blueboard foam. I was going to cut two more pieces of blueboard and add them to the outside of the door, but the antique Buck Knife I've always used to cut it with seems to have vanished. I hate it when stuff like that happens! Reason for using Sprite bottles is they were in here empty and since I can't burn them I needed to do something to get them out of here. That will work for that.
Another sunset.
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All those sprite bottles - RMan would ask "where's the space for the beer?" Maybe try adding a water filled container to your icebox section - that way if your propane runs out you still have a "cooling" mechanism working until you discover it?
ReplyDeleteSunset to die for!
Dani, I don't drink all that much beer anymore and when I do I keep it on ice. Main thing I'm interested in is keeping FOOD in there. Spam is getting old and it sure would be nice to keep some beef in there as well as bacon and eggs. The reason for the bottles is I haven't fund the right containers that will fit in there and I have the bottles and no place else to put them.
ReplyDeleteYou have to explain SLOWLY to me how to clean the flue and burner! Maybe mine needs it too.
ReplyDeleteI just used a couple of shock poles taped together and used the metal end on one to scrape the inside walls of the flue. I covered the burner first and when done I took the compressor and blew out the burner assembly. I'll know by this time tomorrow whether it worked or not. Between all the cold water taking up space and that MAYBE I'll be able to get some good out of it. If not then it isn't worth the propane it uses. As of now I'm having to buy ice to so one of the two is going to have to stop. The legion is out of ice now and with the GS closed it would mean a trip south to get ice. I may just have to start drinking Cowboy cold stuff and eating food that doesn't need refrigeration. :(
ReplyDeleteYou probably already know ths but a lot of those small fridges will only cool to about 40 or 50 degrees below ambient temp. Maybe another insulated box covering the one you have there and I realize that electricity is hard to come by, but a small fan circulating the air out of the inside box could provide maybe another 10 or 15 degrees of cool.
ReplyDeleteThe one way to help your Frig cool down in hot weather is to put a small fan under the coils on the back of the Frig blowing air up thru them. This helps get rid of the heat that builds up in the coils. I use a small 12V motor out of an old 8 track player with a fan blade attached. it will make a big differance in day time temps.
ReplyDeleteBfA & RH, I'd have been a lot better off building the hut on the east side of the trailer so it would be shaded in the afternoon, but I didn't want to have to walk out the door and around the trailer to get something when I wanted it. That could be some major exercise when I drink beer. A good 8 foot stack on top of the hut would probably help some to. One thing is for sure and that is buying ice and propane for it both doesn't cut it.
ReplyDeleteGet a coupla straw bales and stack on the west side of the fridge.
ReplyDeleteFrann, the only problem with that is the ignition system broke so now I need access to the back of it to light the pilot. :( Otherwise it sounds like a good idea.
ReplyDeleteBTW its just 52 degrees in there right now and I figured it would be colder than that. I'm sure that will go back up as the day heats up.
I knew we should have gone looting for the Rapture!
ReplyDeleteIf we'd have done that those who didn't get spirited off would have come wanting their stiff back. I guess we must be good people since we are still here???? Or... Is that bad people because we are still here?
ReplyDeleteFrom the look of the first photo, you are dumping the heat from the exhaust of the burner into the housing around the Frig. You need to plumb the exhaust out the top of the housing, if you do this and add a tiny fan to blow on the rear coils you will drop your temps by 10 degrees.
ReplyDeleteRH, there is a vent hole at the top over the burner flue and the bottom where the fridge sets has vents in there. I assumed that would vent it properly, but maybe not. I'll do some work on that, but adding a fan is just about out. I've got a shade tarp that Bigfoot gave me back when I was living in the dungeon. I may rig that up over and behind the hut to. Surely that would also help.
ReplyDeleteI did increase the size of the hole in the top to vent the heat from the flue and cut a square hole in the back just in front of the fins where any wind from the west would blow directly across them. I'd forgotten that I'd turned the thermostat up some so turned it back down to Max cooling this morning so its going to be another wait to see if any of this worked or not. I think a stack added to the top would help dissipate the heat in the hut, but don't have anything to use for that right now.
ReplyDelete