Alternate Appliance Use?

[ErikEst]

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.