For Vintage A/C Buffs...

[toploader55]

Looks like a Thomas A  Edison  Monster 33,000 BTU

 

I remember these from the late 60s.

 

Good Lord can these things cool and throw air !!!

http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/app/5050250939.html

 

[DADoES]

 
Has the same rotary knob style as the function control on the large Thomas A. Edison unit that was in the living room of our 1964 house.  The thermostat on our unit was a larger knob with the vent changer lever co-axial around the lower 180° of it.  6PM position vents closed.  3PM and 9PM for exhaust or fresh air.

 

[travis]

I am not usually one to comment

$575 as an asking price!

 

It's not a fine antique or a collectible.  It's a vintage a/c unit.

 

[cadman]

"Thomas A. Edison"

...and it runs only on DC! Sorry.... ; )

 

[combo52]

33,000 BTU AC

I agree Travis, I usually don't complain about what people ask for something, but maybe they were just thinking about what it will cost to run the first summer you install it, LOL.

 

[philr]

 

 30 AMP$ !!

 

NO LE$$!

 

[twintubdexter]

Some of the early models can be appreciated for their design, but why would anyone want to use one of those things? They're huge, heavy, noisy and aren't energy efficient at all. Most new units would probably say "Made In China" on them but big deal! I was in a store the other day and they had a stack display of 5000 BTU air conditioners. They weren't much bigger than my toaster oven. $79.99 I think. 

 

I suppose the older models did give you an excuse to get all "dolled-up"...

 

[newvista58]

IT'S NOT AS BAD AS YOU THINK.....

I only run Analog A/C units. Mostly Old and some Vintage, which I'm looking for more. I have never had any appreciable increase in the electric bill because of using an old A/C. Like Old refrigerators, the old A/C's cycle less than the new ones. The new one have to run the compressor longer and for more cycles to keep a room cool.

The new Digital A/C's will never cool a room below 60degrees, which on a 95-100 degree day may not feel like enough. An old A/C will keep cooling and cooling and for all intents and purposes, will cycle the compressor off to keep from freezing up when on the coldest setting.

Put a thermometer in your vehicles A/C duct. An Auto-Temp can only be set to the lowest temp of 60degrees. The Duct Outlet temp is usually 42-45degrees.
On a Manual/Conventional Vehicle A/C system you set it to the Coldest/Max setting of the blue range, and I have gotten 34degrees at the duct on my Ford with 134 refrigerant.

It really is a matter of what someone is more comfortable with. The Vintage A/C's that are around still work great, while alot of the Newer Digital ones have died w/in 5-10 years.

I'm sticking with Vintage A/C's.

BTW....I'M LOOKING FOR A 50s, EARLY 60'S FEDDER w/THE CIRCULAR AIR VENT -- &#92
CIRCLE of AIR model. PLEASE KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR ME. THANKS

BEST WASHES TO ALL.

 

[DADoES]

 
<blockquote>The new Digital A/C's will never cool a room below 60degrees, which on a 95-100 degree day may not feel like enough.</blockquote> Seriously??  Below 60°F room temperature??  100°F+ outdoors will find my thermostat set at 79°F to 81°F.  Never mind the challenge of trying to achieve/maintain 60°F, the electric bill would cause a medical event!

 

[yogitunes]

if you want better cooling, stick with vintage...and you don't have to go that far back in age.....units from the 80/90's are electromechanical are still energy efficient enough....and were still built with quality materials.....

yeah, anyone can go to Walmart, and buy a Haier unit, all plastic, mainly Styrofoam, loud, small capacity.....and disposable after the season is done.....

my Whirlpool Designer series from 1999 will outlast any of them.....on Hi, I can frost my windows!...

most units built today are like some washers to 'qualify' as energy efficient....its not built better or with new technology, they just dub down the available cooling temps......

Louis is right, willing to bet my unit pumps out a super cold temp versus some units today....

 

[circlew]

Thomas A. Edison air conditioners were a product of McGraw-Edison. That company made many other products including Toastmaster small appliances, and owned Speed Queen for a time.

 

[philr]

Some old air conditioners have a very poor EER and can cost about twice as much to run as most of today's units but there are also some that are quite efficient. They are usually large models with small capacity. I have a huge 1974 Frigidaire air conditioner that's just a 13,000 BTU but it's so large that I couldn't fit in the trunk of my Camry when I got it (and I tried a lot!)... It has an EER of 9.6 which isn't very far from today's Energy Star units.

