> It would be great if someone could improve this tech to where there's a breakeven point of ownership (preferably less than 20 years) when it becomes a better deal than other modern refrigerators.

Given that absorption chillers have a COP of 0.7 to 1.2 vs a vapor-compression chiller with a COP of 4-6, it’s likely impossible to create an absorption chiller/refrigerator that equals or exceeds a vapor-compression chiller/refrigerator due to physics/thermodynamics. This isn’t much of a downside for absorption chillers powered by waste heat since the energy would otherwise be lost.

Someone smarter than I am will have to explain why, all I know is that vapor-compression refrigeration is 4-6x more efficient than absorption refrigeration.

Thank you, that's the sort of response I was hoping for, actually analyzing the efficiency of the thing. Waste heat is something I think we can get a lot more juice out of in the future.