Does a mini fridge has different parts than a big one?

Hi. This my first post on the Forum. I'm excited to learn with all you guys that are doing this more than me on here. I'm a young scrapper, I'm only 15, so I get what I can and make do with it.

Anyway, I was breaking down a broken mini fridge yesterday and I fould the following: power chord, some wire, two small motors(?.), two small boards, and the stainless steel back. I thought there's copper pipes filled with refringent and stuff! how does this fridge stay cold without them? Is there no refringent in a mini fridge?

It may be cooled via thermoelectric cooling. I pick up a small wine cooler like that.

Thermoelectric cooling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I picked up a danby wine cooler last week, its just a Mini fridge with glass in the door, it has a compresser just like a big fridge..

some small camper fridges use propane, no idea how they work tho

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Originally Posted by Bear

some small camper fridges use propane, no idea how they work tho

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Those systems have ammonia in the and are nasty and can cause much harm to your lungs.

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Originally Posted by KzScrapper

Those systems have ammonia in the and are nasty and can cause much harm to your lungs.

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it's been years since i've even heard of em Kz, not sure if they even still have em, but he didn't really specify any ara

How Does a RV Refrigerator Work? | eHow

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Originally Posted by Bear

it's been years since i've even heard of em Kz, not sure if they even still have em, but he didn't really specify any ara

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Just ran into one last year. Thought it was empty and burnt my lungs when it started leaking. Been a year and my lungs have still not came back to normal. Probably never will. Please be careful!!!

Ok well I have been getting mini fridges all summer and have most of them figured out. The cooling system you see in the back of big fridges is 90% of the time the freezer tray if you look close there are raised grooves running throughout the tray holding a tiny refrigerant line this is the cooling system. make sure to rip it out. I get radiator price for them after showing my yard what they were. So basically pull the compressor and cut everything up to the back panel flip it, open, rip out the freezer tray and thermostat done. you can pull the tubing and power line through if you cut one side off first either way works but I prefer pulling from the inside of the fridge as the tubes and wire generally have a soft rubber coating. I have not found any with a stainless back yet but i will recheck the ones i have done just to make sure. They make great storage for tools or shred and I am going to refurbish a few into cabinets for my shed. The ones i am getting take about 5 min to strip and another 15 or so to deal with the compressor and smash apart the thermostat.

freezer tray aluminum with copper lines inside the raised parts
[IMG]http://i1311.photobucket.com/albums/...ps53d84562.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i1311.photobucket.com/albums/...ps85a89df5.jpg[/IMG]
Warning all is not as it seems
[IMG]http://i1311.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9cff33a0.jpg[/IMG]

so to answer the op's original question yes they are the same parts but they look a little different. Haven't come across any thermoelectricly cooled ones yet but will post if i do.

I recently buy Ivation wine cooler it is a fridge with smoke glass door, it may be cooled via thermoelectric cooling.