Do you have to ventilate propane?

Answer 1

VENTING

The older SERVELS with their larger burners have been noted to burn much more dirty than the modern day refrigerators do. Since the modern-day propane refrigerators use only ½ the amount of fuel to operate, they are also noted to burn much cleaner. These unburned gas fumes are what they call carbon monoxide [CO]gas. When too much of this gas is emitted into a room, it will create CO poisoning if this level of CO is too high.

The older SERVELS built in the 1930's - 1950's were noted to emit up to 1500 parts per million [PPM] of CO gas fumes at the exhaust vent. If this would be emitted into a room 10'-20', it would emit approx. 300-400 PPM of CO into the building [this amount varies depending on the size of the room] see ILL 3. This amount of CO is in a danger zone for exposure. It is highly recommended to vent an older SERVEL because of this high level of CO emission. This is due mostly because of the the design of the burner setup. The older SERVELS are not legal to operate in Canada and are discouraged to be used by the USA. The government of United States has set up a system to reclaim these SERVEL refrigerators by paying the owner $100 + disposal costs just to get them off of the market. Many people loved the longevity of these refrigerators that have been used for 70 some years and find it hard to part with these units and therefore, creating more hazard for themselves. This is why the government wants to omit these refrigerators. Any older style SERVEL refrigerators that are still in use today can be disposed by calling, SERVEL ACTION COMMITTEE at 1-800-782-7431.

Any propane refrigerator built in the 1980's until current are much cleaner to operate. On the average, these refrigerators will omit 20-30 PPM of CO at the exhaust vent tube, which omits approx. .001 PPM of CO in a room. The allowable amount of PPM of CO permitted in a living area is 50 PPM . At this amount of CO in any given area , no one should ever need to worry about CO poisoning with a modern day propane refrigerator.

A propane refrigerator does not generally need to be vented to the outside.

If a homeowner is to box in his propane refrigerator in a kitchen with cabinets built over the top of the refrigerator and around the sides, it is always important to put a vent in the floor towards the back of the refrigerator and on the top of the refrigerator for ventilation so that heat can escape from the cooling system . If this is not done , a refrigerator will overheat, thus causing it to loose efficiency in cooling.

Answer 2

Yes, it is recommended to work with ventilation because propane is flammable and explosive.