Another refrigerator exploded in a house

[tomturbomatic]

Whirlpool sent the family a new box. Remember when one exploded in a Florida house?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle...nd-no-one-knows-why/ar-BB1fINWN?ocid=msedgntp

 

[norgeway]

I will not

Own a bomb sitting in my kitchen!

 

[Unimatic1140]

What the, I have to wonder how the heck could that ever have happened?

 

[appnut]

First I've heard of this.

 

[tomturbomatic]

In a move away from CFC refrigerants, some of the replacement refrigerants are flammable, according to John. 

 

[DADoES]

 
I've run across mention of this somewhere previously, maybe on another tech forum.

 

[rp2813]

Yes I've read, likely here, that some refrigerants being used are flammable.   I would say the CPSC isn't doing its job very well.

 

[kenwashesmonday]

R600a refrigerant is isobutane.  I don't think I want that in my refrigerator!

 

[turbokinetic]

They are using R600A butane in smaller systems and R290 propane in bigger fridges; but this fridge seems to be a little older than those.  Should have been an R134A unit. 

Out of the millions of fridges out there, maybe 3 exploded fridges have been shown on the news. Most were built in the R134A era. I keep thinking about this and one thing keeps coming to mind.  The most likely explanation for this is that the owner stored some type of chemical in the fridge which lead to the incident. Either for legal reasons or out of shame; they have been trying to cover their tracks by raising a stink about the manufacturer. 

 

 

 

[combo52]

R600A Refrigerant Is very Flammable

It seems to be the new refrigerant of choice because it works well and is not very harmful to the environment when it is released.

 

It is widely used in Europe already, I read that 90% of refs in Germany already use it for example.

 

At this point we don't know if this is what caused these two WP refs to explode here in the US.

 

The thing I would like to see is a government requirement that all refrigeration appliances come with a 12 Year parts and labor warranty on the sealed refrigeration system,

 

This would cause manufactures to build the evaporators out of metal that is thicker than a soda can and we would not see so many refrigerators scrapped in less than 10 years many after just 2-4 years due to leaking evaporators.

 

John L.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Re: reply #8

That was the same thing that was said about the refrigerator that exploded in Florida in 2018.

https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/national/florida-refrigerator-explosion

 

[goatfarmer]

I've got a Haier 'fridge on the truck. Warning label near the compressor warns of flammable refrigerant.

 

[circlew]

I believe it was a refrigerator that was found to have caused the deadly hi-rise fire in London in 2017.

 

[thomasortega]

It reminds me the Electrolux plant in Curitiba, Brazil fire a couple of decades ago.

Minute 1: a small fire started in the warehouse, shift was almost ending.
Cardboard, styrofoam, tons of plastics... and thousands of refrigerators and freezers ready to be shipped.

Probably 30 seconds after the fire started, I was leaving the restroom, saw the fire, broke the fire alarm glass with my hand (and I have the scar until today). First thing in my mind was "when this fire reaches ONE compressor, we're all f**ed". (Luckily at that time I was in shape.... I ran more than the movie Ron Lola Run.)

Less than 10 minutes later:

Absolutely NOTHING left. Not only the warehouse. The WHOLE PLANT turned into a hell.

3 days later, the fire was finally extinguished.

 

[thomasortega]

 

[kb0nes]

Exceedingly unlikely to ever happen. Even if the refrigerant was highly flammable one would need:

1. A leak (typically quite rare no?)
2. Accumulating the right fuel/air mixture to be ignitable.
3. An ignition source.

It's totally blue sky here today, I don't have a lot of concern of being hit by lightning when I step out my door. The likelyhood of this happening to any given fridge is likely similar odds. We ALL have far more pressing things to worry about.

 

[ea56]

You’re probably more likely to be die from lead poisoning caused a stray bullet than an exploding refrigerator in the USA  today, just say’in.

 

Eddie

 

[qsd-dan]

This will slowly become the norm as appliances, home A/C, and auto A/C systems are being phased in with flammable refrigerants. R1234yf is the new refrigerant for autos and it's flammable. In the case of a fire, it will release highly corrosive and toxic hydrogen fluoride as well as the highly toxic gas, carbonyl fluoride.

