2 Vintage A/Cs ???

[toploader55]

The 2nd one looks like a Westinghouse from the late 60s early 70s

The 3rd one looks like a Late 70 early 80s Carrier.

Love these two.

http://boston.craigslist.org/nos/app/3455882509.html

 

[applianceguy47]

no price, no punctuation, no info on the washer, no accurate infor on the items pictured, no deal.

 

[cfz2882]

i like all those-i have a westy like the first one,mine,made around 1976,is slightly older than the early '80s looking one pictured but is one awesome AC very cold and very quiet for the air delivery.I also have a couple smaller westys~5000 BTU,one from '73 the other '84,but those are a little noisy as they use axial propeller type fans for the evap.coil.One of the best vintage ACs i have ever seen/experienced was a philco-ford from around 1968;just quietly cranked out the cold with ease no matter how hot it was outside.While most ACs condenser fans blow the air through the condenser,the philco-ford sucked the air through-more effective and not as prone to plugging with tree fuzz.

 

[toploader55]

Philco "Noiseless" Series

I remember them well.

I have a old Chrysler Airtemp (H07-91) 6,500 BTU. They used the same design. The air got pulled through the coil and was discharged through the Side Louver and a set of fins in the front right next to the compressor.

You can see to the left through the grill the other set of internal louvers that pushed the air away from the condensing coil.

 

[syndets2000]

I liked...

...the GE units- but mostly for the names....Fashionette, n Fashionaire....so gay lolol

 

[retromania]

GE Window Unit

Before my parents put in central air in the late 1980's, we had a monstrous GE window air conditioner in our den window that cooled the den, kitchen and back hall. It never gave any trouble. The only thing that happened was a couple of times a weep hole or drain hole on the outside clogged and water would puddle inside the unit. It was from the mid 60's and when the central air went in we gave it away. I remember my mother commenting that the power bill went down by almost one-half.

Great old vintage appliances. Built to last!!!

 

[tomturbomatic]

I still have the WH unit from the mid 60s like the second one pictured. It is a beautiful unit and produced very cold air. Of course, it gobbled watts. It is the one I bought from Georgia Power Company. on the condenser side, it had a little scoop to pick up the water so it could be thrown against the hot coils. It had a neat steady buzz to it. It was a 230 volt 12K BTU unit.

 

[paulg]

Mid 1960's WH

I too had the light gray Westinghouse. Like Tom, it produced ice-cold air. It went with the old house and I miss it.
I'd pay the electric bill for a workhorse like that...

 

[paulg]

Oops!

It is not TOM that produces ice-cold air, but rather the Westinghouse air-conditioner...

 

[gr81nknox]

My childhood home(up until about age 12) didn't have central air and we had 2 big A/C units. A GE made JC Penney model in the living room downstairs and a Sears Coldspot in my parents room upstairs. We used a box fan in the hallway outside their room to get air to the other rooms. Most of the other homes in the neighborhood still had window/wall units and I could usually tell from the outdoor cabinet if they were GE or Sears/Whirlpool units. Those were by far the most common. Both of ours were 220 models so I can only imagine what they would cost to run today!

Speaking of A/Cs, does anyone have any pics of older PTAC units? For some reason, these always fascinated me. Maybe it was because they heated and cooled, were close to the floor and easier for me to investigate, but it was always a treat for me as a kid when we would go on vacation and stay in a hotel. I still remember 2 distinct models that were common back then, one was the GE Zoneline with the pushbuttons and the outdoor blower visible on one side of the exterior cabinet. The other was a Friedrich Climate master which it seemed all newer hotels being built in the 80s had. Today it seems all of the PTACs(GE, Carrier, Amana, LG) all look the same.

 

[retromania]

You talk about something that pulled the juice?! It was those in the wall heat/ac units. My undle's studio apartment had one. Years later it was converted to natural gas and I can't remember what type of a/c, but the word was that the combo unit was too expensive to operate. It was a GE and it looked very much like the GE window air conditioner we had in our den. Like you said, my uncle's GE combo unit was down near the floor.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Does anyone have any experience with Fedders units with the Weather Wheel? Neither ours nor our neighbors' units would run through the night without frosting up. We stayed in motels in the 50s with Fedders that would ice up. I remember especially once in a motel called The Alamo Inn, the filter had not been serviced in a long time and mom made them move the bed before doing anything with the unit after we called the office because the room was getting warm. This motel was across the highway from the Gulf in Gulfport, Mississippi (0r M-i-crooked letter-crooked letter-i-crooked letter-crooked letter, I-humpback-humpback-i). Alamo Inns had stuccoed fronts that were the ends of the buildings that ran from the front to the back with sidewalks between them and the room doors opening onto the sidewalk. The office was in the middle of the front with a big picture window. All of it was swept away by Camile in 1969. I guess that cleaned the filters.

But even with the newer foam filters washed weekly, Fedders units froze up at night unless you turned the thermostat to a way warmer setting, something my parents and most other adults did not understand. The Westinghouse unit did not freeze up at night.

 

[retromania]

Fedders

I never heard of Fedders until I went to work for the state and they were in every window at our old office. Some new. Some old. And you guessed it. I was thrilled to be on one of the offices that had a really old Fedders that was still running. LOLLL

 

[toploader55]

Fedders Weather Wheel.

My Parents had a "1 Ton" unit in their bedroom. We would put a sheet of "Masonite" up blocking the Hallway entrance to the Livingroom. That 1 ton would cool the hallway, bathroom and My Bedroom. It did Ice up and then Dad had it hauled away for service. Turns out it was low on Freon and the Thermostat went bad. They put the unit back in about 4 days later and you could Refridgerate 25 or so Sides of Beef in their room. Good Lord was that air cold !!! Never Iced up again. It had 4 buttons. Black was off, Red was Ventilate, Aqua was Cool, and White was Exhaust. there were also 2 Rotary Dials. On the left was the "Exhaust, Ventilate and Closed" Damper adjustment, and on the right was the Themostat. One speed fan only.
It was the ever so stylish BattleShip Gray, Weighed about 140 lbs and stuck out of the window no exageration close to 24" and/or every bit of that and possibly more.

