‘It blew right across his home’: Appliance expert warns about potentially explosive refrigerators

ORLANDO, Fla. —

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Modern refrigerators now use a refrigerant that’s considered highly flammable.

“I just saw the refrigerator doors on the floor, holes in the wall,” said Lenore Satterthwaite. She has photos showing debris thrown everywhere. Her stove, furniture and walls were damaged after what she described as an explosion inside her North Carolina home last year.

Satterthwaite said, “The whole wall was all blocked in, the other side, too.”

While fire investigators were never able to confirm the cause of the explosion, they noted it came from inside the fridge. It was a modern refrigerator model that contained a refrigerant called R-600a that’s found in most new home refrigerators by all different manufacturers.

Appliance expert Mike Mannino told Action 9, “They can be potentially dangerous for the servicer, plus the homeowner.”

Mannino has worked in the appliance repair industry for more than 45 years and has seen the evolution of refrigeration. In his early years it was R-12, a chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) which was banned in the 1990s for damaging the ozone. Then there was R-134a. It’s better for the ozone but adds to global warming. That is now being phased out by an EPA mandate in favor of refrigerants like R-600a that are efficient and environmentally friendly. But R-600a is an isobutane, a flammable substance like you might find in a cigarette lighter.

Mike Mannino showed Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal a mini-fridge with the warning: Danger-Risk of Fire or Explosion. Flammable Refrigerant Used.

That’s why his company, The Appliance Doctor, will not work on them.

“I’m not saying these things are going to start exploding all over the country, but the potential is there that, you know, something catastrophic could possibly happen,” Mannino said.

Fridge explosions are not common. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has only has a handful of complaints about modern fridge explosions over the past few years and other countries started the transition earlier than the U.S.

But Maninno points to a new trend that worries him. Social media is driving the popularity of makeup that needs refrigeration. Mini-fridges with R-600a could now be in children’s bedrooms and college dorms.

Mannino said, “You know, usually refrigerators are right next to their bed.”

The EPA notes R-600a is safe under certain conditions that include careful installation, maintenance and disposal and that safety precautions must be taken during the design and assembly of refrigerators that use R-600a.

Mike Mannino admits he’s not aware of anyone getting hurt from a fridge explosion, but he worries about what could happen if anyone is in the kitchen when it happens.

“If you saw what the kitchen looked like it was complete devastation. I mean, one guy found his refrigerator door in his living room. So, it blew it right across his home,” he said.

Other appliance experts have posted online about having to get extra training and buy expensive new tools to work on these new refrigerators. Mike Mannino now refers customers to the manufacturers for repairs, but he said in many cases fridges that are less than two years old are just being thrown in the landfill.

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