 

I'd rather be using non toxic/non flammable R12 but as lyrics in the Steely Dan song Pretzel Logic says, "Those days are gone forever, over a long time ago."

 

Welcome to the future.

 

[appnut]

So we're using flammable refrigerant because of the environment?

 

[warmsecondrinse]

#18

Agreed. Given enough time the "danger" of flammable refrigerants will cause a shift back to environmentally less friendly ones.......

 

[lotsosudz]

Whirlpool Fridges, Yuk!

Have had to use two Kenmore (Whirlpool) fridges in the past, and both have been lousy. Never have cared for them, never will!
Hugs,
David

 

[lotsosudz]

Whirlpool Fridges, Yuk!

Have had to use two Kenmore (Whirlpool) fridges in the past, and both have been lousy. Never have cared for them, never will! Quality goes out, before the name goes on!
Hugs,
David

 

[DADoES]

 
Parents' KA/WP topfreezer is 26 years, no repairs except ice maker.

I have a KA/WP 24 years, relegated to garage fridge in 2005.  No repairs except the ice maker swapped to the parents.

RJ has a 2006 (per serial) KA/WP SxS.  One repair thus far, evaporator fan motor, I don't recall how long ago but has been several years.

 

[appnut]

David, what fridges have you been pleased with and what format were they?

 

[brisnat81]

I think everyone is blowing this greatly out of proportion, we're not talking about a 40pound propane tank attached to your compressor in the car or the fridge. We're generally talking about one to two pounds of refrigerant in a modern fridge. I don't see everyone freaking out about the aerosol cans in their houses that also contain flammable propellent. A can of Bug Spray, a can of Carpet cleaner, a can of furniture polish a can of air freshener and your probably getting close to the same capacity of flammable gas under your kitchen sink as is in your fridge.

Over here these non ozone depleting gases have been in AC units, Fridges, Aerosol cans, Car AC's for 5-10 years now and there hasnt been a surge in AC system s exploding into flames, or cars catching fire on impact. In domestic use, Propane tanks are still the only thing that have specific handling instructions, inspite of all these fireballs waiting to destroy our lives.

Not everything new is bad or worth stressing over.

 

[combo52]

Quantity Of Refrigerant In Home Refrigerators

Hi Nathan, Home refrigerators and freezers only have around 5 Oz of refrigerant in them for about the last 20+ years, even when they used R-12, or R134A Etc.

 

John L.

 

[brisnat81]

Thankyou Jobn, that means its even less, so there would seem to be a non issue?

 

[tomturbomatic]

All fine except that cans of bug spray, etc. do not have electrical components like start relays and other switches attached to them to ignite gas in case of a leak.

 

[vacerator]

What does the plant fire

have to do with a kitchen fridge exploding or Whirlpool? I don't comprende' Portugese very well.

 

[thomasortega]

Indeed, the amount of flammable in a refrigerator is minimal. ONE refrigerator wouldn't be a huge issue.

Plant exploding = The fire started in one of the conveyors (static electricity). the "small" amount of flammable refrigerant in EACH refrigerator (in a warehouse with way over 10 thousand units ready to be shipped) created that inferno that consumed the whole plant. Add to that tons of plastic, styrofoam, cardboard, etc.

Decades of training, classes, workshops, drills, we THINK we're ready and that we have knowledge enough about what to do in case of fire, until that happens and we finally realize it's a lot worse and faster than anything you could ever imagine.

It wasn't "several minutes". After the fire started (a really small fire) it took less than 10 minutes for ALL the buildings to burn. Literally... minute 1, a small fire, so small that a kitchen fire extinguisher could've put it out. minute 10, a 10k square meters warehouse and adjacent buildings (total average 50k square meters) entirely in flames.

Containment? Buildings separate, standard fire sprinklers, deluge system in the production building, "hangar" foam system in the warehouse, FM200 in the engineering building, the Electrolux fire brigade (we) immediately starting to fight the fire with hoses until the fire department arrived, NOTHING WORKED! It was like trying to empty a swimming pool with a teaspoon. We were using everything we had available but it didn't do anything to the fire. It just kept growing at an incredible pace.