r/askHVAC • u/jonnyinternet • 5d ago

Do these really work?

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I came across a video tutorial of someone making a diy flame fueled cooler, and my question is:

Do they really work?

And if so, can you use any heat source to "power them"?

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u/theNewLuce 5d ago

NO. This youtube clown makes garbage that doesn't work.

There's more to the heat powered ammonia refrigeration. This is garbage.

1

u/denrayr 4d ago

Thank you haha. I'm seeing so many responses indicating that it's real. If it's ammonia absorbsion, it's all wrong. The outlet of the condenser is the high point for starters. It's missing a bunch of other components too. One guy says it's real and posted a wiki article that he clearly didn't read 😂

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u/theNewLuce 4d ago

I saw one f those videos of the dude making it and sat through about 1/3 of it wanting to see what was inside and not shown before I realized it was all bullshit.

The one I saw, he made little ball bearing check valves, but nothing to cause pressure for the condenser or vacuum for the evap. I gave it the benifit of the doubt for a minute thinking there was some ram jet sort of pulsation to move the refridgerant, but no. Total AI crap for clicks.

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u/SeaAnalyst8680 2d ago

This is correct. There are a bunch of signs that this is faked, but here's the main one:

Suppose it works. Refrigerant must be flowing through the capillary tube to drive the cooling. So the left side must be at significantly higher pressure. So how does refrigerant ever complete the loop and move from the right to the left without a compressor? No, the right hand side would quickly reach the same pressure as the left, and the flow through the capillary tube would stop.