1931 Frigidaire Belt Drive Refrigerator Repairs...

[turbokinetic]

Hi folks. I am new here to this forum, but have been online on other places for quite some time.

A Facebook friend suggested that I share this project here. I have tried several times to make a new thread but have as of yet been unsuccessful. Furthermore, it is telling me I can not post again for 30 minutes after each post because I am a "new member."

Anyway - the Frigidaire! I was working at a jobsite in southern Louisiana noticed an ad for an "antique refrigerator - not working." I envisioned a 1950's era fridge, such as one of the rounded Frigidaire Meter-Miser units. When I got there, it was a 1931 belt-drive Frigidaire! The compressor skid was missing, but the enamel cabinet was in OK shape, and all the trim was present and in excellent shape.

I discussed it with a fellow enthusiast who had acquired a very deteriorated, similar fridge which had its compressor in place. The rest of it was unsalvageable, however.

I was able to get the compressor skid, along with a few other spare mechanical parts for the fridge.

This refrigerator is unlike anything I have worked on before. It is a vapor compression system, but that is where the similarities with modern units end.

The compressor is driven by a fan belt, with a large Delco electric motor. All the electrics on it are Delco-Remy. The same Delco-Remy who makes the electrics for our old GM cars!

The shaft seal shredded when I turned the compressor flywheel by hand. A small amount of sulphur dioxide (SO2) pressure was still in the system, which escaped at that time. This was a good finding, because the pressure kept moisture from going in and reacting with the SO2 and corroding the compressor beyond repair.

I constructed a new shaft seal assembly by turning down the front part of the housing from a modern GM car A/C compressor and installing a new seal in this part. The compressor was otherwise in excellent shape inside.

The evaporator is where it gets weird. There is a float valve inside the evaporator header. It allows liquid refrigerant to flow into the evaporator and then stops the flow when the evaporator is full of liquid. This low-side float system was not used often or for very long.

When I finally got the cabinet home from Louisiana, I started investigating the condition and found the insulation was bad. It was unlike anything I had seen before. The panels of insulation were made of wooden frames, with layers of aluminum foil and paper inside. This created air spaces to give an insulation effect. Due to the advanced deterioration of this, I replaced it with Styrofoam, sealed in place with expanding foam sealant.

The float valve and control were the only parts requiring adjustments for the different pressure and density of the R152A refrigerant. After this was taken care of, it cooled down to 0 degrees without a door gasket even installed at all. Now that the door gasket is new, it runs at about a 20% run time. That's with a 30 degree cabinet temp in a 90 degree barn, in Alabama.

I started making videos of it as soon as I found it. I have posted them on YouTube with links at the end of each segment for the next one. Here is the first segment:


Also, the rebuild has been fully documented on another forum, in this thread:
http://monitortop.freeforums.net/thread/1370

I hope you guys have found this interesting. I refused to believe the general consensus that these can not be fixed and made to work again. Heck, it worked when it was new. It is a purely mechanical system, so if all the mechanical parts work properly it can't NOT work!

NOTE: I want to share more photos, but there is a 20 limit. Will have to post later with more.

Sincerely,
David

 

[turbokinetic]

Here is a photo continuation:

 

[norgeway]

Of course it can work

Anything can still work and I love it that you fixed it!! Norge belt drive Rollator refrigerators are the ones that are tough, the shaft seal is on the high pressure side, so when the seal fails, it loses the entire charge of so2 which of course runs everyone out of the house!!lol

 

[turbokinetic]

Hi Norgeway. Thanks for the comment! I have a friend with a Norge Rollator belt drive fridge which isn't working now. I hope to have the opportunity to help him get it working some day as well.

I take it you have one which is in service?

 

[rp2813]

David, I'm highly impressed with what you accomplished on this beautiful fridge!  This is the first story I've read about anyone successfully managing to get one of these old Frigidaires back up and running.   Enjoy it!

 

Say hi to Travis!

 

Ralph

 

[turbokinetic]

Hi Ralph. Thanks for the compliment! I have searched high and low for other running examples of these, but have not found any. There are a couple old YouTube videos of them, with the motor running but not any evidence of it actually working other than the video creator saying "it makes ice" in the video.

One other collector has one which runs and cools to a sweated evaporator; but he's still trying to get it to effectively frost and pull the cabinet down to temp. It seems that the professional restorers all replace the original mechanicals with a modern unit. That would be the easy route to cold beer - but that is not the reason I wanted to do this project!

 

[rp2813]

I'm surprised it responded so well to a different type of refrigerant.  I only know enough about refrigeration theory to be dangerous, and am in awe of those who can work on such systems, both old and not so old.

 

[arbilab]

Grandma had one of those.  I only saw it that one visit.  Memorable, because it caught fire underneath.  At which point I was evacuated from the house and don't know what else happened other than it wasn't that long before I could go back in.  Anti-climactic, but in the good way. 

