Call me suspicious, but I am skeptical of anyone who claims to comprehend the inner workings of an absorption refrigerator. To fully fathom the depths of magic inside all those steel coils, you must understand thermodynamics, chemistry, fluid dynamics, and mechanics of materials. It’s an entire engineering education within a single appliance. Every time I think I understand it, another question pops up!

An absorption refrigerator is a miracle of engineering, no doubt. How does hot make cold? With no moving parts and only a simple boiler, the system can hold the temperature of a freezer compartment well below 0 degrees. The technology is well over 100 years old: invented in France, refined in Sweden (by two undergraduate students, no less), and imported to America. In a world where new smartphone updates come out every month, the good ol’ RV absorption refrigerator has soldiered on with hardly a technological hiccup since the 1960s. 

I Owe You (and Refrigerators) An Apology …

Can I confess something? A long time ago, when this blog was wide-eyed and innocent, I wrote an article somewhat optimistically titled “The Essential Guide to the RV Absorption Refrigerator.” Two years later, I re-read that article, and to my red-faced embarrassment, I completely screwed up the description of how an RV refrigerator works. Truth be told, I don’t think I really understood what I was describing. (Thankfully, blogging allows for editing.)