GE A/Cs : 1950s-1991

[cfz2882]

GE A/Cs from first home units till the end of "real" GEs: Porta cools were made up to about 1991,do not know about bigger window units,I have a bigger window GE made around oct.1985 and that is the latest big home unit I have seen-classic spine fin with visable fan.Oldest GE I have is from 1958 : big through the wall style,uses some 230v power, but still cools great and runs so nice with it's 4-pole 1725 RPM compressor Garage workroom cooling on very hot days.The all aluminum spine fin condensers/evaporators and epoxy connections started around 1968 I think. Commercial/central air GEs stopped about 1984 as GEs fragmentation was just getting underway...

 

[phillymatt53]

I had a GE Carry Cool 4000 BTU A/C (with the handle on top) that I purchased in 1971 for my bedroom at my parents house.
I paid $99 for it, at 18 years old, I was working and spending wisely.
It served me well in that small bedroom for years, and when I moved, I took the GE with me every time I moved through the years.
In 1991, I brought it to the shop that I managed, and installed it in the office, again, it did its job just fine every summer.
When I closed the shop and retired in 2016, I left the still-working fine AC there, I surely got my $99 worth from that little jewel.

In 2006, I purchased an 18,000 BTU GE from Sam's Club for $300.
Last year, in 100 degree July, the compressor stopped kicking in.
Due to a flaw in manufacturing, corrosion on a cheap spade lug connection on the compressor failed to allow it to kick in.
I've since fixed that issue, it's good as new, and even better now.
The guts of the AC are all "LG" branded - GE is just a name now.

 

[neptunebob]

I thought air conditioning was one of first things Jack Welch got rid of at GE, because he said "I don't like HVAC".

 

[phillymatt53]

I thought air conditioning was one of first things Jack Welch got rid of at GE, because he said "I don't like HVAC".

For a CEO of GE to state something like that, the guy must have been on drugs.
I can understand that "some people" are sensitive, and dislike air conditioning.
But to drop a product, a product that zillions of people want, from a company that's been in the electrical products industry since birth?...... it dosn't make any sense.

 

[neptunebob]

You must not know about the "legend" of Jack Welch and the story of what he did with the General Electric Company. He became CEO of GE in 1981 and now General Electric is not anything like the company before JW. There is at least one member of this board who worked for GE. Jack eventually retired rich and passed on in 2021. Yes, that was know to be a remark he made and at least central air conditioning was one of the first divisions he divested. Room air conditioners might be under GE Appliances which was divested in 2016. The idea of all this was to make GE a money making organization and not really a manufacturer. Jack had a huge ego and when he wanted to have his own television stations, he bought RCA for the NBC network and sold off all the consumer products of RCA, making for the end of that company.

 

[cycla-fabric]

I still have 2 carry cool AC's, one a GE 5800 btu unit and a Hotpoint 5000 btu unit. They are called into service when the central AC unit breaks down. I also bring a carry cool unit when we go to our vacation home for the bedroom unit. They both work well and I keep them clean.
Doug

 

[cfz2882]

Carry cools are a classic product and have a distinctive sound- have 4,two in good order,2 others that need fan motor repair-all lower capacity ones with the 3-blade evap fan instead of the radial fan of the larger ones.spine fins harder to clean well than tube and fin style.Cool info these were made at least as far back as 1971.