 

Too young to drill down on the fault.  SO2 isn't flammable; house dust buildup is but fridge works aren't supposed to get that hot (300~450C).

 

[combo52]

Working 1931 Frigidaire Refrigerator

Wow Dave this is very cool that you were able to restore this ref to working condition.

 

My brother Jeff and I bought a 1927 FD two door ref in 1982 at an estate sale in Washington DC, it was in a walk-out basement and had not been running in decades. When I was examining it I turned the compressor pulley and apparently caused the seal to start leaking refrigerant, because of the awful smell we decided not to take the ref home that Saturday evening [ in our enclosed van ] and instead cracked open a flare nut connection and slowly let the refrigerant escape. Green liquid was bubbling out, it was taking a long time so we came back on Sunday morning and picked up the ref, when we got back the refrigerant had not only turned the grass brown around the ref but also made leaves brown on bushes and azaleas two town houses to the south.

 

I tried for a year or so to find parts and someone old enough to know how to work on this ref, finely my brother Jeff just hid a Whirlpool Rotary compressor underneath with a condenser across the lower back machine compartment. For the float style evaporator he just wrapped 5/16" copper tubing around the evaporator and added a proper size cap tube soldered to the suction line and charged it with R-12.

 

It worked and looked orignal [ we left the orignal compressor unit in place ] We used it in our W.Va house for over 25 years and about 5 years ago I brought it back to the DC area and sold it for $2500 to a couple that is still using it in their period house in University Park Md.

 

Again it is so cool that you got yours working with the orignal motor, controls and compressor, I would love to see and hear it running sometime.

 

John

 

[turbokinetic]

Thanks for the replies!

Hey RP2813 - Yeah, the system was very sensitive to the refrigerant type. It took several attempts to get it adjusted correctly! The low-side float is sensitive to the density of the refrigerant liquid. The density of SO2 is quite high. The refrigerant in use now is 33% lighter in liquid form. This would make the float sit lower in the liquid, for any given liquid level. I added a spring to help carry some of the float's weight and allow the lighter liquid to lift it. That wasn't enough and at first it didn't work correctly. I had to pump down the system and add tension to that spring, as well as adjust the float position screw. That was what it needed, and it started working correctly!

The control was another area requiring adjustment. Instead of having its own trapped charge of gas in the control bellows, this one uses the actual low-side pressure of the system to sense the evaporator temperature. This pressure is working against springs that counterbalance the arm and cause the control to move up and down as the low-side pressure varies. The spring tension was calibrated for the temperature/pressure chart for SO2. It was designed to run at a moderate vacuum before it cut off. The R152A runs at a slight pressure when down around 0 degrees. I used air pressure and a gauge set to test and adjust the control, off the unit, before charging. I knew what pressures it was supposed to cycle at, so it was a matter of trying different springs to get it in that range. And, there are many adjustments on the control to dial it in after it's in operation. The spring ended up being left over from a transmission valvebody shift kit LOL!

The final piece of the puzzle was oil miscibility. Originally SO2 and mineral oil were "slightly" miscible at warm temperatures. They are not miscible at cold temperatures. That causes them to separate in the evaporator and the oil floats to the top of the refrigerant. From there, it's skimmed off and sent back to the compressor. I was able to research and found out that the modern mineral-like synthetic oil alkylbenzene (AB) is "slightly" miscible in HFC refrigerants such as R134A or R152A. As a side benefit, it is also inexpensive and readily available. So that's what she got!

Hey arbilab - sorry to hear about the motor fire! I have a theory about it, however. There is a screw-in fuse in the base of the fridge. The motor did not originally have any sort of overload / overheat protection. The factory fuse would have been a time-delay fuse sized to protect a motor with a 5 amp full load current rating. In my fridge, someone had put a 30 amp fuse in there! If someone had put a 30 in your grandma's fridge, it would have become a time bomb. The first time the motor stalled or failed to start - it would have had nothing to save it and would have melted down. The winding insulation its self will catch fire under these conditions. That would set the paint on the motor, the other wiring, and dust on fire. Such a sad end to a fine machine, but this is what happens when people don't do proper maintenance.

Hey combo52 - that is a good story about the destructive power of SO2! A friend and I found this out the hard way as well. He got a 1930's GE Monitor Top. Someone had transported it improperly and damaged one of the lines. That line broke and "released the demon" while we were working on it! The fridge was at a mini-storage facility on a dolly. We held our breaths and rolled the dolly back inside the storage facility and closed the door. A few weeks later, we retrieved the fridge and repaired it. But it STILL stunk to the high heavens.

Interesting about the conversion your brother did with the rotary hermetic compressor. Before I located the compressor for this one, I was planning some similar conversion, but thankfully didn't go that route.

