If you are a sporting camp operator, or if you simply own a remote camp or cabin in the North Woods far from the electric grid, some method of refrigeration is as important as those gas lights that light your favorite getaway. If your place has some years on it, chances are good that the old fridge beside the sink and the pitcher pump is a Servel.
V. Paul Reynolds, Outdoors Columnist
Servel at one time was THE only camp refrigerator. Manufactured by National Electric Products Company from 1933-57, the Servel was, during its heyday, the only game in town. It was to camp refrigerators what the 30-30 Winchester was to the early deer rifles.
Because it has no moving parts, the Servel was known for its incredible reliability. It has been so dependable an appliance, in fact, that the manufacturer offered a 10-year warranty, which is unheard of today in appliance merchandising. Unlike the modern electric refrigerators sold today that cool with a compressor, the Servel — and all propane refrigerators today — operate on what is called the “absorption method.” Simplified, it is a closed-circuit cooling system that uses heat to cool, and a combination of water, ammonia and hydrogen. The mechanics and chemistry of this ingenious system was invented reportedly by two grad students in Sweden early in the 20th century.
According to Al Elkin, owner of General Appliance in Brewer, who has been servicing propane refrigerators for 50 years, modern propane refrigerators are good, but they are not Servels. While the new ones operate on the absorption method — same as the revered Servels — they just don’t have quite the “precision chemistry” of their precursors. He says that Servel had the “chemistry perfected” in their time: chemistry being the precise mix of water, ammonia and hydrogen.
Elkin believes that today, throughout the Maine woods, there are still hundreds, if not thousands, of Servels still ticking in remote cabins and sporting camps — a testimonial to their fabled reliability. At a remote deer camp that I belong to, we have an original Servel that has been at the camp since 1972. It gets fired up every November and remains idle the rest of the year. So in more than 50 years, this appliance has never been serviced, except perhaps for a flue cleaning. (Try that with any new appliance.)
Elkin, who once wrote a manual about tuning up a Servel, has been an invaluable resource to backwoods people trying to troubleshoot their gas refrigerators or find parts. To the dismay of many, Al is hanging up his spurs and closing his shop. On my Sunday night radio program, sporting camp operator Steve Norris, who owns Servels, observed that “Al Elkin was more important to keeping life on track in the Maine woods than our state Game Wardens!”
They say that change is the one constant. Indeed. We wish Al smooth sailing in his well-deserved retirement and thank him for helping to keep the beer cold in the backwoods. He says that there is a man in Burlington who knows a thing or two about gas refrigerators, including Servels.
If your palace in the popple boasts a Servel, don’t get rid of it. Chances are it will still be making ice cubes long after we are gone.
V. Paul Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal, an author, a Maine guide and host of a weekly radio program, “Maine Outdoors,” heard at 7 p.m. Sundays on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network. Contact him at vpaulr@tds.net.
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