1. A little time spent with a search engine shows this happens a couple of times a year (or at least makes a news site). It’s rare, but far from unheard of. If I was the quality engineer at Whirlpool, I’d be sending someone to retrieve that refrigerator before it got handled too much.

   The bottom line: the trend of exploding refrigerators is caused by environmentalists! They made them replace Freon, which is virtually impossible to ignite, with other chemicals that are flammable or explosive. This was done to save the ozone layer and/or fight global warming. Both of which are probably bogus.

   When we had Freon vapor cleaning chambers in industry, it was real common for new workers to be afraid of the gas. One of the old graybeard technicians would light a match and put in the Freon to show that it was a fire extinguisher. It is sold as Halon, right?

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   1. Yup. Also, coincidentally (wink, wink) DuPont’s patients had run out on the whole Freon series of CFC refrigerants. In the eighties you could buy R12 for $1 for a one pound can, and recharge your car air conditioner yourself. Lots of people made lots of money off the Montreal protocols. And yes, an objective look at the ozone hole issue reveals a number of holes (pun intended) in the arguments. However, like man made global warming (AKA climate change), we’re stuck with politicians and enviros seeking power and money.

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2. Look up R600. Why anyone thought using propane as a refrigerant is safe defies logic.

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   1. Some of the enviros want to go back to ammonia, both flammable and toxic.

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   2. FWIW, 60+ years ago, the refrigerant of choice was ammonia gas.

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3. I has the same thought as our host, except that when I watched the video at whatever site it was this morning where I first saw the story, the people sounded sane and reasonable – which diminished my suspicion of recreational-pharmaceutical precursors or organic peroxides.
   But then following Mike’s pointer… yeah. R-600 (AKA “butane”) or R-600A (AKA “isobutane”) as a household refrigerant? Real bright there, guys. And most of the electricity-switching devices to be found in a kitchen aren’t designed for explosive atmospheres, because traditionally they don’t need to be. Now a refrigerant leak, instead of extinguishing any small fires that might be nearby, creates an explosion hazard just waiting for a spark.
   So, as the previous commenters noted: blame the greenweenies and their political and corporate sponsors.

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4. There were a whole series of horrific killer apartment building fires in London. The initial fires were caused by exploding refrigerators. The EU required (and supposedly) environmentally friendly refrigerant leaked and ignited causing the fires. One apartment fire ignited the wonderful government required and low bidder installed insulating sheathing, which burnt an entire building down, and killed a bunch of people. They couldn’t escape, because the fire stairs were filled with garbage, and the elevators didn’t work.

   That is your benevolent all knowing government in action.

   Just wait untill all these new environmentally friendly refrigerators age a few years and the seals start leaking. Business will be booming!

   ( can you please spellcheck the headline?)

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   1. Thank you.

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