Let us say you are in place in BOL or long term bug in situation.
The power is off and will stay off for an indefinite period.
You have a huge big stove and refrigerator sitting in the kitchen that are totally useless. Possibly water heaters and other appliances that will be of no use for many years if ever again.
What alternate uses do you put them too?
As I have watched my area go from preindustrial to mechanized I have seen good farm equipment turned into mailbox posts and yard ornaments, perfectly good cast iron kettles used as flower pots and even wringer washing machines turned into planters.
We will not even mention the water powered gristmills turned into "bed and breakfast inns"!
So how will our modern equipage fare in it's alternate uses.
Can the fridge gasses be used for anything?
the fridge, freezer and stove can be used in the garden as root cellars and stores.
Well you could always rig up the washing machine to the rear wheel of a push bike, there are more than one plan on the net for doing this,... clothes will still need washing
Fridges could still be used as cool boxes, just bury them in the ground door uppermost of course, or even in streams surrounded by running water
I have seen and posted a washing machine drum being turned into a power generator by using magnets and water flow.
Gasses in old fridges was freon. not deadly but not kind to the Ozone. Now its hydrocarbon. not sure what you can do with that
I would personally strip all the wiring and use it as cordage or save it for repairs of other things
old refrigerants R12 and R22 in presence of open fire can turn into poisonous gas phosgene. some of the newest refrigerators use R600 family refrigerants which are basically cigaret lighter gas. only problem you can not collect refrigerants from the refrigerators without special tools, when unpressurized they turn from liquid to gas. and each refrigerator has only couple of hundreds grams of it. about same amount of compressor oil you can find in the compressor, you can use it for lubricating (it does not get thick in freezing cold) or for burning.
you can use dead refrigerator as icebox. you can use heat exchanging radiators from it as cooling tubes for alcohol still (first clean its tubes from compressor oil) or some kind of home water heating system, just paint the radiator black and place it on the sunny side of the roof.
stove you can probably use as a smoking oven.
you can use the drum of a washing machine as a fire pit.
(14 May 2013, 09:26)bigpaul Wrote: [ -> ]you can use the drum of a washing machine as a fire pit.
Yup. You can also use a sky dish for a fire pit too.
Wonder if you covered one in tin foil if it would direct the suns rays back onto a fixed point to allow for fire starting etc?
(13 May 2013, 12:30)SecretPrepper Wrote: [ -> ]I have seen and posted a washing machine drum being turned into a power generator by using magnets and water flow.
I'd like to see that if you find it again. The closest I've found is
this video, whereby an old washing machine is turned into a water powered generator hefty enough to run the guy's fridge, freezer and just about everything else - but it needs a nearby source of water power (eg a stream) as well as the kind of technical know-how that left me blinking. I've no doubt there are people on here who'd know how to make this thing, but I am very seriously not among them...
Sadly inadequate,
Louise