Refrigerator
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A refrigerator or fridge is an important household appliance, capable of cooling a thermally insulated compartment using a heat pump system which transfers heat from the inside of said compartment to its external environment, maintaining an internal temperature lower than room temperature, but above the freezing point of water.
A refrigerators that can produce and maintain a temperature below the freezing point of water is called a freezer.
Contents
General
Refrigerators come in various shapes and sizes. Some have a freezer incorporated, while others don't.
Freezer
Freezers can reach lower temperatures than common refrigerators, making them useful when recrystallizing compounds.
Availability
Refrigerators and freezers can be purchased from house appliance stores. Specialized refrigerators can be purchased from industrial suppliers.
DIY refrigerator
Unless you're making a refrigerator as science experiment, it's a lot cheaper and safer to simply buy a refrigerator from the store.
Alternatively, you can use a polystyrene insulated box with ice as a temporary refrigerator.
Projects
- Cool chemical reactions
- Store volatile reagents
Safety and maintenance
Refrigerators generally don't have a chemical resistant coating on the inside, so it's best to avoid storing volatile corrosive reagents in it. Never store food or drinks in the same fridge you store your chemical reagents.
