Kenmore Cool N Lite Air Conditioner

[giovannifredo]

Sears sold its own version of the GE Carry Cool air-conditioner. It was sold under the Kenmore brand and was named Cool N Lite. It was available in Sears stores from 1976 to 1984.

I own one such unit. It is thirty years old and still runs great, though the fans occasionally get stuck.

If you have any more info on the Kenmore Cool N Lite or have some stories to tell, I'd love to hear all about it.

 

[giovannifredo]

A little more info...

The Kenmore Cool N Lite has a built-in handle on the top of the unit, which made it easy to carry around. Compared to most air-conditioners, the Cool N Lite could easily be moved from window to window. Handling this type of air-conditioner is much like carrying a suitcase, only heavier.

The Cool N Lite differed from its Hotpoint and GE counterparts by having the Kenmore brand, but the front panel of the indoor part had a different design, with a lot of vertical bars in an intricate pattern.

The outsides are plastic. The vent on the outdoor part is round and it looks like a giant speaker. From the outside, this type of air-conditioner looked more like a boombox than a window a/c.

 

[Cybrvanr]

I found one of these in a trash pile on cleanup day. It was filty dirty. I took it home and disassembled it. Disassembling these units is a bit challenging, since they don't have the traditional slide-out chassis. After taking it apart, I hosed it down and got all the gunk out of the spine fin coils. These have a tendancy to collect lots of grime and become inefficient. I took considerable time and effort to make sure the unit was nice and clean before I put it all back together. It was worth it though, because it ran like a brand new unit The sound this air conditioner made was very pleasing too...great for a bedroom! When my next door neighbor's central air conditioner gave out, I gave it to him to cool his bedroom. He said the unit would get his bedroom down to 65 degrees, and when he stuck a thermometer in the output vent, it was putting out 40 degrees!

Since I didn't need the air conditioner, but just enjoyed working on it, I let him keep the unit. He put it in his workshop after he got the central air on. The little guy gets his workshop quite chilly during the summer! He likes it too because with the upward facing vent, it is a great place to set drinks to keep them nice and chilled while out there in the shop!

 

[veg-o-matic]

For years I had the absolute BOL version of this AC. You had your choice of On or Off, period. No multiple speeds, no thermostat, no nothin'.

Still, it worked for probably close to 20 years when I finally traded it in for a GE with a thermostat and everything.

My Kenmore didn't have the woodgrain front. The whole thing was beige, beige, beige. It was a farily noisy sucker and the cold air coming out the top wasn't at very high velocity but it got the job done.

veg

 

[gyrafoam]

Thats what I have in my workshop. Lightedcontrols had it, cast-off at his warehouse. It was covered in dry-wall dust but cleaned up well.

It works very well.

 

[Brent-Aucoin]

These are such great little airconditioners.
GE must have hit a home run with this unit, because so many name brands carried them.
I have seen Kenmore, GE, Fedders, Fredricks, Wards, Westen Auto, etc.
I see them in thrift stores. I plug them in, and they just run like they were new.
I am also amazed at how quiet they are.
Brent

 

[toggleswitch]

My parents got these in 1973, badged GE.
Could not kill them!
They still live.
Quiet? Really? I thought they sounded like jets!

 

[jasonl]

LOVE!!!!

Love the Kenmore version. Must get one for my laundry room since it does get a little warm with the appliances going.

 

[thirtyater]

I have two of these, one is a little bigger. They both just run and run and won't give out. have had them for ever. They won't cool a large area of course but they blow ice cold air. I have been very pleased with mine!

 

[cycla-fabric]

I have two of these units, picked them up cheap, One is a Hotpoint unit that I took all apart and cleaned up as it was filthy, I didn't think it would work as it was out on the curb, but it did. The other unit is a GE, and that was a clean unit when I got it. I must have later units of these machines as both of mine have exhaust vent controls. The difference between the two is that the Hotpoint has a woodgrain front and exposed controls, while the GE has covered controls and a energy save switch to shut it down. They are nice machines and I like the portablility of them too. And its also nice to have a pair of them.

 

[giovannifredo]

Cleaning the air-conditioner

I appreciate your postings and I've enjoyed reading your stories about your air-conditioners. Sounds like a couple of you salvaged these air-conditioners from the garbage dump. Talk about one man's trash being another man's treasure.

A couple of you mentioned how you took your units apart and cleaned them. I've done the same with mine. When I cleaned out my air-conditioner, I took apart the outdoor part, removing the outside plastic 'case' and cleaned the coils with a toothbrush. When you took your air-conditioners apart and cleaned them, did you take apart the indoor part too?