1951 GE Fridge repair

[thefridgekid]

Hi, i'm new here. i recently purchased a 1951 GE fridge for 133$ at auction. it needs to be rewired and repainted.how easy is rewiring one of these? i have some experience with wiring, can i do it myself? they had it plugged in at the auction house and it worked, but the cord is really rough. Also, its cooled with sulphur dioxide (scary lol) thanks - alex (pictures coming today or tomorrow)

 

[goatfarmer]

I rewired a 1940 Gibson that I have. It was pretty easy, only thing I remember that wasn't straight forward, was the light switch. It seems that the wires were an integral part of the switch so I ended up splicing the new wire to a section of wire still attached to the switch.

 

[rp2813]

Does the tag actually state that the refrigerant used is SO2?  1951 seems late for a GE to still be using that stuff.

 

[thefridgekid]

goatfarmer

Good to know, hope mine is that easy

 

[thefridgekid]

rp2813

yes it does, i'll take pictures soon. i'm not 100% sure that the fridge is from 1951 but that's what the tag seems to say

 

[goatfarmer]

I was thinking the same thing, SO2 should have been gone by 51.

 

[rp2813]

Maybe it's a '41 and not a '51.

 

[fridgenut]

Welcome to the forum!

The other members are right. SO2 was phased out after WW2 by GE. Their latest model that I know of that used SO2 was made in 42. It's not that scary. They have been sealed up for almost 90 years in some cases. As long as you take care of them they won't gas you out. If you could tell me what model number it is and give us a few pictures it would greatly help. I've rewired several GE models pre and post war along with numerous other types. I can direct you to one of two guides that I've made on a refrigerator forum that I'm an admin on. Let me know if you have any other questions about it. I love this stuff!
And you will like it here. Good and helpful community this lot is.

 

[thefridgekid]

fridgenut

thank you so much for your help. my phone broke couple of hours ago (typing this on a laptop) so i cant get pictures of it until my sister takes pictures and sends them to me through e mail. the type number is BH7-41B. i just checked and its definetely sulphur dioxide. i have found pictures from the auction house though, here they are. http://tylergraceauctions.hibid.com...-ge-imperial-fridge-works-ice-co/?ref=catalog

 

[turquoisedude]

Nice fridge!    Am I imagining it, or is than an AC outlet in the upper left corner of the cabinet?  

 

Wonder if that might have been for some kind of 'defrost' heater accessory....  Then again, I have a wild imagination!    I have some older Canadian literature that covers GE fridges of this era - I'll be doing some digging on the weekend.  

 

 

[fridgenut]

Fridge Kid

Yes, just as I thought. Your model came from 1941. The styling and the presence of a butter conditioner outlet confirms this. The butter conditioner was released around that time. This would have been about Top of the Line for 41 and for this size. Very lovely styling on these late flat top models. The imperial logo is fantastic. Looks like it is missing the bottom crisper drawers and the butter conditioner and tiny shelf up top (the tiny shelf is always gone). See if you can find that butter conditioner, it makes the fridge. It looks like the picture below.

Fun fact, the compressor, float valve, and to some extent the evaporator in this fridge come directly from the glorious CK monitor top refrigerator. If you are not familiar with this refrigerator, look at the picture of the unit with the weird circular thing on top below. Extremely reliable units, I have 2 flat tops similar to yours but with less features and styling and a CK. They all work flawlessly. Rewiring this fridge will take a little skill but it will be the easiest as far as accessibility is concerned. I've rewired two of these old flat tops and they were a pleasure to work on. Here is a guide that I made a while back: http://monitortop.freeforums.net/thread/811/re-wired-flat-top

Good luck with it and let me know if you have any questions. One thing that you will have to decide is whether you want to keep the original start relay or replace it with a solid state unit. If the fridge is working fine and you don't hear a "pop" when it starts up that sounds like an electrical spark, you should be ok to leave the original relay in there.

Oh, almost forgot. I believe that the control panel that has the numbers for selecting how cold the fridge gets has a backlight on this model. When you pull out the thermostat to put a new wire to it you will see if it has three wires or two wires. If it has three wires going to it, it has a light bulb inside that should light up when you open the door. I've never wired one of those but it should be straight forward. The light bulb on yours is probably burnt out.

 

[goatfarmer]

I think I have the same 'fridge in storage. It took me and 2 other guys to get it out of a basement, on one of the hottest days several years ago. I never plugged it in, the cord is bad. I'll have to go out there and look.

 

[fridgenut]

Goatfarmer

Now that you have my handy guide you can go and rewire it lol! Honestly though these machines are straight forward enough that any semi - competent person can rewire them. You will need a soldering iron for the compressor terminals though. The hotter the better, at least a 40 watt iron.

And yes, they are thick. I don't doubt that it took 3 guys to get it out of a basement.

 

[thefridgekid]

thefridgenut

great! sorry that it took me a while to reply. busy weekend. it seems pretty easy to rewire, it hasnt been grounded. should i ground it? and yes, it has the light bulb. do you think 133$ is a decent price? thank you for your help. also, my sister sent these pictures:

 

[speedqueen]

No need to ground it but also no reason not to! Just take the third wire of the new cord and loosen some nut or screw somewhere and put the bare wire under it and tighten it down.

 

[fridgenut]

Question about grounding...

Just like speed queen said, you can ground it but there is really no need to. All grounding does is prevent the whole thing from becoming live. As long as it is wired properly that will never happen. Very rarely do these compressors become grounded to the case. It looks very nice. You should be proud to own such a machine.

 

[panthera]

I would definitely ground it.

Should something fail and the unit is not grounded, it might lead to damage to very hard to replace components.

If something fails and the unit is grounded, there's a very good chance it will blow a fuse/circuit breaker before anything irreplaceable is damaged.

Just my two cents, for what they're worth.

 

 

[panthera]

Hmmm,

Isn't one of the reasons for the longevity of these systems that no oil was required? SO<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">2 </span><span>is a very good lubricant for carbon steel. Not so good for copper/brass if memory serves.</span>

<span>It's non-flammable (like water, it's a product of combustion) but yikes! The leak might not necessarily kill you (unless you've got asthma or other problems) but, yikes again - hard to think of anything which smells worse.</span>

<span>If one had to, R-12 is a one-to-one replacement from what I've read.</span>

<span>And, yes, dahlinks, we all know R-12 is 'off the market'. Sure it is.</span>

 

[travis]

R12 isn't an acceptable replacement for SO2.

It won't cool, it's too dense.

If the compressor grounds out, it's dead regardless of the unit being grounded.