Is firm ice cream possible in a vintage fridge?

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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.
 
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
 
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...
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 


I never knew the evap coils were changed to the exposed, angled design for 55 in the GE and that the earlier models werent the same. Ive always thought of them as a drawback of my 55 Combination. IMO it really cuts down on the available height to store tall items on the top shelf. And if anything happens to touch them it will act like a wick and cause water to run down it and drip off. Seems they took a step backward with this design considering earlier models coils werent exposed. I wonder if consumers complained about them at the time?

In comparison my 54 Frigidaire has them mounted flat at the top of the compartment and I believe covered by a plate. My 55 Philco has the coils mounted vertical on the upper back wall of the compartment and are covered by a plate.

The Frigidaire and Philco make it possible to use all the available height between the top shelf and "ceiling" for tall items. GE engineers had to realize the drawback of the new design at the time.
 
Freezers

Still the BEST way to keep frozen food at home long term is a chest freezer, 2nd best way is an upright Frost Free freezer, manual defrost up-rights are OK, but they tend to have warm areas in the top shelf and upper door areas.

For durability again you can not beat a chest freezer, a FF up-right is three times more likely to break down compared to an upright manual defrost freezer and at least 5 times more likely to fail than a chest freezer.

Having a fan in a freezer probably outweighs the disadvantages, foods stay at much more even temperatures, freeze faster etc. The drying effect of the fan forced air is negligible to nonexistent if you have foods properly warped.

The best way to measure a freezers temperature is to either insert a probe type thermometer into the middle of something like a box of ice cream or keep a cup of cooking oil in the freezer and insert or keep a thermometer in it. A glass of water in the refrigerator section with a thermometer in it is also the best way to keep an accurate check of the refrigerators performance.

A single door manual defrost refrigerator with an exposed box type evaporator CAN NOT maintain an even zero degree food temperature without freezing most of the food in the rest of the refrigerator, yes you can make some delicious frozen deserts in the aluminum ice-cube trays if they are set directly on the evaporator. The instructions for making these frozen deserts always instructed you to turn the cold control to the coldest setting while doing so, and to reset the control to the regular setting as soon as you were done so as to not freeze all your fresh food.
 
RE GE single door!

A good friend of mine in Lenoir NC still has a similar GE as yours, It was bought in 49, has ran all these years without one single repair, and get this, it still has the same light bulb in it...get anything today to be that dependable!LOL
 
Chest Freezers

I agree with John,I would luv to find a small 1930s chest freezer to place beside my fridge.I dont recall seeing any in my 1930s magazines,air-conditioners yes,freezers not! Anyone seen any? I do like that round-one from the 40s,its so cool looking.I know they had frozen foods!
 

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