A small refrigeration system used in a water purifier was tested by employing propane/isobutane (R-290/R-6OOa) mixtures as an alternative refrigerant of R-12. The drop-in tests were performed by varying mass fraction of propane at 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75 with a change of both refrigerant charge amount and capillary tube length in order to find an optimum composition in aspect of performance and reliability of the system. As a result, the mixture of 50% propane-50% isobutane showed the best performance and reliability among them in a small refrigeration system. During steady state operations, both the COP and refrigeration capacity increased by 4% and 9%, respectively, as compared to the baseline R-12 system. In addition, the propane/isobutane (50/50) mixture system yielded advantages in the minimization of modification and redesigning of system components due to very similar saturation tempera- ture and pressure characteristics with R-12.