Is firm ice cream possible in a vintage fridge?

[vintagekitchen]

Ok, I still love the GE, but I cannot get it to keep ice cream firm

Everything else is frozen solid, but ice cream is soft serve and Popsicles are slushy.

Any way for a frozen dessert addict to get his daily fix? Would putting the ice cream in a metal container help?

 

[epixstar128]

Start with a thermometer and get your box temp if it has a cold control for the fridge turn it up

 

[rp2813]

Is it making direct contact with the evaporator?

A metal container won't help if the air temperature around it is only in the 20's, which is usually about what it is in the center of the freezer cavity.  The largest possible area of the ice cream container needs to make contact with the evaporator surface, which works best if you store it directly on the bottom of the evaporator.  Up against the sides will likely only give you one firm area of ice cream in the container, if that.

 

If your freezer section has a shelf near the bottom, you'll have to weigh the pros and cons of removing it so that your ice cream will be firm.  If you already have the ice cream on the bottom and it's still not firm enough, and presuming the fridge can't be set any colder without freezing the milk, etc. then there's little that can be done.  A small freezer elsewhere in the house/basement/garage would be the solution.

 

[whirlaway]

Hello!

If your popsicles are slushy,somethings wrong,my 1930 Fridigaires little freezer,will freeze anything in it,put a thermometer in it and see what its reading,mine is about 0 and it freezes anything around it.Mine doesnt even have a door never did! Nor a light!You might be turned up a little too much!Get one of those little thermometers at the hardware store andsee what your temp is.

 

[norgeway]

My experiences are..

GE and Frigidaire...put the ice cream in metal, and dont think about trying to freeze ice cubes in plastic trays, I had a 50 Frigidaire, and while it kept food beautifully, it took 2 days to freeze ice cubes in plastic, and ice cream was very soft, A Westinghouse on the other hand will keep ice cream hard as a brick.My cousin had a 56 Hotpoint and she said it never would keep ice cream, of course these were not combinations with the seperate freezer, these, like yours had the open evaporator.,My Aunt in Georgia has the Westinghouse she started houskeeping with in 55, and it still keeps ice cream, it wont defrost itself anymore though.

 

[polkanut]

I think you should put the Wizard Citation back in the kitchen.  It may use more electricity but, you will have more freezer space, and fewer issues with items not freezing the way you like them.

 

[philr]

I had a GE "Deluxe" fridge similar to yours (probably a few years older than yours and mine still used Sulphur Dioxide as a refrigerant) but the freezer temp didn't go much below 20 degrees unless you wanted your whole refrigerator to freeze... That and the small capacity of the freezer made me change it for a fridge that is just 50 years old... And my GE did have door shelves and a butter conditioner! I could live without a butter conditioner but not without door shelves!

I had similar experiences with most fridges without a separate door for the freezer. Even those with an "insulated" plastic tray and a seasonal baffle don't have a true 0 degree freezer. The exceptions among these are probably those with a bottom-mount freezer and a draft fan in the refrigerator section but I never had one of these.

 

[rp2813]

Hans may be onto something.  My tiny '39 Westinghouse kept ice cream firm.  The evaporator interior was roughly 10x10x10 and didn't have a shelf, so an old-school rectangular paper carton of ice cream laid with wide side down stayed nice and firm.

 

If the GE can't manage this, I think Tim has the right idea.  Maybe you can mess around with the Wizard to address some of the issues with it that bother you, and bring it back into the kitchen.  Realistically, GE's and other makes of similar design and vintage aren't suitable as daily drivers, but they are reliable and very efficient for use as a auxiliary fridges instead.  Besides, as machines of this vintage get on in years, they'd likely appreciate the reduced run time a secondary role affords.

 

In addition, I understand the sentimentality that goes along with the brown fridge, but the Wizard is far more presentable.

 

[westie2]

My folks old 1939 GE was like your Kevin. Kept things cold but did not keep frozen stuff well at all. It was the first one my folks had when they electricity in 1939 The one I remember most is in the new house the Frigidaire from 1950. Had the across the top of the fridge freezer and it kept things well frozen and ice cream hard. Most frozen things were help in the Norge upright freezer or at the freezer locker in town. Then in 1964 mom redid kitchen with bottom freezer frost free Frigidaire. The GE was our hold fridge for garden things and drinks and beer in the store room behind our garage.