 

[retromania]

I know...

Our old GE wasn't anything to look at, but boy it could cool. Funny. It didn't have much thrust, but the air that came out was like an iceberg.

 

[toploader55]

GE.

We had a 15,000 GE in our Living room.

Originally as described before about the 1 ton in the Parent's Room, we were a 1 A/C house.

A few years later, My Dad had a friend that used to find things that "Fell off the Back of a Truck". Washers, Dryers, Hair Dryers, Color Tvs etc. And Air Conditioners.

He brought home a 15,000 GE. It wasn't the "Super Thrust" model but as Andy said above not much thrust, But it was more like "Blobs of Freezing Cold Air fell out of this thing." And it truly was the Ugly Duckling of Air Conditioners.

 

[cfz2882]

old GE ACs

i have a big 1958 vintage 230v GE i use to cool the garage on very hot days-forget the capacity,but it is a "through the wall" type with a big 5-blade fan seen through the outdoor grille to force air through the horizontal condenser.The evap is also horizontal with a ~10"4-blade axial fan moving the air.This thing has a huge low speed 1725 RPM compressor-sometimes i will start this AC just to hear it run LOL

 

[tomturbomatic]

CFZ, dos your classic GE have the three louvers across the top of the cabinet or is it a newer style?

 

[cfz2882]

it had 3 round louvers that could be turned individually,but the inside grille was broken up pretty bad(this A/C was a dump grab,evap was badly plugged with lint and dust-that is all that was wrong)so a new grille was made for garage duty-i did keep the round louvers though.

 

[retromania]

Our GE

Had the three round louvers trimmed in gold. Those mounted in a separate piece that could be romved from the unit. Then the bottom piece held the mesh filter. The controls door blended in with the bottom part. Push buttons and a dial thermostat. Mostly gray in color. A really fine appliance even tho the lights in the neighborhood dimmed when you turned it on! LOL

 

[cfz2882]

yeah,mine really pulls some amps too-IIRC,it was something like 12amps of 230v current...The low speed compressor just uses sheer horsepower to do the job vs high speed compressors that can rely some on the inertia of the 3450 rpm to pump the refrigerant.Also, the big shaded pole fan motor is located in the indoor air stream-adding it's heat to the return air stream back to the evap.Unlike many modern A/Cs that sound like they are running heavily loaded in very hot weather,this old GE is totally unfazed by such conditions-sound doesn't change at all-kinda like a big 1958 car cruising the interstate getting 12 MPG LOL

 

[retromania]

cfz

you're exactly right

 

[sambootoo]

Here's my cir. 1960 something GE. I use it in my workshop. Not sure of capacity but like others have said, the thrust is not that strong but very cold. No fancy features or controls on this one, either. Just on-off and a thermostat. A really fun, useful toy!

 

[toploader55]

OMG.

That GE is almost the same as the one we had.

Ours had a 2 speed fan. But Exactly the same Grill set up. I could never understand the Air Directors to be able to blow the air back into the intake grill. The Upper very most top louvers had a left or right louver that could be adjusted by taking off the front and changing them from behind.

When we first turned the unit on, we all were like "Huh" ? "That's it for thrust on High Fan for a 15,000 ?" Well, 1/2 hour later that room had dropped like 5 degrees. As I recall, that unit was very quiet for it's size.

 

[tomturbomatic]

That is later than 1960 with the 4 louvers that made it almost as restrictive in directing air movement as a Fedders, except for the afore-mentioned top rectangular grill.

 

[retromania]

Yes.

Our's was very quiet to be the size that it was.

 

[toploader55]

Weird thing about that Front Grill...

The air for the most part just came straight out. If in between those round louvers had been solid, there would be a better chance of directing the air. But when you put your hand in front of the unit, the air just fell out to the floor. AND IT WAS COLD AIR.

 

[charco68]

Love this thread!!

I've always been interested in window/wall A/C's, and I can't tell you why. Growing up, our house had central while most others in our subdivision didn't, and I thought we were the unfortunate ones! To this day they still catch my eye, and I enjoy their sound. Won't bore you all with stories/memories, since I'm going to ask for help:

Can anyone identify the unit in this window, please? This is my mom helping her dad with a migraine (I'm sure the photo flash helped, right?) in her sister's house in St. Pete, FL. They built the house new in '58, had two of these installed. They upgraded to Sears Coldspot units in '72, with the woodgrain front that opened toward you for controls and filter.

Never been able to identify this model...wish I had a full pic of it. On the left were the controls, one large one on top, two small ones below.

Thanks!

PS: I actually own this house now, a real treasure to have. However, the owner b/t me and my aunt put in central A/C...*sobbing noises* : )

 

[tomturbomatic]

It looks to me like the 1957 Westinghouse units our neighbor had, but your description of the controls has me doubting that. I thought they were among the most beautiful window units ever made with the egg crate inside grill and those 4 square louvers. They were thinline units with fans that looked like lawnmower blades. The louvers on the rear of the case were formed to point in different directions to eliminate a hot blast from the unit.

 

[cfz2882]

last "real"GE ACs

though i've seen GE"carry cool"small ACs as recent as 1990,i don't recall seeing any "big"GE ACs made much after about 1982 or any GE central air or rooftop units newer than around '82 or 83-is ~1983 about the last year for "big"GE window ACs?