GE Carry-Cool

[westytoploader]

I've been looking for a couple of these to go in the shed because they are neat little AC's and portable too! However...I can't seem to find one. I've tried eBay, Googled it, etc., but absolutely nothing turns up. I saw a repair manual for these on eBay from 1994, and that leads me to believe that they were made quite recently.

Any advice or suggestions would greatly help.

Thanks,
Austin

 

[drmitch]

Shop Ac.

I bought a small maytag ac for my shop at home depot, fairly enexpensive, My shop is small and when I rehabed it a few years ago I put in insulation,so now its easy to heat and cool. Be sure to check the reccomended btu`s for your square footage. Good luck Austin! P.S. What kinds of older computers do you have? I`ve been having fun working on this old 1980`s Gateway 486 for the last couple weeks and heard you had a few! Just installed Mozilla Firefox and it works great with Windows 95.

 

[parunner58]

Austin,

I bought a carry-cool when they first cames out in the early 70's. That was the time of things like that were disposable when they broke. New they were $99.99 for a 4000 btu unit when I got married in 1981 our apratment had AC so I gave it to my inlaws, they left it in their old house when they moved in the mid 80 because that was when central air became very popular and inexspensive to have put in here in the north east. The carry cool was very popular in its days, but now, It was like carying around a portable TV, I loved mine. I have not seen them in years. I remember you could get different colored grills for the front. I had blue to match my room. If I remember they came in avacado gree, gold, brown, I think a tangerine and blue. I was able to walk over to the GE store where I lived and the lady who owned it like to tell me about all the new things. I suprised her one day. There was this thing sitting on the parts counter that looked like an outboard motor propeller and she was shocked that i knew it came from a impeller style dishwasher. I was about 12 at the time. It was sad but when seh died 8 years ago her husband forced the new owners out of business because he would not sell them the building and pushed them out by high rent. my area only has two independent appliance store now. The rest are big boxers.

 

[petek]

I am getting old

The Carry Cool did come out in the early-mid 70's but I don't remember seeing them in colors other than white but then they maybe only sold white ones in Canada. That was about the time a lot of manfacturers like GE, Emerson, Admiral, Westinhouse all brought out small room airconditioners in force. I was working at a Woolco back east then and on those hot summer nights we'd have people coming in till 10pm when we closed picking them up like no tomorrow and they'd sell out. Pricewise they and the others were still around $200 Cdn at the time which wasn't exactly cheap for the era but now you can pick up a small Sunbeam or Danby for less than $100 which is really cheap considering. Trouble with buying a used one is getting its freon recharged, can't be done anymore legally that I know of and it would be damaged using the newer type freons probably..
But better than the GE Carry Cool, I had a little window airconditioner 5000 BTU made by a company in Jackson MI called Heat Controller. The unit itself was split in the middle, joined only by a small box tube in the bottom right corner which allowed you to slide your window vertically or horizontally between the two portions, that kept the compressor outside, much like a mini-split system today, and boy it was quiet.. You can still find them around here and there but again the freon recharge if needed is gonna be a problem.

 

[petek]

re the Heat Controller

I forgot to mention, those little mini-split (semi-split really) air conditioners came in larger sizes as well and were also sold by department stores under their store brand names as well, so you might find one with a Viking, Wards or such name on it. I'll let you know if I see a Carry Cool, though I haven't seen one forever

 

[kenmore1978]

Freon re-charge

Those units wold almost never need a re-charge, since the system was sealed like a refrigerator. If they died, it's usually because the compressor failed, still full of Freon.

 

[alr2903]

Hampton bay at HD

Austin they were $80.00 last summer. not the plastic carry cool I think you are looking for. I did nab one though, Our central a/c if fairly new, but I picked it up and we put it in the attic just in case. Probably just as where you live in Tx. You just might have to wait for a a/c repair guy here in July and august, I thought it would be nice to have just in case, we could at least cool the bedroom and stay in our home. I always have a phobia that the a/c would break down on the weekend or at night. LOL. A couple of window units are always a nice thing to have on hand, even if you have central a/c.

 

[alr2903]

ge carry cool

sorry lost my train of thought, they were also badged hotpoint and sold at walmart in the midwest. Maybe google just window air conditioner. how about the little haier e item#5967585438 $49.00 NIB $22 shipping?

 

[westytoploader]

Thanks everyone for your input...the Carry-Cool was what I had in mind because of the vintage and portability. If I can't find one, I'll just go ahead and buy a small reverse-cycle (Heat/Cool) window unit.

Not giving up yet though!

--Austin

 

[DADoES]

The reverse-cycle Whirlpool we had the theater's office (12K BTU) didn't last long. The compressor went out within a couple years (covered by warranty) but then it went out again in a few more years, out of warranty. So it was replaced by a resistance-heat unit. Smells AWFUL when heat runs the first time after the LONG, HUMID Texas summer.

I got a nice Friedrich 16K BTU resistance heat/cool unit for my grandmother, to replace a failed Fedders. The Friedrich works great. That particular Friedrich model was the largest capacity unit I could find, with heat, that would fit in her small window. It has been left on heat with automatic (MoneySaver) fan through the winter to supplement the one open-gas heater granny has in her kitchen. Time to switch it to cool in a few more weeks. Be nice if it had an automatic mode-switching feature.

 

[kenmore1978]

open gas heater

which I assume means "non-vented". They still allow those there? California outlawed them back in the 50's because idiots kept killing themselves with CO poisoning by running them in closed houses.

 

[DADoES]

Open/Unvented Gas Space Heaters in Texas

Yes. She had the gas lines redone a few years ago, codes didn't allow for them in bedrooms or bathrooms, the plumber refused to run new lines there. But apparently they're still allowed in kitchens and other 'living' spaces . . or were at that time. Thus, she needs the heat/cool A/Cs as supplements. There's also a small unit in the larger bedroom . . but she prefers to sleep in the other smaller bedroom and use an electric space heater as needed.

 

[westytoploader]

We have an older Friedrich reverse-cycle unit (not sure of the BTU's but it's huge) in the sunroom that came with the house. It works great on both heat and cool and has never given us trouble. I'll have to get a pic of it sometime.

--Austin

 

[kenwashesmonday]

The smaller GE A/Cs of the the 70s had crummy fan motors. The bearings get noisy, and the motors were expensive. This is why most of these A/Cs are gone.

Also, the inside fan blade was not a squirrel-cage blower, so they were a bit noisey even when new. Interesting idea GE had to make the cases out of plastic so they wouldn't rust, but boy did they rattle! I remember getting up in the middle of the night to stick more match-book covers in the grille of my GE Fashonette 5000 so it would stop rattling and I could get back to sleep.

Ken D.

 

[gregm]

carry cools on ebay

Austin, I have seen "carry-cools" on ebay, that is how I found two of mine in the last year. They are still out and about. I have two that I paid $5.00 for one and $10.00 for the other. They run great. The window curtains were beat up so I ordered new ones through a friend.

 

[agitatethis]

Ok yaw, I just sold a GE carry-cool for 2.50 cents. It worked but i was wanting to clean shop to make room for washers. Those units from the 70's-80's were 4200 BTU's I think. There is more than 2.50 scrap aluminum in those units because I have never seeen one with coppper coils(reefers) but i may be wrong. I know this, the vent covers are almost imposssible to locate.