1956 Turquoise GE Stratoliner and matching refrigerator

[spacepig]

Here are my latest (and hopefully last) acquisitions. I found these online many months ago and was in contact with the seller who then dropped off the face of the earth. I even had the shipper I like to use contact them to no avail. In the meantime, I found the turquoise Americanas so all was good. Months later out of the blue, I heard from the shipper who said the seller reached out to him and asked if he still wanted them, so I decided to go ahead and get them.

The outside stove enamel is in wonderful condition. The only flaw I can see is where the grill used to plug in. However, what appeared to be crud on the inside of the oven looks like it's actually rust, so that's a bummer. Also the outside chrome is a little rusted and very pitted.

As for the fridge, it's definitely seen better days, and isn't working. So, it may be relegated to a new career of food pantry.

 

[turquoisedude]

Wow, the fridge doesn't look too bad.  It's rare to see most of the shelves and bins still present and accounted for. 

 

What happens when you try to start it up?  Do you hear a click, then nothing? It could just be that pesky 9-ohm resistor that plagues these older Combination models.... 

 

[spacepig]

I think the refrigerator is missing two shelves that went inside the door, and a knob for the butter container, but everything else is still there. The freezer is missing the top drawer. However the '55 GE combo I have has two refrigerator shelves and the bottom drawer in the freezer, so between the two, I have all the parts.

When I plugged in the fridge, a motor started to run and kept running, which I'm assuming was the compressor. The dial was turned to the coldest setting. When I opened the freezer door, you could hear the sound of liquid flowing (if that makes sense), but after running for about 5 minutes, it didn't seem to be cooling in either the fridge or freezer. I plugged in the '55 and got the same thing, however, almost immediately you could tell that it was starting to cool, especially when you touched the coils at the top, and bottom of the freezer. Since the '55 started cooling so quickly, we decided to just unplug the turquoise and assumed something was wrong. I'm guessing it ran for a total of 15 minutes with no apparent change (just went by touch, did not use a thermometer).

 

[turquoisedude]

Dang.... That sounds like a cooling system problem alright.  Well, as you say, it will make a fine food pantry!