 

Some Friedrich units were even better with an EER of 12: 

 

 

[combo52]

Old Window A/Cs Vs New Window A/Cs

Yes as Phil mentioned you can not generalize old vs new, I also have a few old A/Cs like my 1956 Chrysler Airtemp, it is huge and is only 8000 BTUs and only draws 7.5 Amps which gives it a EER of 9.28 not that bad, but like newer Hi E units it will not make your teeth chatter either. It is very quiet however and Hi E A/Cs tend to last much longer because they have smaller compressors and bigger condensers and evaporators so they do not have the strain of super high head pressures that inefficient A/Cs go through.

 

I got my old AT A/C when I was in High School and it kept my bedroom delightfully cool and dry for many years, then my brother Jeff rebuilt it into a reverse cycle heat-pump about 35 years ago by adding a reversing valve and accumulator. It still works fine and is installed in the wall of my home shop for a little extra heat and cooling.

 

[newvista58]

LET ME CLARIFY, PLEASE

"The new Digital A/C's will never cool a room below 60degrees, which on a 95-100 degree day may not feel like enough."

 

I should have said will not achieve a Duct Temp of lower than 60deg., while an analog unit will. 

Sorry for the confusion.

 

I also think the analog units remove more humidity than the digital.  That's what it feels like 

to me.  

 

Thanks.

 

 

[twintubdexter]

I knew I'd open up a can of nasty worms if I criticized any vintage appliance. When I was a teenager I brought home a traded-in Frigidaire air conditioner and "attempted" to install it in my bedroom window. It was huge, weighed a ton and had dual Meter Misers. The non-grounded 110 volt cord looked like it belonged on a range. It was quiet but worthless and the air it discharged smelled like "old lady." My father was not happy to find out I had replaced a 15 amp glass fuse with a 20 amp one and accused me of trying to burn the house down. You still could only use it on the one-compressor setting. Back to the scrap heap it went.

 

My parents had a studio apartment built onto the back of the detached garage for my privileged older brother. When I inherited it I bought a 6000 BTU Frigidaire unit, early 70's. It was great, quiet and efficient. No blown fuses. I guess that was a long time ago but I wouldn't put it in the same "vintage" category as that old worthless dual-compressor thing. Some things, even appliances, are more at home in the scrap heap.

 

PS...unless they're KitchenAid, I'm not a fan of most old dishwashers either...but then as a person that uses the dishwasher 3 or 4 times a year, what do I know?

[this post was last edited: 6/3/2015-13:42]

 

[philr]

Joe, I'd still like to find one of those twin Meter-Miser units. Likely not to cool anything but just to have it!

 

And I do wash my dishes in a 1963 spray tube Frigidaire dishwasher so I'm not too concerned about performance! I like the sounds it makes and that's almost enough for me! (it does manage to clean dishes if you load it very carefully and if you don't expect it to clean things that wouldn't come off without some scouring).

 

[twintubdexter]

As I recall, this is what it looked like. In this ad it appears to be "normal" size, but it was more than a foot longer than that big air conditioner at the beginning of this thread.

 

[philr]

This view shows how long some of these were!!

 

http://www.hvacrheritagecentre.ca/exhibits/collections/en/Artefact.aspx?ID=6

 

[combo52]

Frigidaire Dual Compressor Window A/Cs

These were an interesting idea that would have saved some power when just one compressor was running because of the over-sized condenser and evaporator coils the unit would have when just one compressor was running.

 

I think one of the other reasons that FD built these A/Cs was they were able to use their regular sized [ GM Frigidaire built ] A/C compressors to have a high capacity unit, when FD built large capacity A/Cs in the 60s and on they sourced the compressors from other manufactures and soon there after FD stopped building any of their window A/C compressors altogether. This was also true of most other makers of window A/Cs, few manufactures made their own compressors especially for the larger models.

 

[philr]

John, Frigidaire introduced larger reciprocating Meter-Miser compressors for it's higher capacity air conditioners in the late-1950s and they kept making their own compressors throughout the 1960s. They also sourced some from Copeland and Tecumseh. My 1966 Frigidaire "Prestige" 8000 BTU air conditioner has a two cylinder Meter-Miser compressor and quite a few higher capacity models still had them. Some smaller models had theirs sourced at the same time. The 7800 BTU model that Martin brought for me uses a Copeland and the 1971 8000 BTU compact air conditioner I got in New Holland PA before we went to Beltsville has a Tecumseh.

 

The 3 first pictures show the 1966 air conditioner with the Frigidaire compressor. The 3 next ones show the 1967 air conditioner with the Copeland compressor and the last two show the 1971 compact air conditioner with a Tecumseh. Some larger models still used the Meter-Miser in the late 1960s and early 1970s.