If you are in my area (Alabama) it'll be running here! I take it you did see the videos of it running, though?

I don't want to collect relics, only to be looked at and talked about. I want a living, working, piece of history that not only looks the part - but also sounds and functions like it did back in the day.

Sincerely,
David

PS- Does anyone know how many posts I have to make before don't have to wait 30 minutes between posting?

 

[rp2813]

David, thanks for the explanation about the oil miscibility.  This explains why monitor tops had an oil heater behind their badges below the compressor.  Again, I'm really impressed with your knowledge of refrigeration and ingenuity in parts sourcing to make the Frigidaire work with something other than SO2.  That's my approach to simpler things than refrigerators, although just a simple spring from a drawer in my workshop got a '39 Westinghouse refrigerator's cold control back into operation when the original broke and shut the machine down.

 

I'm with you 100% about using machines instead of keeping them under a cheese bell.  We've owned and driven a few classic cars in the past and I still drive an all-original '50 GMC pickup.  Why own something if you're not going to fully enjoy what it was meant for?  When I was trying to resolve a brake issue on the GMC, people on the old GMC trucks site were saying to upgrade the entire system with a modern master cylinder.   I kept things as they were and the truck stops fine.

 

Ralph

 

 

 

[goatfarmer]

Nice job on the Frigidaire!

 

[turbokinetic]

Hi RP2813 - yeah it is amazing how people are so keen to give up on things which are different from what they are familiar with.

I'm sure that GMC is a head-turner wherever you go. I love those old trucks.

One of my favorite cars is my 1987 Buick Electra Park Avenue. It's a 2-door model. They only ever made 5000 of these in 2-door. It had a very early electronic fuel injection system. Even though all the car repair places make horrible gagging and choking noises when they see it - the original EFI system still works like a top. That's the car in the pictures with the Frigidaire compressor in the trunk.

Yeah the oil miscibility is a real interesting thing. On the DR Monitor Top, it was possible for SO2 to condense, and fall to the bottom of the crankcase in a layer. These compressors have a mechanical oil pump, and it has a pickup screen at the bottom of the sump. If the SO2 collected there in a layer, it would cause the oil system to draw almost pure SO2 and not oil. That is, obviously, disasterous for the mechanical parts since SO2 is a water-like substance in liquid form, without any appreciable lubricating ability.

Even while running, the DR's need the oil heater. The compressor dome is on the high side of the system, so the SO2 is looking for any reason to condense in there. There are some return lines in the base of the compressor which can condense refrigerant and cause it to collect in the oil, even while the motor is running.

Hey goatfarmer, thanks for the comment. Happy you like the Frigidire repairs!

 

[turbokinetic]

She's still going strong! I made some tweaks to the control a couple days ago. Apparently I'm coming lose to mastering the zen of fridge adjustment. With the cold control setting in the center; it runs as close as possible to 32°F as I can get it. Bottled water gets a light slush to it. Perfection!

 

[combo52]

Rebuilt Belt Drive Frigidaire

Impressive, it sounds like you have a perfect beer refrigerator, otherwise you should aim for 35-37F.

 

Post a video of it running some time, I would love to hear it running.

 

John L.

 

[turbokinetic]

H John. I will do a video dedicated to it running. Until that time, the last two of the repair videos do show some runtime.

 

[turbokinetic]

Hi John. This will probably be my last post here, because of the 30 minute limit between posts. Most sites with a paid membership option go out of their way to accommodate new members; in the hopes of gaining a paid membership. Here it seems not to be the case. It has been over 30 minutes and I am still getting this BS message.

Normally, I really enjoy sharing projects online, but this is wasting my time and effort. It is not worth the frustration so I will devote my time elsewhere.

I have fully documented it on the Monitor Top forum where you can see it if you choose.

Here is the first video with it running correctly:

 

[gusherb]

I watched the 4 videos of you restoring the compressor and will watch the rest as soon as I can. I’m very impressed with your work and creativity and it makes me so happy to see something of this age get restored and put back into service in like-new condition.

It always amazes me how engineers could come up with such complex yet reliable (with regular maintenance) electromechanical designs for relatively simple tasks in those days, when nowadays it would basically be a relay, thermistor and circuit board controlling it all. The compressor sounded so quiet in the video I’m willing to bet that sounds quieter than most modern refrigerators in person.

 

[rp2813]

This has been one of the best resurrection stories I've seen here on AWO.  Who wouldn't love a handsome vintage Frigidaire like that in perfect running order?  

 

I'm bummed that you won't be sharing other projects here, but will look for you on the MT forum.  I don't know why you had to wait longer than 30 minutes, but even that can seem like an eternity when you have more to post.   

 

This site isn't about making money on upgraded memberships.  The nominal fee is a bit of compensation to the webmaster for his efforts in providing the additional benefits upgraded status offers.   I can relate to your frustration, though.