GE A/Cs : 1950s-1991

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cfz2882

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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...
 
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 said:
I thought air conditioning was one of first things Jack Welch got rid of at GE, because he said "I don't like HVAC".
Click to expand...
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
cfz2882 said:
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.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's when I bought my 4000 BTU Carry Cool!
I remember the ads in the paper and on TV..... and the price of $99 was just what my 18 year old mind was drawn to!
 
neptunebob said:
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.
Click to expand...
Thanks, of course I'm not aware of such things.
Most people aren't, they go by brand names when they look for something.
 
A friend of mine moved into a 1950's home in 1991 and it had a GE wall A/C unit that looked like it was from the 70's, maybe very early 80's. The air it threw out was insanely cold, even on a hot triple digit day. Phasing out R12 and R22 was a stupid decision and I refuse to believe a gas that's 4 times heavier than air was destroying the ozone.
 
Our church has a large GE window air conditioner that can sure put out some cold air. It was installed when one of the prominent church members owned a store that sold GE appliances, so would have been sometime around 1980, as they closed shortly thereafter.

As for the GE central air and furnace division, that was sold to Trane in 1982.
 
qsd-dan said:
A friend of mine moved into a 1950's home in 1991 and it had a GE wall A/C unit that looked like it was from the 70's, maybe very early 80's. The air it threw out was insanely cold, even on a hot triple digit day. Phasing out R12 and R22 was a stupid decision and I refuse to believe a gas that's 4 times heavier than air was destroying the ozone.
Click to expand...
I tend to agree on the ozone propoganda.
Freon in AC units at that time could "ice up" if the filter got clogged.
That cold air that they put out was noticeably colder then these modern units.
My 2006 and 2008 GE a/c's do a good job, however putting a hand in front of the output doesn't feel as frigid as those older units used to.
 
GE Porta, cool window, air conditioners

These were a very clever product and it allowed GE to compete in a market that was becoming dominated by other companies.

GE could not compete with whirlpool and a few other companies that were making more conventional small window air conditioners whirlpool of course head the Sales from Sears Roebuck behind their efforts and their small air conditioners were much more effective than the porta cool units.

The thing that was good about the Porta cool units as they were cheap to make they were well-made they were all plastic so they didn’t have corrosion problems, the bad thing about them was they used a ton of electricity 800 W for only 4000 BTU of cooling is ridiculous They also had very poor air distribution. They didn’t have a very powerful fan so they were good in small rooms and areas, even though they were fairly noisy.

When you get to the bigger air conditioners, GE did a great job. I love their through the wall units that are 16 x 26“ they make those both in heat cool and heat pump bottles and are very good units.

The other really good product GE has is their zone line products. I just bought a new zone line air conditioner for my TV room about four years ago. It was only $780 wholesalefor a heat cool heat pump that’s made in the USA. It does a very good job fairly inexpensive and quite much better to me than a mini split. If the unit ever has really bad problems you can pull For a heat cool heat pump that’s made in the USA. It does a very good job fairly inexpensive and quiet much better to me than a mini split. If the unit ever has really bad problems, you can pull it out yourself and slide a new one in.
 

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I notice the small air conditioners that are GE brand, now made by Haier, are of a more conventional form than the Carry Cool. I guess these are more efficient? As for the Zone Line used in motels, did Trane get them or did Haier get them? We know Jack didn't like them.

By the way, if anyone is interested, there are multiple threads about Jack Welch on here, just use the super Searchalator.
 

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