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In article ,
says...

heftenfleunter wrote:
Ahoy, I'm reading the Hiscock's account of their early '60's
Wanderer IV journey in which he describes their refer unit as "a
paraffin unit which costs pennies a day and makes no noise". Man, that
sounds good to me. Even makes ice. Since they're English paraffin is
similar to kerosene? What's the scoop? The solutions for small
sailboats I've seen were 12vdc and sucked an easy 5 watts while
rattling for hours.

There are butane gas refrigerators which burn a flame, so I guess the
paraffin ones work on a similar principle. Must confess I've never seen one.
In the UK, "paraffin" tends to refer to the highly-refined version of
kerosene, the latter being used for cleaning purposes in garages and
workshops.

My understanding of flame driven refrigerators (they used to be common in
homes -- Nash Kelvinator, was it?) is that the unit or at least the working
guts must be absolutely level at all times, which makes them impractical for
use on boats.