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Pylonman
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# Posted: 10 Dec 2010 01:47am
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My spouse wanted a RV fridge to flush mount into the wall. We saw a used Servel 620 RV fridge for $650 on Craigslist and wondered if it was a good buy. It can be used with regular house power or propane. I have no idea how old it is.
Does anyone have experience with this type/make of fridge?
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 10 Dec 2010 10:23am - Edited by: MtnDon
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First make sure it works. You want to see frozen stuff frozen in the freezer part, preferably ice on the wall somewhere so you know they just didn't stuff it full of already frozen stuff. Don't ask why I say so. If it is in excellent condition that is probably a reasonable price. Those are expensive new. No idea how old that is but I can't remember seeing a new Servel RV fridge in a long time. Today they only import a home/cabin free standing style propane model. Good thing is most parts are available.
This type of fridge works from heat. The electrical portion uses a small resistance heater coil. They tend to use more electricity than a compressor type. The AC is handy with an RV when you are trying to stretch out your propane when staying in campgrounds you're paying fees for anyhow.
The back side must be well vented to the outside with intake near the bottom and an upper exhaust vent. They work well when setup when correct spacing and air channeling for the coils in the rear. They need to vent the exhaust from the propane flame as well as get rid of the heat from the inside of the box. Because of the CO danger it's best to vent to the outside.
If it is large enough to do the job for you it may be a good one.
Note that this type of fridge does not cool down as quickly as a standard home fridge. We have this type in our RV and have a Servel 400 home/cabin propane fridge in the cabin. See it at thenaturalhome.com to compare and price.
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larryh
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# Posted: 10 Dec 2010 11:04am
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This is another area of interest to me. I have used until recently Servels and other brands of gas and oil refrigerators on an on all my life. Servel is basically Dometic made in Europe. The model your showing appears to be awfully large for this type of unit? They quit using the Servel name on them probably 8 years or so ago after a stretch of calling the old Dometics Servel again. These as mentioned can have issues as none of them are built like the old Servel Tanks from the 40's and 50's. And even they fail some of the time, not to mention being recalled for carbon monoxide problems. As mentioned I would want to be sure it was working as it should. Often these will run for a long time, but I see a lot of bad ones too.
The new Dometic mentioned which is that 400 model, is an odd duck. I can't for the life of me see why after many years of building them then insist on making the interiors shallower and shallower and the cabinets taller. I purchased the new oil model to see how it worked. It worked better than any of the previous models I had had from them, but it put out a odd odor than none before had. Plus that narrow high cabinet looked really stupid in my kitchen and when you tried to open the freezer door the thing almost fell over forwards is was so unstable and tall. Nothing fits in the freezer due to the small size, I just don't get where they are going with them? The Chinese make a rather nice looking oil operated and gas in a number of sizes, but although I heard that Lehman had looked into them I don't see them importing them for some reason. The Crystal Cold units the Amish are making in Illinois is a standard type refrigerator in many sizes and evidently it has become pretty reliable from the reports I am seeing. If I were to purchase a new one it might be theirs or the Diamond Brand also produced now?
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 10 Dec 2010 03:07pm - Edited by: MtnDon
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When we got our Servel RGE400 I wiped the exterior of the burner chimney down with an alcohol soaked rag to remove manufacturers protective oil. I couldn't wipe the inside very well unless I dismantled it and so skipped that. We had an odd odor for several hours but by the time the interior cooled down enough to store food the odor was pretty much gone. By the next day there was no odor at all. I have an exterior vent kit I will be installing this spring. It supplies outside air to the burner and exhausts the combustion gases to the outside. No fans required. That will eliminate the possibility of any CO danger.
Note that propane appliances are altitude sensitive. There are smaller jets for high altitude operation. I've changed the jets in the Servel, the propane wall mounted heater and the water heater. The range had adjustments as well.
larryh, I don't know if we're talking about the same Servel model? Here's a link to the one we bought (and the place we bought it from. The freezer is very usable. It may be smaller than those in the larger Crystal Cold models, but it freezes great. Not only do we make ice cubes we can have steaks, chicken, frozen fruits and vegetables stored and several frozen juice cans in the holder built into the door. And we still have room for a pint or two of ice cream.
