what is dangerous about old fridge freezers?

Answer 1

well your question is probably not specific enough but im bored enough to answer.
If the fridge has any kind of latch , remove it in such a way that the fridge cant be snapped shut. thereby children cant be trapped inside.
The fridge also contains gases harmful to the enviroment..but dont worry to much about that because the problem was inherent at the time of manufacture and you cant dispose of them.
if the fridge is burned the compressor reservoir can explode , though its rare , someone has been killed this month in this way.
If you have an awkward money grabbing local council they may want to rip you off to dispose of the fridge.Some people dump the fridges in places where the council will be forced to collect it and then it will become their responsibility to dispose of it correctly without passing the cost onto you after you have already paid your council tax once.
But that would be illegal and unethical and i have never done anything like that and drew satisfaction!

Answer 2

First, Kids love to play, and hide and seek are one of the most dangerous games. Many Child's deaths have been reported when they hid in car trunks and old refrigerators.

Freezers have a couple of built in dangers. Most of the old Freezers have the door latch that requires you to be outside to open, so once a child gets in an old Freezer they cannot get out. That is why you see doors removed from old freezers (in fact in some areas that is the law) or otherwise secured to prohibit opening.

Another danger is the Freon or cooling gas used when the Freezer was working. Often youths use this gas to get high, which that alone has cause deaths. This Freon needs to be recovered by a special machine not just released to the atmosphere. Many recycle centers and dumps will not take a refrigerator without it being evacuated first.

Answer 3

looks like i'm having the best answer then! the gas in old fridges is a cfc gas namely R12,R22orR502 (chloro fluoro carbon) the chlorine part is responsible for for changing the chemical make up of ozone by atttaching to the ozone molecules, but the other problem with the fridges is the yellow polyurethane insulation which would have been expanded with a blowing agent containing chlorine .The usual thing to do with scrap metal would be to melt it down but in this case the polyurethane will release chlorine in the incineration,this in turn wrecks the ozone layer in the same way as the gas does. thats a load o'points 4 me then

Answer 4

Very old ones used ammonia as the cooling agent. If this type of refrigerator is just `dumped` before the gases have bee vacuumed from the system, the gas can escape and poison anyone who breathes it in or it can pollute the atmosphere. Also they did not have magnetic open/close doors. The doors were closed with a latch, which could not be opened from inside. Young children would play in them if they were `dumped`. In the 1960s several children died as a result of this.

Answer 5

Apart from the problem of trapping kids inside (always remove the door when you dump) there is the environmentally dangerous gas, FREON. responsible for the hole in the ozone layer etc. Just to put the frighteners on, the release of freon in a confined space...it is heavy, it will sink to floor level, if you light a fire or so, the freon will change into MUSTARD GAS (read up about WW1 trench warfare)

Answer 6

Its the gases that are inside the bottle at the back (that keep it cold) that are harmful to the environment. I was defrosting my freezer one day, and I thought it would be a good idea to chip away at the ice- with a chisel lol, and I burst the inside and all the gas was pouring out, and the fire brigade had to come out and move it and take it away. I felt like a right divvy. lol.

Hope I helped xx

Answer 7

Just buy a new fridge or at least a refurb for like $150 bucks. Your thermometer is worth more than your fridge...

Answer 8

Well kids can climb inside and asphyxiate themselves under certain conditions ... also they contain toxic gases and have to be disposed of safely. That's why you pay an fee if a contractor takes it away for you .....

Oh, my mate's wife is frigid and dangerous ... when she opens her mouth, a little light comes on !

Answer 9

When you leave them outside for the binmen to collect, kids tend to find them useful hiding places. Now although they are easy enough to open normally, they are virtually impossible to open from the inside (certainly with the little strength children have). As a result they become a deathtrap for children who get trapped inside.

Answer 10

They used to latch shut so if a child got stuck in one they couldn't open the door from the inside.