Looking to buy this 1959 combination GE fridge. Any advice?

[mrcoppertone]

Thanks! The dishwasher actually works a lot better and faster than the "new" one it replaced. Will eventually paint the rest of the kitchen that green I sanded down to the left of it.

I asked the seller to confirm measurements. I get the feeling she's getting annoyed with all the questions. Like you said though, too big of a risk to take chances and I hope they can be understanding of that.

 

[rp2813]

Ah, that makes more sense now.  I'll wager it's more like 30" wide, which is what I've been wanting for years.

 

Look for two crisper drawers and no coils on top.  Those are indicators of the larger models (see pix I posted above).  You could always get this one and use it until you find the larger version.  In L.A. you'd likely be able to recover your costs if you wanted to sell it sometime down the road.

 

[combo52]

1959 GE Combination ?

This Woodtone brown ref is from 1961-2, it is the smaller bottom series size, it is 30 1/2" wide.

 

I would question whether it is really working correctly, this was still built at a time where GE compressors wore out too early. You would want to make sure the compressor has already been changed.

 

The later 30 1/2" wide refs did have two crispers sxs once GE got rid of the silly space wasting swing out shelves that no one ever bothered to use in the first place.

 

We have a Copper-Tone 1965 30 1/2" GE ref that is going in the office break room that works perfectly. It still has the orignal compressor [ GE corrected the early wear problems around 1964 ] and we replaced all three fan motors with the new electronic type to save power and reduce running time.

 

John

[this post was last edited: 4/11/2019-08:59]

 

[mrcoppertone]

That's a beauty John! Also, seeing that photo makes me really want to hold out for a coppertone GE.

I agree the one I found is the smaller size. Considering it's the wrong size and not the right finish, I don't think it's worth getting. It would just look odd on my space. The fridge I have in that photo is about 64" wide.

 

[rp2813]

Did you mean 34" wide?  64" might be how tall it is. 

 

I agree now that I see where the fridge would be located that holding out for coppertone makes sense but I don't think the smaller size would look that bad until a coppertone box comes along.  What's there now is very imposing.  A little breathing room around a smaller fridge would look OK and give the sense of more space in that tight corner IMO.

 

Is the current fridge counter depth?  I hope it's not.

 

[mrcoppertone]

Sorry! I meant 34" wide but's actually 36" (just remeasured it to double check.) That refrigerator came with the house. It's truly a monstrosity. It's quite a bit larger than even the large GE models. A few inches taller, much deeper, and slightly wider.

The larger GE would fit pretty seamlessly in there. It would still have room up top with small gaps on the sides. When I took measurements of the smaller one, there was just too much headroom up top along with larger gaps on the sides. I'm sure it would look better than my current situation but I don't think it would look great either.

If something came along as nice as John's that wasn't too far, I'd probably go for it. One popped up in Florida but it was too roughed up to warrant shipping across the country.

 

[combo52]

Hi Mark, Yes you need to hold out for a 34" wide GE from 1964-69 in shaded Coppertone.

 

These were really GEs best Refs, the deluxe models had the really cool Auto-Fill ice trays, and in 1968 they stared to come with a real GE IM, the fully automatic IM was really cool, it actually threw the cubes into the bucket so you only had to pull the drawer open about 6" to grab a glass full of ice.

 

The fully automatic IM was a lot more problems however.

 

John