refrigerator

What is a refrigerator made of?
Here are the major components of a refrigerator:

• Compressor
• Heat-exchanging Pipes
• Expansion Valve
• Refrigerant

Confusing! What are those parts?

• A Compressor is a mechanical device used to compress or compact something. In the case of the refrigerator it is the refrigerant.
• The Heat-exchanging pipes are the coiled set of pipes inside and outside the refrigerator. You can usually see this by looking on the back of the fridge.
• The expansion valve allows the refrigerant to change its pressure by expanding a small pipe into a big one.
• The refrigerant the liquid that evaporates inside the refrigerator to create the cold temperatures. This liquid in the past was ammonia or a chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Ammonia is used because of its extremely low boiling rate. It boils at -27 degrees Fahrenheit or -32 degrees Celsius. Now days ammonia is no longer used because it stinks, and CFCs are no longer used because of ozone depletion. CFCs have been banned from use by the Kyoto protocol. 134A is now used in most fridges today.

Well that is all fine and dandy but how does it work?
Well first the compressor compresses the refrigerant gas. By doing this the gas temperature and pressure are raised, allowing the heat-exchanging pipes on the outside of the fridge to dispel the heat of pressurization. As the refrigerant is cooled it condenses, turning into a liquid again, and moves into the expansion valve. As the liquid refrigerant travels through the expansion valve it is allowed to move from a high-pressure are to a low-pressure area. The low-pressure area is the part that the compressor is hooked to. When it is not pressurized it then expands and evaporates. When the refrigerant evaporates it instantely begins to boil and vaporize, and this is what makes it cold. It drops immediately drops to 27 degrees Fahrenheit. The second set of heat-exchanging coils inside of the refrigerator allow the refrigerant to transfer the cold and this cools the inside. There is also a fans inside and out of your refrigerator. The on the inside helps with defrosting and more even cooling, the one on the inside cools the compressor, and blows air on the heat-exchange pipes on the back. After this process is done it continually repeats. About every 15 minutes you can hear the refrigerator turn on. It is completing this process.

Re*frig"er*a`tor (-?`t?r), n.

That which refrigerates or makes cold; that which keeps cool.

Specifically:

1. A box or room for keeping food or other articles cool, usually by means of ice.
2. An apparatus for rapidly cooling heated liquids or vapors, connected with a still, etc.

Refrigerator car Railroad, a freight car constructed as a refrigerator, for the transportation of fresh meats, fish, etc., in a temperature kept cool by ice.

© Webster 1913.