L’il bitty Sears Coldspot Chest Freezer (1959?)

[cspetros]

I just got back from a 10 hour round trip to Coatesville, PA, where I picked up this little beauty. Found on eBay and could not pass it up for $50. It needs some minor TLC but it’s in good shape cosmetically. The seller said it worked when first purchased used. It was left unplugged for a while, and doesn’t do anything now. I highly suspect an electrical issue. But, if anyone has any tips or has owned one of these (it was made by Whirlpool according to the model number), I am all ears! I wonder if this is the same Seeger compressor as the fridge in turbokinetic’s spectacular 1953 Coldspot fridge post (link below). They look similar.

I’m not completely sure about the manufacture year on this. Searching based on the serial number turned up spotty results. I found a manual on eBay from 1959 that has an image of one that looks a LOT like this. Anyone good with serials?

1953 Coldspot fridge repair story...

This is a series of videos where a 1953 Coldspot fridge gets some long-standing problems sorted out. This thing has some amazing styling! It also has the ThermoDefroster system which is interesting in and of its self. That is a form of hot vapor defrost but it uses a dedicated defrost heater to...

www.automaticwasher.org

 

[stan]

Hi Christopher

Hopefully David will stop by and give you some suggestions.
I suspect you’l have to get your multimeter out and start with some preliminary testing ?

 

[turbokinetic]

Hi Christopher. That's a really cute little freezer! As far as I can tell; looking at your one picture of the back, it may have the slightly newer "Whirlpool" variant of the rotary compressor. That variant has the electrical terminals on the side of the compressor whereas the others have the connector on the very top. With a good picture of the compressor area we can probably make a better identification. The terminal box on the side rules out the early Seeger rotary unit, but doesn't confirm anything without seeing more of the compressor.

The thermostat on the back has the same trim plate as the replacement Ranco thermostats. It appears that has been replaced. There is a chance they wired that wrong and it never worked; or that their wiring job was done with such poor craftsmanship that it failed after some use.

I would start by looking at the wiring, closely for obvious defects. Then move on to using the multimeter in continuity mode, to look for open circuits in the system. I would first confirm that the thermostat is in fact turning on and closing the circuit between the two wires on the rear of the thermostat. If that is working, then I would verify the compressor's thermal overload device has not gone open-circuit. After that, test that the compressor motor still has continuity between all 3 of its terminal pins.  

If everything checks out and there is still no action at all; then I would try to power the compressor with a test cord and temporary start-relay; to verify it is functional. 

Thanks for the link to my Coldspot fridge repairs! Appreciated; and hope your freezer doesn't need as much work!

 

[combo52]

Cute Little Chest Freezer

This is a Whirlpool product with a WP-Seeger rotary compressor.

 

This has the one  piece porcelain enameled steel liner that has the steel evaporator tubing continuously welded to the outside of the liner, this is a process that International Harvester developed to build their freezers and WP bought IHs freezer plant in the late 50s.

 

I would guess by the model and serial #s this is a 1962 Freezer.

 

Hopefully this neat freezer just has electrical problems which should be easy to fix.

 

Keep Us posted, John L.

 

[norgeway]

Thanks John

You can bet John will know !! I sure wish I could find one of these Just the size freezer I need!

 

[stan]

Any update ?

Did you get it running ?

 

[cspetros]

Hey Stan!

No updates yet. Work has been ultra busy this week and I haven’t dedicated any time at all to it. I will post an update and response this weekend though. Thanks for checking up

 

[cspetros]

Update!!

Apologies for the delay in responding!

Today, I throughly tested and attempted to start the freezer. The thermostat on the back (FHP brand?) does allow for continuity at least. The wiring is in order, no broken areas.

As mentioned by turbokinetic, the compressor terminals are indeed on the side, under that terminal box. There is continuity (and resistance) between the line terminal and both the run and start winding terminals. The box contains an overload switch (it works), and a simple relay (also FHP brand) that cuts out the start winding once the compressor begins running. No capacitors in this circuit.

Ultimately, when plugged in, the compressor hums loudly for about 4 seconds until it is shut off by the overload switch. Once the overload switch cools, it attempts to start again, a shorter period this time, until the overload switch kicks it off again. I removed the relay from the circuit and used alligator clips to manually test to make sure it wasn’t the relay. It’s not.

I’m pretty sure the compressor rotor is frozen in place. I’ve read about folks using a quick jolt of 240V to try and unstick compressors on old GE monitor tops. Not sure if that’s something to consider here.

From that point, I tried connecting a Supco hard start in series with the start winding. No results from that. I heated the compressor body for 15 minutes using my partners hair dryer while tapping the compressor body with a mallet . That didn’t work either.

Any ideas? Is this the project that’s finally going to let me experiment with replacing a compressor?

 

[turbokinetic]

If they seize up....

... it's for a reason. Not saying they never recover; but whatever caused it to seize up in the first place will need to be fixed or it will just fail again. 

Lubrication issues and overheating are two primary causes. If that one has no fan, and depends on convection cooling, the only thing you can do about overheating is keeping the coils clean. 

Lubrication is at issue if the freezer has lost its charge and has run constantly with no charge or with air in the system. That will result in a seized compressor after enough hours of running. 

The ones which I have un-seized and seen them continue to operate often fall into two categories.  One is where a line is broken and air has permeated the system, causing oil varnish to form during years of sitting with an open line. Those can often be re-activated with 240V and then the oil changed. I've had a 100% success rate with this. Mainly older Kelvinator, Tecumseh and Frigidaire units.

The others which seem to be able to work after this happens are the GE Monitor Top units with methyl formate gas. They tend to have a lot of seized units. 

It's worth a try to boost it with 240V. You could get lucky. I hope so!  Just be watchful for any signs of cooling which may or may not happen. If it runs but doesn't cool, don't let it run for more than an hour or so.

 

[cspetros]

Thanks turbokinetic!

I wasn’t lucky . I tried the 240V jump start (safely!). It did make a single groan like it was going to start, but then just buzzed. I didn’t keep it on long, just a few seconds, and tried twice, letting it cool in between (the compressor housing got pretty warm). There is no fan on this freezer, and there are no coils visible on the outside, just the tubing at the compressor area. Looks like it’s going to need more intensive work so it’s going in the garage for now to stand by. I’ve been waiting for a project to learn more about refrigerant charging, etc.

Turbokinetic, I’ve bookmarked your videos. If you don’t mind, I may PM some questions when I get into it. I’ll post future updates to this thread!

 

[combo52]

Smaller Coldspot Chest freezer

Sorry it didn't work, first thing to determine now is whether it still has a charge in it.

 

If it lost its refrigerant it could be almost imposable to repair because of the difficulty of getting to the condenser and evaporator tubing.

 

If the leak in in the evaporator [ low side ] the steel evaporator tubing is welded continuously to the outside of the porcelain coated steel liner, If the leak is in the condenser [ high side ] you can bypass the shell condenser and hang a condenser on the back of the freezer as long as you keep the freezer in an air conditioned home so it will not sweet on the outside of the cabinet.

 

If it still has a charge in it you may only need to change the compressor and while you can change the rotors over to a piston compressor it is a lot more work so you might be better off finding an old WP rotary compressor.

 

John L.

 

[cspetros]

Thanks John!

I’ll reach out on here when I get around to working with it. I’ve got dishwasher stuff going on right now