Why cooling circuits, in a fridge for example, need a dryer?

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
2 replies · 3K views
Charles123
Messages
131
Reaction score
0
Since they are closed systems, and do not contain water, why do they use a dryer?
And how does that dryer works? It uses a dissecant? If so does it need to be changed?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
The explanation is that it WASN'T a closed system before it was gassed-up.
The cooling pipework, and the actual gas itself initially contains some water vapour.
The drying capsule removes this initial trapped moisture and it remains locked into the dessicant until such time as the sealed system is ruptured, either by a leak or by re-gassing.
At that point, during the resealing process, a new drying caspsule will be installed. Any water in the system would obviously corrode stuff from the inside, but would also no doubt cause problems to the coolant flow, by FREEZING and blocking the system.
 
Thank you!
Regards