strong ammonia smell.

[matty40s]

On a boat today where there us a very strong ammonia smell in the kitchen, especially round the fridge??

Doesn't appear to be any spilt chemicals.

Loo smells of blue only.

Any ideas??

 

Fridge is an old Electrolux rm 212 3-way.no smell inside, but very strong from rear.

Edited May 8, 2014 by matty40s

[magnetman]

Garlic?

[furnessvale]

On a boat today where there us a very strong ammonia smell in the kitchen, especially round the fridge??

Doesn't appear to be any spilt chemicals.

Loo smells of blue only.

Any ideas??

Isn't ammonia the active ingredient in fridge cooling systems?

 

You won't see any liquid spill as the ammonia evaporates, hence the smell.

 

George ex nb Alton retired

[RLWP]

How old is your fridge? Some of them used to use an ammonia based working fluid

 

Richard

[Tony Brooks]

I strongly suspect that one does so I think a leaking fridge. Don't know if its a new fridge time or if you can still get new units to fit to your cabinet.

[matty40s]

Thanks gents for swift conclusion that I suspected, fridge out!!

[Beaker]

If it's leaking enough to smell it, I would imagine your fridge to have packed up totally by now.

[Ally]

Our fridge smelt of antiseptic when it dumped it's coolant...nothing to see, it presumably gassed away. It was a new one, so probably a different chemical.

[Neil2]

Do you have a cat litter tray?

[bizzard]

Could have been a tomcat marking his patch.

[cereal tiller]

Could have been a tomcat marking his patch.

Does the boat have a Bird in a "Gilded Cage"?

 

CT

[Grace and Favour]

Can we be sure it wasn't Matty 'marking his territory' during the night? Sleep "walking"??

[bizzard]

Tomcats can get quite affectionate towards fridges being at a convenient height so its not wise to name a tomcat Electrolux.

[Proper Job]

If your fridge is 12v rather than a cheapo 240v job, it may be cost effective to get the coil repaired and the system re-gassed

[bottle]

Good point PJ but from first post,

 

Fridge is an old Electrolux rm 212 3-way.no smell inside,

[BargeeSpud]

From left field, but it might be an idea to check & clean up the electrical contacts at the junction where the fridge is wired into the electrical system or where the wires connect to the fridge itself.

 

I know it sounds odd, but in the past I've had duff sockets in the house that have smelt of fish because of crap connections, so maybe this could be something similar?

[Chalky]

 

I know it sounds odd, but in the past I've had duff sockets in the house that have smelt of fish because of crap connections, so maybe this could be something similar?

 

I'd second that. We had a strange fish smell in the bathroom at home that we couldn't trace until the shower packed up. The smell was the shower isolator switch overheating due to a poor connection.

[Tony Brooks]

Look, the OP says its a 3 way Electrolux. Those are absorption fridges and as far as I am aware ALL absorption fridges use ammonia as their refrigerant.

 

By far the most likely fault is a leak from the unit at the back and as I said new/exchange units may be available. I am not sure they can be recharged by a fridge engineer although I am sure one of our members who knows about such things will soon confirm or deny that.

[Stormbringer]

As TB and others have correctly stated already, the smell of ammonia is the primary symptom of an absorption fridge leaking it's coolant. Once the fridge is out there may be a slight amount of yellow staining if the leak is in a visible place, but not always.

I'd be surprised if you can get a replacement cooling unit and they are not rechargeable or repairable unfortunately. If you are particularly attached to your 3 way, you might find a replacement on eBay, or via a caravan breaker.

 

Cheers

Andy..(caravan engineer)

Edited May 8, 2014 by Stormbringer

[Graham Davis]

If you need one from a caravan breakers I can heartily recommend Blaenavon Caravan Breakers (http://www.caravanbreakers.net/) as I have recently needed to use them for some bits, and they are very reasonable.

 

They also have spare toilet cassettes!

[tommytelford]

If it is an ammonia leak I would advise removing the offending item as soon as possible as it is dangerous to breath it in and it is also very corrosive to metal surfaces.

 

The general rule is that if you can smell it it is already at a dangerous level

[ditchcrawler]

If it is an ammonia leak I would advise removing the offending item as soon as possible as it is dangerous to breath it in and it is also very corrosive to metal surfaces.

 

The general rule is that if you can smell it it is already at a dangerous level

Its not quite that bad. I use to work for Birds Eye Foods and that was the refrigerant that we used in the cold stores. The compressor houses reeked of it and my eyes would stream walking by the door sometimes.

 

As for corrosive you are dead right, we use to have a real problem pulling drive flanges off the shafts of electric motors as the ammonia would creep between the flange and shaft.

[Hawkmoth]

Its not quite that bad.

I reckon it is. I've also worked on ammonia plant. It's nasty stuff, and it's explosive in the wrong ratio. That's why ammonia fridge plant rooms have auto detection and and shut down of all electric sevices.

Bob

[matty40s]

fridge is out of the boat everyone thanks.

now looking for replacement at a decent cost.

[ditchcrawler]

I reckon it is. I've also worked on ammonia plant. It's nasty stuff, and it's explosive in the wrong ratio. That's why ammonia fridge plant rooms have auto detection and and shut down of all electric sevices.

Bob

The Lower explosive limit is 15% that is higher than carbon monoxide and requires a very high energy source to ignite it, I don't think you would want to be anywhere near the place at that concentration .