 

[twintubdexter]

it's too bad this is not the 1960's...

...you could have called Aunt Bee in Mayberry and asked her for her secret. I recall an episode where Andy was attempting to impress his girlfriend by concocting his "special" punch...apparently girls were easier to impress back then. He asks Aunt Bee if they have one of the necessary ingredients, orange sherbet, and then reaches in the vintage U-evaporator fridge and takes a carton right off the shelf...forget the freezer. Every time I see that refrigerator in an episode I think of that dumb scene.

as I recall, Aunt Bee's ice box was similar to this...

 

[ken]

Since you mentioned Aunt Bea

it reminded me of this YT overdub clip. First time I watched it I damn near pissed my pants I laughed so hard.

 

[combo52]

Single Door Manuel Defrost Single Evaporator Refrigerators

Usually only maintain a temperature of around 15F, this type of refrigerator should NOT be used for long term storage of ANY frozen foods, these refs are only suitable for making ice cubes and short term storage of ALREADY frozen foods, a few weeks only, when you buy ice cream be sure it is frozen solidly and plan on eating it fast, better yet buy sherbet or ice-milk which do not need to be as cold a good-real ice cream.

 

[norgeway]

John is right!

Most dont keep ice cream well, the Westinghouses were an exception, the others will freeze food in the refrigerator if you get them cold enough to freeze ice cream.

 

[tomturbomatic]

One problem you might be running into is that modern ice cream has so much air whipped into it and so many additives to make it soft that it requires a much colder freezer to make it really hard. We did not have trouble keeping ice cream in our 1950 Frigidaire in days of yore, but that was different ice cream.

 

[kenwashesmonday]

I also agree with John (combo52).  In my experience the freezer in a typical 1-door refrigerator runs around 15 degrees F.  Also note that the frozen food industry really took off about the same time that the 2-door combinations became popular.

 

Ken D.

 

[norgeway]

Breyers Ice Cream..

Is easier to keep because it has no additives.

 

[vintagekitchen]

The majority has it..

After reading everyone's responses here, and searching for some vintage fridge manuals online, it seems I need 2 things, a set of metal ice trays, and a metal freezer container with lid for ice cream, and even then ice cream isn't supposed to be stored long term in these type freezing compartments, which is ok with me. (For that matter, who actually stores ice cream long term? Ice cream is meant to be eaten, not hoarded, lol.)

 

[norgeway]

You got that right!

I can get rid of a bunch of it!!!Of course my favorite, peppermint cant be bought in the South except at Christmas, which drives me batty!!so I settle for vanilla, mostly Breyers sometimes on special occasions Hagen Daas coconut pineapple or rum raisin, the best ice cream to me was Biltmore, but they stopped making it in the 80s, you can still get it in Asheville at the Biltmore Dairy bar, but not in stores, when I was a kid Dayvaults Drug store served it and I thought it was the most wonderful thing on earth!!

 

[rickr]

.

I suggest another vintage fridge. A 1950's GE, or Hotpoint combo. The freezers are very cold. We defrost this one in the Spring and the Fall. This one was restored four years ago, but one can still find nice, working unrestored two door models on craigs list for a couple hundred bucks. Just keep checking in your area.

 

[danemodsandy]

Kevin:

Yes, a metal container would help enormously.

The one I would suggest is the Wizard Citation you already have.

 

[norgeway]

GE Combo!

Now you are talking!These were wonderful..QUIET too!

 

[vintagekitchen]

ge combo

If it's anything like the 1958 Hotpoint combo I used to have, I wouldn't want one unless I was desperate and there was no other fridge available. The top shelf of the refrigerator section was practically useless, as anything placed near the frosty coils would freeze solid. Frozen and defrosted milk never does quite taste right again. And frozen soda is an instant explosion.

Besides that, defrosting the freezer was a royal pain, since it had no drain, no removeable plug, no outlet at all for the dripping water. You either put towels in the freezer to absorb the mess as it thawed, or water ran out in the floor.

