I was bad and adopted a new refrigerator

[travis]

A friend of mine let me know about this poor old fridge listed on ebay.  It's a 1931-32 model.  The unit was rebuilt in 1942.  It's not running at the moment.  At first look, there are many dirty contacts.  I am crossing my fingers since I don't need and scrap metal in my living room.

 

[rp2813]

The one I had was an earlier version with the upright control box, and it didn't have that nice nickel trim all around.  Evaporators were the round-inside porcelain type.

 

Travis, that was a worthy save, and I know what a beast that thing must have been to move, even if you did it in two parts.

 

I hope your suspicions about filthy contacts are correct.

 

[delaneymeegan]

They really had the right idea back then, about how to efficiently refrigerate foods. And building them in two pieces means is much easier to move.

Heat rises, cool air falls, and back then they respected that science, instead of fighting reality, as they have been doing since they started sticking the evaporator coil UNDER the frig., back in the 1960s.

I'm not a fan of the look of having this large round structure on the top of the frig, but the genius was, not only was it air cooling the evaporator coils, the air flowed around the compressor as well. No energy wasting and noise creating fan necessary. If they could create a low profile version for modern frigs, that would be awesome.

This frig looks to be in pretty good shape. I hope the gaskets are good and all the racks are there.

 

[goatfarmer]

What a beast! Great save, Travis!

 

[travis]

Thanks guys!

Ralph, 

 

You had the type A or C control.  I like those best.  That's what I have in the kitchen.  It makes a satisfying klunk when it starts.

 

Kenny and Delaney,

 

Yes, it was a beast.  The cabinet is about 350 with doors.  We removed the doors to reduce weight and reduce chance or porcelain damage.  The unit weighs 260 uncrated, probably 300 crated.  I will be one sad person if it won't run.  It was rebuilt in 1942, so it's "new" for that series!

 

[cadman]

Nice save. That is some serious iron!!

 

[turquoisedude]

Nice Monitor Top, Travis!!

 

If it helps, in my struggle to make the '56 LW11 run again, I inadvertently learned that some of the Monitor Top compressors had a weird wiring arrangement with an auxiliary winding used to power a condenser fan motor.   But they didn't have a resistor like the later GE Combinations.   The person who would know for sure is Hans Hansen II - you may recall he had a bunch of vintage appliances for sale which ultimately went up for auction in November of 2014.  His company used to be called Appliances Unlimited in Queensbury, New York.   He's a big GE Monitor Top fan, so he may be able to help if you need him.  

 

[gansky1]

That's a beautiful GE, Travis.  Hope you don't have too much trouble getting it going again.   Brilliant transport and winch/lift arrangement as well, makes your move almost effortless.  Jon has told of three or four people needed to lift his off of the cabinet for service. 

 

I would love an all-porcelain monitor-top someday but they don't show up very often and when they do, sellers seem to think they've been cast of solid gold ;-)

 

[alr2903]

Very nice GE! Some good points were made about the "works" on the top. I was thinking no more crawling around to vacuum the pet hair out of those pesky coils. HVAC filters should be made out of evaporator coils and China cabinet glass, darn things are magnetic for dust and pet dander. It really is not a chore to vacuum the coils. I am always afraid I will break the tabs off the chintzy toe kick panel.

 

[travis]

Thanks for the compliments

I got lucky with this one.  The owners wanted it to go to a good home.  It was most likely the original electric refrigerator for that 1910 home.  There's no set value of these things, but the porcelain cabinets and the larger models are more rare.  This was likely a $1000 refrigerator in about 1930.  The larger units tend to have had a higher failure rate.  I have guessed that the larger models were also less likely to find a second home.  They're an absolute bear to move.  If someone offered one in 1950, I would think many would have said no.  They would have been dated and still terrible to move.

 

I think Jon has a CK30, which is the largest single door model they made in the mid 1930's.  CK's are almost bullet-proof.  This is a DR, the oldest type.  They're full of quirks.  This one had the tall control that Ralph mentioned.  It must have lost that during the 1942 rebuild.

 

What I found last night was numerous dirty contacts.  The control has metal tabs that sit on these copper spring terminals.  I also found a couple loose screws to these copper terminals.  I can't tell yet if the compressor is locked up.  I did measure the motor leads and that checked out.  I am interested to see how well these newer evaporators work. 

 

I am borrowing an ultrasonic cleaner to clean up all the little parts.  I haven't decided how much I should disassemble the control.  I might forget how it goes back together.

 

[pulltostart]

Travis

How about the rest of your house and its renovation?  Haven't seen any photos recently of your kitchen - how is that room coming along?  I thought about your kitchen when I saw all the photos from the 'Magic Chef' mansion.

 

lawrence

 

[travis]

It's delayed until I stop getting sidetracked with other projects.  I did go ahead and buy a new stove.  This is in much better shape than the one I have. 

 

[rp2813]

Travis!

That model MC is one of my all time favorite stoves!  It will be right at home in your kitchen.

 

I must say that those later evaporators appear to be far more useful than the early porcelain ones.

 

[travis]

Ralph,

 

Yes, I have another MC 1000, but it needs more work.  I happened to see this other one on ebay and accidentally won it.  It was in use at a house that's being renovated now.  It's coming straight into the kitchen and getting installed.  I haven't had a stove in almost two years.

 

Here's the slightly older MT in the kitchen with the round evaporators.  I have some of the freezing blocks that make the bottom of the opening flat.  It's a 5 lb block of porcelain covered iron.

 

[travis]

Finally success!

I did finally get it running.  There's a slight grounding issue between the three compressor leads and the frame.  On about the 15th try to start it, it broke free and ran fine.  I still need to clean all the contacts and put the control back on it.  I doubt it will stall again.  I just think that it's been unused for a very long time and wasn't happy to be woken up.

 

[rp2813]

It had been given up for dead, but you knew better Travis!

 

Now that it's awake, I'm betting it's happy to be alive and well!

 

[goatfarmer]

It knew better than to try and cross you up!

 

[travis]

I almost gave up

Last night I finally had both the cleaning solutions for the ultrasonic cleaner and the new basket.  I have no patience so I partly disassembled the control and gave it a bath.  I also had a couple similar controls, so I used the best parts in this one.  I wired it up at about 3 am.  I was pleasantly surprised when my lights didn't go out when I turned it on.  I just ordered gasket materials.  I can't properly run the unit as an air conditioner for the house. 

 

Considering that this was in the basement of a mansion, I would suspect it hadn't been used for the past fifty years.  Now I have to make a proper place for another 650 lb fridge.  It's not going in my basement or the garage.

 

[rp2813]

What a great post!  Those evaporators couldn't be frosting over more evenly!