I'm not familiar with any older models (other than the RV fridges), but if they now make the cabin models less deep, but taller, I think I prefer what the taller. To me shallower depth means it's easier to access stuff. We've never had any issue with tip overs even with both doors open at the same. That's a puzzle to me.
FYI, the Crystal Cold uses the shell of a Frigidaire and the Amish add the propane refrigeration unit. The Servel is called an 8 cu. ft (6.4 + 1.6) but measures to be an actual 7.3 (5.9 + 1.4 in the freezer). That's common with fridges of any make. The CC come in 12, 15 and 18 cu ft models. The Servel currently sold here is imported from Sweden as a completed unit.
I believe the Servel performs better in hot weather. If the propane burner figures are compared it will be seen that the Servel burner is rated at 1500 BTU/hour. The Crystal Cold burners are rated at 1700 BTU/hr. Not much more capacity. When you look at the larger cabinet sizes of the CC it would seem that if all else is equal the Servel should "make cold" better, or be able to stay cold better.
The Servel doors can be user changed from left to right hung. I know someone with a pair mounted side by side with all the doors set to open from the middle, hinged on either side.
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larryh
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# Posted: 10 Dec 2010 07:10pm
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I agree that the Servel made in Europe is a reliable cooling unit. I just don't like the style they have been trending towards for years. I go back a long way with them. I think I got my first new absorption box in about 1965 and had already had several original servels. The early designs were more box like in shape and the freezer was twice a deep as the new ones. I find the new one too shallow and after you put a few larger items in it your out of room. I had the oil model which you can see from the photo of it lower down the page that it sits on a separate base which adds about a foot more to the height. The seal on the doors was very tight after you had closed it and if you had to go back into the freezer for something it had a tendency to want to act like it was tipping unless you held your hand on the door frame. I have always been leery of he Amish built units as they had their problems for sure, but I keep hearing that they have gotten them to work pretty well now, and the better is the smaller size because they all use the same burner. The odor that mine produced was not the usual start up kind of smell, this one lingered the whole time I had it. I think it was what ever kind of sealant that they had rather liberally smeared around the burner area for some reason. It got so bad that I had to quit using it when I got a cold and the fumes were overwhelming.
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 10 Dec 2010 08:27pm
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It would be nice if it was deeper as some things like pizzas won't fit what is now sold. :) Too bad about the smell as I am very pleased with the way it performs. I use the making ice cubes as the indicator and it does very good.
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larryh
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# Posted: 11 Dec 2010 08:41am
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Those freezers are often capable of going well below zero.. One oil box I had which tended to freeze everything in the food compartment as well would hit 25 below in the freezer over night. That late 400 model oil was the best operational of the kerosene boxes I had ever purchased, had it not been for the smell and to me unfortunate design I would have kept it, but I sold it shortly after the issues with the fumes causing me to shut it down. It was the first oil model I ever owned that put out noticeably fumes. I met several Amish who owned the same model and they mentioned that they too had noticed that was smellier than others they had owned. Why I don't know. Todays oil quality is so poor that I am not sure those wick models could be kept operating without constant cleaning of the wicks.
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fasenuff
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# Posted: 12 Dec 2010 07:23pm
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One thing to keep in mind with this type of fridge is the pipe used for the coolant will rust on the inside. The fridge can be working well but if you bang it around too much when moving it the rust can flake off and settle at the bottom of the pipe in the coils. This can possibly lead to it not cooling as well or not at all. Just be gentle with it and all will be ok.
I had bought a good working one and by the time I had it installed it would barely work. The repair man who fixed it explained the problem to me. He had to replace the coils and "blew" the rust out of the old line to show me. There was a lot of it.
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larryh
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# Posted: 13 Dec 2010 11:16am
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There are several techniques for trying to remedy this without taking it apart. One is to tip the box upside-down and let it sit a day, tapping the pipes now and then. Several people I know who had dead ones got them to go after doing this. The time I tired I had no luck, but I didn't know quite as much about it as I do now. Some also said that rocking fairly far from one side to the other sometimes dislodged the blockage. But in case of still no cooling your pretty much stuck with having some attempt to fix it properly. I say attempt because these are quite touchy about the exact amount of coolant that has to be in the lines, and often some of the Amish and others who try to fix them end up with a less that satisfactory job when done.
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