No thanks.

 

[swestoyz]

Kevin -

Don't bash Rick's GE just yet. These early combinations (48-54) DO NOT use the open coils that the later 55/56 and later Hotpoints and GE's used. They also have a wonderful drain hole in the freezer compartment that makes it easy to defrost the freezer when the time comes.

How do I know? I had an identical one as a daily driver for a few years. I'd take another one in a heart beat.

Ben

 

[vintagekitchen]

I didn't realize the earlier combos were designed differently.

It sounds like the early design was far better. I wonder why they cheaped out in the later designs, eliminating the drain hole and exposing the coils...

 

[rp2813]

My '57 Combination's freezer has a drain hole.  I wouldn't own a Combination that didn't.  It makes defrosting a breeze.

 

I also have no trouble with anything freezing on the top refrigerator shelf even though my model has the exposed serpentine evaporator coils.

 

I put the probe from a digital thermometer into a cup of water over a period of time and adjusted the cold control accordingly.  I ended up with the fresh food section at 38-39 degrees on the lowest shelf, and around 36 degrees on the top shelf under the coils.

 

The freezer section is what it is, depending on the single cold control for the fresh food section.  Even at that, contents in the freezer are at zero or lower.

 

Your brown fridge just isn't all that viable as a daily driver.  A Combination will help you reach a happy medium.  In the meantime, I'd bring the Wizard back inside.

 

[vintagekitchen]

Actually I'm happy with the brown GE as a daily driver. It's only issue has been soft ice cream, and I can deal with that, now that I understand the issue.

It's nice to have a fridge that I can actually reach all parts of without a step stool, lol. At 5 foot 3 inches tall, I have the polar opposite problem of Julia Child, who complained about things being too low, and actually said in one episode " I don't know why I'm always ending up with things designed for pygmies". This pygmy would gladly trade problems with her, lol.

 

[kenwashesmonday]

My 1951 GE Combination in the basement keeps the freezer at a steady +4F and only uses 335 KWH a year.  Frozen food and ice cream ages a lot better than it does in the modern frost-free fridge upstairs in the kitchen.  If it wasn't such a beastly looking thing that someone painted with a brush years ago, I'd put it up in the kitchen.

 

Ken D.

 

[rp2813]

You need a Combination like mine.  It's only 61" tall.

 

[vintagekitchen]

What I really need...

Is the custom built stove of my dreams, lol. My grandmother and birth mother were slightly shorter than me, and it wasn't until I started cooking that I realized why my birth mother wore either 3 or 4 inch heals in the kitchen and my grandmother wore 2 inch pumps.

Picture the scene in Mrs. Doubtfire when Robin Williams is cooking and catches his breast on fire... that's what short people deal with trying to check things on the back burners and adjust the knobs. A few burns and a shirt or 2 nearly catching fire taught me caution.

A shorter stove to fit my height would be amazing, and I have searched the world over, but as far as I can see, they have all been the same standard height since the beginning of time.

Shorter counters would be nice as well, but rather pointless if the stove isn't the same height, not to mention silly looking.

As for the upper cabinets, well, they are basically useless except for the bottom shelf, and even that can require some tiptoeing if something rolls to the back.

 

[whirlaway]

Hi!

I just went downstairs and looked at the thermometer on the 1930 Frigidiaire its right on -0,now tell me that wont freeze ice-cream.Perhaps as iceboxes became a household staple temperatures are raised some.This has no door doesnt run much,I have to take the top off to adjust the brass thermostat inside of the top.They could not have all these boxes if they didnt freeze ice-cream,so many of the manuals that came with them had ice cream recipes in them.It could be that most machines from the late 30s and forties need a little charge.You have to remember that little box had alot to keep cool! Even in the summer my ginger ale has ice in it.Of course Im only one person that lives here and I dont think my beagle goes in the fridge when Im not home.I just got my light bill today 46 dollars and thats running all ofmy vintage appliances for 32 days,1932 hoover 1930 Fridgiaire,1955 washer and dryer,My big Capehart machine,1956 color tv,and radiator heat.