Early 50s Philco refrigerator

[ksdaddy]

Today I was given a working early 50s Philco fridge. I will post pics a little later tonight. Of course I want to find out when it was made.

In searching ebay ads, it appears the late 40s ones didn't have anything on the inside of the doors; same for very early 50s. I found a 1953 ad and a 1954 on craigslist and seems like they were "blinged out" a little more, more chrome or gold.

Also this one has turquoise on the inside, which didn't seem to be in vogue until '53 or so (according to the ads anyway).

I'll post pics but if anyone has any serial or model # info, I'd love to hear it!

 

[goatfarmer]

PICS! PICS! I love old Philco's!

 

[ksdaddy]

Pics

These pics were taken 'as found'. Afterwards I took the hose and some Lestoil to it and it helped.... but there's a lot of rust. The front has been repainted, much of the plastic inside is cracked and taped up, and it's missing the butter dish door.

Price was right though!

 

[ksdaddy]

fixed pics

Pic 1 of 4

 

[ksdaddy]

another pic

Pic 2 of 4

 

[ksdaddy]

another pic

Pic 3 of 4

 

[ksdaddy]

last pic

pic 4 of 4

 

[ksdaddy]

Found a little info

Based on newspaper scans found on google, it's a 1952. The teal color inside is called key largo.

 

[rp2813]

It looks complete, and door storage is generous considering the fridge's age. The interior will probably clean up nicely. The door gasket will be the most tedious part. With a new paint job that will be a very nice fridge. Great score!

 

[turquoisedude]

Neat! It looks SOOOOO much like a 54 McClary I left in my old house when I moved in 2007. I wonder if the Philco folks built the McClary one for the Canadian market...

 

[goatfarmer]

Nice 'fridge!

Looks to be complete.

The gasket can still be had, but it's a universal fit. Might look a bit different, but should function fine.

I'll have to get a pic of the Philco I picked up about 2 months ago. It looks to be a bit older than yours.

 

[ksdaddy]

Running!

It's still sitting on the back of my pickup. I plan to move it into my bus this weekend. (I have a blue & white 1961 International school bus with all the seats removed... link below if you want to go waaaay outside the realm of old appliances!)

I plugged it in about an hour ago and randomly set the temp at '7' and put a digital thermometer inside. I had to press my ear up against it to hear it run. We'll see how it works.

http://www.angelfire.com/me4/ksdaddy/bus.html

 

[qsd-dan]

Awesome bus story, kssdaddy!!

 

[austinado16]

Love the Philco's!

We have almost that same fridge. Ours is in fact a 1952. We did a cosmetic restoration on it in 1993 after finding it at a used appliance store, and it's been running perfectly ever since.

Ours differs from yours in that it has an upside down U for the door pull handle, with a clear plastic badge at the base of where the handle hinges, and then on the inside our freezer door is more simplistic. Ours has 2 white plastic fronted enameled steel drawers in the bottom for fruit and vegies, and we're missing the 2 little half shelves that you have in your upper area. Yours is missing the door to the butter area, as well as the clear plastic butter dish that would have sat in there. Does yours have the cheese area in the bottom of the door? If not, that was another feature....and ours has it, with the cheese tray, and the thin sponge that goes inside the tray halves.

We did a white generic gasket and it looks correct and works great.

As for the setting, 2.5-3.0 is about all it takes. At 3.5, it starts freezing stuff in the bottom.

The are almost silent when running, and due to all the insulation, they only come on about every hour, if that.

Oh, one other thing, ours appears to be taller inside as we don't have that big smooth kick panel at the bottom. Our door goes down much further, and we have a sculped steel "cow catcher" sort of like a front spoiler on a car.

When I restored ours, I switched the hinges to the other side, along with the mechanism, had the hole in the door welded up, cut a new hole on the other side, and it now opens from the right side and swings toward the left. We did that because that's how our kitchen is set up.

Very cool find.

 

[ksdaddy]

Lotsa models

In searching ebay ads and whatever I could find on Google, it's apparent to me they changed specs about every week. They definitely weren't like Electrolux canister vacuums, that's for sure.

One observation I made was that prior to '52 they seldom had any storage in the doors. After about '54 they became 'less round' and the door handles, logos, and bling became fancier.

I haven't run it very long (just circumstance, not by design). I put an old digital thermometer inside and set the fridge on '5', came back an hour later and it displayed 37.6 F. The next morning I plugged it in again for an hour or two but I set it on '7'. Wen I checked it after an hour or so it was 31.1 F. I wasn't quite sure whether to believe that, but that's what it displayed!

I'm missing the butter door and the 'quick chiller' drawer under the freezer box is held together with tape. It'd be nice to find replacements but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[austinado16]

My quick chiller drawer (called a Meat Drawer on mine) is also broken on the left side and I've given up on finding a replacement. A few years ago there was a guy with one for sale on ebay. When it didn't sell, I worked out a deal with him to buy all the parts out of it. I got most of it, but someone else had the same idea and nabbed some stuff too. My meat drawer also has a sculpted wide metal piece of trim across the top edge, which is the handle for pulling the drawer out. It was originally gold, but when I restored the fridge, I had it chromed instead.

One thing I've notices is that there were 2 colors of blue plastic. Lago Blue seems to be the later color, and is greener than what my color is. With the angles on your freezer door, I'm wondering if your model isn't either close to a '53, or is an early '53.

BTW, have you seen the models that have the big V handle in the center of the door, and by swinging the handle you can open the door in either direction? I think that's my dream Philco.