Here’s one for vintage air conditioner lovers

[combo52]

I helped my uncle install this Sears cold spot air conditioner sometime in 1971, we took out a basement window in the house in Chevy Chase, Maryland and installed it to cool remodeled basement area, it was made in mid 1969. I remember when we went to Sears to order it, the salesman said they’re only a couple left in the warehouse and that whirlpool had stopped making these neat air conditioners.

The thing that makes it so neat is it has a temperature control and a humidity control so it can dehumidify without any significant cooling, so you can set the temperature and when the temperature is reached it will continue dehumidifying only without making the room any colder, this was ideal because it was in a family room that was completely underground with no windows and had very little heat gain. This allowed them to do away with their old dehumidifier.

I always loved these whirlpool built air conditioners. I don’t know what they did, but they just don’t rust at all , this was installed in a very damp window well and there’s no rust. My cousin has the house now and he’s remodeling the whole lower level and they ripped out the hot water heating system andit has gas forced air heat and a central air conditioner so there’s no additional heating or cooling in this area of the house needed anymore.

Some pictures

 

[cfz2882]

very cool !

Was expecting an external rotor Delco when I saw this was a '69,and there it is!

 

[cycla-fabric]

That,s a really cool unit. I remember seeing these units in the summer Sears catalog and thought that they were really a different unit. They had the ability to dehumidify the air without over cooling it which is neat. I am into the vintage ac units and we have several as backup units when the central air breaksdown. In a way I prefer a window unit to central air, as you have the ability to cool rooms you want and not the whole house if you dont need to. Good Luck with that unit and don't send it to the scrap pile, its to good a unit to destroy.

Doug

 

[combo52]

Hi Doug, I plugged it in and it works perfectly. Doesn’t seem to have any refrigerant loss. All the controls work, I haven’t even cleaned it up yet it mostly sort of has a gritty dirt in the base pan. I’ll clean it up and keep it for the museum, I’d like to figure out a way to actually display these in a usable manner at the museum, but it would require cutting about 10 holes in the back of the building so I don’t think I’ll get away with that., I have three of these units now it would be neat to install it somewhere where it would just get occasional use.

This one is not real inefficient. It comes out to an EER of about eight so I guess I could afford to run it, especially on hot sunny days when the solar panels were put out lots of watts.

John

 

[norgeway]

Fantastic!

Those old Coldspots would really cool! But i can not fathom taking out hot water heat if i was lucky enough to have it!!

 

[supersuds]

Low fan speed for “meditation or sleeping.” I wasn’t expecting a meditation setting!

 

[turbokinetic]

Very, very cool!  Also love the suggestion of low fan for meditation or sleeping!  They certainly don't make them like that any more. It is still in good shape, too.  

John, how does the dehumidification work?  I see what appears to be a refrigerant solenoid valve. Is there a second condenser located in the indoor air stream so that it can run as a dehumidifier by switching from exterior condenser for cooling, and indoor condenser for dehumidification without cooling? 

 

Thanks for sharing this! 

 

You mention this being in Chevy Chase MD; which is near where a good friend of mine lived.  Was visiting a friend and made an impulse buy of a car from an individual. Had the title signed over to me, called my agent and insured the car; which is all the info I needed to register it in Alabama. Typically you are given a grace period of a few days to register a car, as long as you have the title signed over and have it insured. I tried to drive the car less than 4 miles on the day of purchase, to my friends place and was stopped and fined by the police in that area.  Left a very bad taste about that whole area. I have bought and sold cars from private individuals on more than one occasion and never had anything like this happen. It was quite an ordeal. The police officer told me that if I left the parking lot where I was stopped, he would fine me again and confiscate my car. I had to wait several hours before I was able to leave that area. 

 

[combo52]

1969 cold spot, Auto dehumidifier air conditioner

Good morning, hi David, I finally got to play with this air conditioner a little bit this morning. I tested it in a 70° room. It puts out 40° air while cooling, but when it goes into the dehumidify mode. The air temperature goes back to 70°. I always thought that it probably was still cooling a little bit but I think it’s just the air movement that makes you think it is.

The compressor draws about 9 A at 120 V while cooling it drops to a little under 8 A when in the dehumidifier mode you can also hear the sound level change of Tecumseh compressor when it goes from cooling to just the humidifier mode the compressors working a little less hard When it’s just dehumidifying.

Hi David, I’m sorry this area brings back Bad memories for you I think I would just try to forget about that when I’ve screwed up in life and done something illegal. I usually like to forget about it, but I don’t think there’s many places in the country where you’re allowed to drive a car without license tags or temporary registration at least.

John

 

[rodknock95]

Coldspots and tickets

John, I have a Coldspot Fridge and a 220 volt Window Ac unit and a 110 volt version of the same model. They were in my great grandparents house. The 220 one was in the front window and cooled the gigantic living room and bedroom and the 100 volt was in the small, but long kitchen that was added on sometime in the 30's. I have no idea the models of them. They both work and have similar knobs as my 62 Frigidaire flair.
The thing I find most interesting about yours is the neat automatic feature. The way it kills the blower if it gets three degrees cooler than set would be perfect for Missouri weather! You cannot find anything that does that now. In fact, it seems I cannot find anything that has the functions I use to see. If I could combine the features of two different makes of window units then I would have the best air conditioner ever!

David, I had the same thing happen to me in Texas. I bought a 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon, put my plates from Missouri on it, since those were the ones getting registered to it, and off I went. Got stopped in Texas and it was clear they were just being the center point of a rear end. There were dogs involved and they pulled up the rear seat, pulled all of the trunk lining material out. It was a mess, plus add in my comments during the whole process making them madder didn't help.