A Chilling Effect: Repairer Gives Life To Old Gas Fridges
Burlington, Maine - Arthur Gauthier fixed fridges. His is a special talent, because the refrigerators he fixes use an unusual technology and have been off the market for 35 years. They are also known killers. Despite that, the ice boxes - which draw their chilling power not from an electric cord but from a propane gas flame - remain popular with select
groups of fans, from Amish owners who shun electricity to outback dwellers who want to keep their beer cool far from power lines. Were it not for the old Servel-brand refrigerators and Mr. Gauthier's expertise, they might have to go cold turkey.
Such would be the preference of the Servel Action Committee, a group that represents a company that inherited the liabilities of Servel Inc., an appliance maker that closed its doors in 1958.
Deadly Emissions
Liability is a problem: From 1980 to 1990, the committee says, carbon monoxide gas emitted by faulty Servel refrigerators killed 20 people. The committee's sole reason for being is to persuade anyone who still owns an old Servel gas fridge to junk it - in return for a $100 payment plus disposal cost.
"Stop using our old Servel gas refrigerator immediately." Reads a warning the committee publishes periodically and posts in places without electric service. According to the notice, "Operators are standing by 24 hours a day" on a toll-free hot line to respond to rebate claims.
But hundreds of loyal Servel customers, most living beyond the reach of electricity, scorn the offer. And all that stands between them and the committee's mission of destruction, it seems is Mr. Gauthier. The Maine woodsman's workshop, next to his one-bedroom house on Saponac Pond in this town of 350, bears witness to Servel loyalty. Four Servels dropped off by their owners are scattered about. Three others, their rib-cages of looping pipes and tubes exposed, lean against a wall.
Mr. Gauthier, a 65-year old man with a weathered face, says he has resuscitated more than a thousand Servels in the past five years, some brought in from as far away as Michigan and Pennsylvania. "I have had Servels here that were older than their owners. Some of them died on me - not the Servels, the owners."
Family Heirloom
Phil Drew doesn't know what he would have done without Mr. Gauthier. The Servel at Mr. Drew's summer home on Bustins Island off the Maine coast has been in the family since his father bought it in 1958. In August it seemed to have reached its natural end: It wouldn't get cold. He cleaned the burner and adjusted the flame. No luck. Then he tried folk remedies suggested by neighbors. Vigorous shaking "didn't do a bit of good," he says. Tipping it upside down for an hour "worked but not for long."
After someone showed him Mr. Gauthier's ad in Uncle Henry's Weekly, a bargain-hunter's guide, Mr. Drew loaded the 200-pound fridge on a 35-foot passenger ferry, then onto his pickup, and drove three hours to Mr. Gauthier's workshop. The problem was a clogged pipe.
What about the Servel warning? Mr. Drew saw the notice in a local store on the island in 1991. "Having lived with it for 30 years, we figured we could live with it for another 30," he says. "It has the attraction that old things have."
The attraction works even when the refrigerator doesn't. Edward Colburn, a retired machinist in Peabody, Mass., held on to a broken Servel for 25 years. The local gas people looked it over but couldn't fix it. Frustrated, Mr. Colburn bought a much smaller Servel, the only one he could find, to tide him over pending repairs. "That's how much I like Servel." He says.
In July a relative told him about Mr. Gauthier, who had the old refrigerator running again in three days. "I think my Servel will last longer than me," says Mr. Colburn, 75.
The Servel Action Committee, which came into existence in 1991 after an investigation of the refrigerator by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, says it harbors no ill will toward Mr. Gauthier. "We would rather have the Servels back," a committee spokesman says. "The more he fixes the longer our (rebate) program will have to run, and that's a frustration.
Hugh Bode, the committee's general counsel, estimates that Servel, which was based in Evansville, Ind., made three million refrigerators. So far, the committee has paid out rebates and disposal cost on 15,000 Servels. "When we announced the program I wouldn't have guessed that we had as many as 2,000," he says.
The Servel Action Committee consists mainly of one member: Gould Inc., and Eastlake, Ohio, maker of medical instruments and electronic components. Gould, which has never made a refrigerator, ended up inheriting the original Servel company's liability through a third company it purchased in 1969.
People are attached to their old Servels partly because the alternatives, all smaller, leave them cold. Only two modern gas refrigerators for home use are available in the U.S. today. One, made by the Dometic Corp. of Elkhart, Ind., carries the name Servel, although it has no relation to the original company. Dometic bought the brand name in 1987. The other brand is Consul, made by Brazilian manufacturer Multibras SA. The largest of the new models are 8.5 cubic feet, compared with 12 for the largest original Servel. (The U.S. consumer Product Safety Commission say modern burner and flue designs have eliminated the carbon monoxide threat. The agency hasn't received any reports of deaths caused by the new fridges.)
Mr. Gauthier's interest in Servel goes back to 1936, when as an eight-year-old he saw a Servel display in a Boston trade show: A metal ball, heated by a burner, was connected to another metal ball that was cold and covered with frost. The young boy touched the icy ball and watched slivers of frost melt in his hand.
"How does hot make cold?" he recalls wondering. In fact, a mixture of ammonia, water and hydrogen is heated. When the pure ammonia evaporates, it absorbs heat, cooling its surroundings. "It's intriguing, you got to admit that," says Mr. Gauthier. "Very few things about that era still fascinate me."
In 1970 Mr. Gauthier, a machinist, moved to the woods here for a life of fishing and hunting and opened a car-repair shop next door for income. As locals with their Servels turned to him for help, however, he slowly drifted into the Servel repair business.
But it wasn't until 1986 that he became a full-time Servel repairman, after paying $5,000 to learn the formula of the gas refrigerator's coolant. Knowing the formula allowed him to cut open pipes to clear clogs, then replace the solution. Mr. Gauthier charges from $60 to about $250 for repairs, depending on whether he has to recharge the fridges.
Mr. Gauthier says the refrigerator's burner is the most fiddled-with part in a Servel. In fact, it is the only part that invites tinkering, because everything else in the back of the refrigerator is part of a sealed loop. When a Servel doesn't stay cold or takes a little extra time to turn cold, "people play with the burner," says Mr. Gauthier. "If it isn't reset to burn a clear blue flame, or if it's clogged, it will produce carbon monoxide."
As he stands amid propane tanks, pressure gauges and air compressors, Mr. Gauthier can't help but admire the old technology. The problems usually start, he says, when owners tinker, take the refrigerator apart and then can't put it back together. "Let me tell you," Mr. Gauthier says. "Servels don't break down; the owners do."
Mr. Gauthier would gladly answer any questions you may have, just e-mail him!