1951 GE Fridge repair

[fridgenut]

Questions about grounding...

The safest way to go about grounding an appliance is to ground it and plug it into a GFCI outlet. That way if the case ever were to become live the circuit would be cut off immediately, even for a small leak. I personally don't think there is much of a risk in leaving these appliances ungrounded but it is always good to be safe. Just don't do what one person on the fridge forum did and drill a hole through the condenser plate to ground it. That will release the dragons breath.

Speaking of SO2 systems, they do have oil in them. Plain old mineral oil just like R12 uses. In fact, this particular style of compressor has an automotive style oil pump which puts out 2 quarts of oil per minute! I believe the capacity of the sump is about 2 quarts as well. Lots of oil and lots of oil movement along with a very robust and balanced design are the keys to the longevity of these compressors.
Travis is right, R12 won't work. It is too dense and will put too much of a strain on the compressor. Some of these units were modified by GE to use R12 by destroking the piston travel to lessen the burden. That is where the confusion comes in. R152a which is commonly found in some brands of air duster seems to work great as a replacement. One of the forum members has had good luck with it.

 

[thefridgekid]

fridgenut

ok, this sounds pretty staightforward. what should i do about repainting it, i want to keep it as original as possible. i hear people say that they originally had porcelain finishes? where can i get mine a porcelain finish? is it expensive to repaint? thank you so much for your help

 

[goatfarmer]

I doubt that one has a porcelain finish on the outside. I've painted quite a few with RustOLeum, thinned with acetone, and using a spray gun, and compressor.

 

[travis]

Refrigerators came with either a porcelain finish or painted.  You don't get a porcelain finish unless you dismantle the whole fridge and have someone porcelain it.

 

It's cost prohibitive, so don't even ask.  Have a nice automotive paint put on and be happy.

 

[panthera]

Several notes

Travis, I bow to your wisdom. Strange, though - why use oil when you have this wonderful lubricant as a refrigerant? Well, can't argue with the longevity of these refrigerators!

Some Frigidaire refrigerators were porcelain inside and out. Super heavy and super expensive.

I'd follow everyone's advice and just use a high-quality finish, after proper prep.

 

[travis]

SO2 isn't a wonderful refrigerant as far as I know.

 

If it was, I would not have encountered many stalled DR series monitor tops that are filled with that noxious gas.  In fact, the oil conditioner in a DR machine is there to boil the so2 out of the mineral oil.

 

[combo52]

Diffently Ground It

And if you do there is NO reason to use a GFI breaker, However if you do not want to ground it then differently use a GFI to protect you and anyone else that might ever touch the refrigerator.

 

Grounding an appliance does not protect appliance components from damage if a short occurs, we ground appliances to protect us from being electrocuted.

 

[fridgenut]

Problems with SO2

The reason why Travis said that he has encountered many stalled DRs (the earliest widely available monitor top) is due to problems with SO2 if you don't prepare the system properly. It is a really dirty refrigerant. Over time it can create hard black gunk which gums up parts. I've had later model flat tops even succumb to parts getting crud in them but you can almost always coax them back. The DRs aren't so easy. My DR1 from 31 had a restricted float valve, a common problem for that series. I was able to loosen the crud by putting a heat gun on the line. Fortunately refrigerant started to flow. Not all owners are this lucky. Usually once you get them going they stay well unless you let them sit for years. Another issue is that any tiny amount of moisture in the system will form harmful acids when it reacts with the SO2. They just didn't have anything better at first to use and later on GE didn't want to pay Frigidaire to use R12. Eventually they gave in at the mid 40s though.

 

[panthera]

There's no question

That R12 was an enormously better refrigerant that SO₂ for multiple reasons.

Just - it's not 'dirty'. The problems arise, from what I've read, from the system having moisture in it (yes, that's quite an acid you get) or materials which are subject to damage by it (it dissolves copper and redeposits it, again, from what I've read).

But 'dirty'? Nah, just not ideal in some ways. In others, though - I'm not ready to say it's a bad refrigerant. Then again, I'm not convinced that Dichlorodifluoromethane in hermetically sealed systems was a bad idea. In cars, yes. In sealed home units? A solution could have been found.

 

[fridgenut]

Oh, and to answer the fridge kid...

As the others have stated, yours is not porcelain, it is a painted cabinet. Porcelain doesn't yellow. If you want to go the cheap route I would use thinned rustoleum appliance epoxy and a sprayer as others have suggested. If you want a perfect finish you will have to pony up the money and take it to an auto body shop and have it coated in auto paint. If you want to go real cheap you can just use the rustoleum spray cans of their appliance epoxy. It will be far from perfect but will look better than it currently is. You just have to take your time and mask everything off and sand down the current paint.

 

[travis]

Keven,

 

I think the reason so2 is considered a dirty refrigerant is that it wasn't as pure as those that followed.  It does tend to block the the orifice in the float after 80 something years with a hard black substance.

 

Of course, these units have cotton insulated motor windings that can shed a bit.  The strings that tie the windings together deteriorate and allow the windings to vibrate which may be why they abrade and fail.

 

The GE compressors use a glass-metal terminal that I have never had issues with.  The only times I have had a leak on them is due to human abuse of the lines leading to the evaporator or the evaporator itself.  On the other hand, the Westinghouse compressors use a rubber seal that gets hard and lets go.

 

After experiencing just 2 lbs of so2 in my house, I have become a tad bit more respectful of it.  I am not suggesting anyone be afraid, you just better be respectful of the lines.

 

[fridgenut]

Keven

Don't get me wrong, I like SO2 powered fridges. They gurgle and spurt and make so many neat noises. If it wasn't for the fact that it smells horrible and can be corrosive as you mentioned it would be a fantastic refrigerant that would most likely still be in use since it is not a large greenhouse gas and isn't an ozone problem child. The compressors are nice and quiet because of the low head pressures too. Kind of like R12 vs. R134a, the old 12 units had less head pressure and therefore sounded much quieter. I think that you are on to something in saying that R12 could have been used for longer in sealed units since they rarely ever leak out compared to cars. I think that one forgotten CFC refrigerant that should have lasted longer was R114 which was exclusively used by Frigidaire. I've got two fridges that are equipped with it. They stopped using it by the 50s. When the fridge is under normal load in normal room temperature, the high side is right around 0 psi! Talk about low pressure! In fact, one of the units that I have that has this refrigerant started to leak oil around the electrical terminal of the meter miser rotary compressor. As Travis mentioned, Westinghouse had rubber seals for the terminals and Frigidaire, at least back then, was no different. The later meter misers switched to a much better metal glass seal. I was able to save the unit by stopping it in the nick of time and I only lost a little oil and barely any refrigerant. Try that on a modern system with high pressures even when the system is off! Because of the low, low pressures that R114 works at I was able to plug up the terminal with a special add on rubber seal kit and it hardly lost any oil or refrigerant. Normally after an episode like that you would loose everything and would have to fill it back up once it is plugged up. She purrs along just as quiet and efficient as ever, it only uses 110 watts for a 9 cubic foot fridge! People complain about the old fridges having these CFC refrigerants but they don't understand that they rarely leak out of a sealed system and when they do it is a tiny amount. Heck, you had to try to make this R114 leak out!

Fun fact, R114 is still used to this day in the Navy in their large centrifugal chillers. The reason? It works at about 0 psi on the high side as I mentioned so it rarely leaks out and if it is exposed to moisture it will rarely take in moisture laden air.