Mr Draper, your General Electric Frost Guard Refrigerator is here...

[Ultramatic]

 

 

OK, I wasn't expecting this to happen, well not so soon, but thanks to our intrepid Phil, here it is. A 1964 General Electric refrigerator with "Frost Guard". Hubby showed pictures to the mother-in-law and they both concluded I've gone off the deep end.  So have my parents, and my sister. But they just don't understand 60's COOL.  So be it. It's home and another piece of the puzzle falls into place.

 

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While in no means "pristine" it's quite nice actually.

 



 



 

The middle shelve need's to be "adjusted". Nice and bright inside.

 



 

And baby, it's the swinging sixties!

 



 



 

Freezer is missing the ice cube trays and shelve. And it's quite small.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

[moparguy]

Nice fridge! Enjoy it! Great swinging 60s!

 

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Thanks Jeff!

 

[redcarpetdrew]

Your family says YOUVE gone off the deep end...

I'll spin that statement into what it SHOULD say...

Your family doesn't like it so, IMHO, THEYVE gone off the deep end! How's that? LOL!

That is a absolutely fantastic machine which buried the needle on the 'cool-o-meter' .you'll spiff that right up in no time. When the family visits, tell them that if they can't stand the coolness then stay out of the kitchen!

RCD

 

[retropia]

Sharp-looking fridge; I like the chrome trim around the doors. Perhaps it was designed that way to accept optional door panels?

 

 

[hydralique]

Gorgeous Refrigerator . . .

It reminds me of my old and much missed '66 Frigidaire. Remember that swimming is best at the deep end!

 

[a440]

It's Beautiful!
One of my most favorite GE Refrigerators.
Please tell us what you think about it.
Will it be your main refrigerator?
Happy Easter.
B

 

[a440]

Jeff or John or Tom....
Correct me if I am wrong...but wasn't the Refrigerator section completely sealed off from the freezer section on these? (besides the water from the fridge coils)
For some reason this was a big seller in my neighborhood when I was a child. I remember all of the neighbors talking about how amazing it was to keep fresh vegetables and fruit in this particular model. If I remember correct only the freezer had the fan, and the fridge part was cooled solely by the coils on top.
Brent

 

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@andrew, thanks! Hubby said to his mother. "Well at least it isn't pink." LOL!

 

@doug, I thought about that too when I saw it, but I don't think that was being offered yet. Thanks!

 

@hydralique Thanks, but I'm not a good swimmer. LOL!

 

@brent, It's a bit on the small side, but it will have to suffice until I find a bigger one.

3 lights in the fridge compartment. Love it! Thanks!

 

 

 

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Your right Brent, the freezer does have the only fan.

 

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A question for all those experts out there: Is "Frost Guard" GE's term for "Frost Free"?

 

[rp2813]

AFAIK, "Frost Guard" was GE's term for "frost free."

 

After reading Brent's post, this type of system sounds like a great hybrid.  One thing I really like about my '57 Combination is opening the door to the fresh food section and not hearing a fan whirring.

 

Louie, your fridge seems to be the perfect size for the back-up role I'd be using it for, with a more viable freezer than that of my Combination. 

 

[Ultramatic]

 

 

Thanks Ralph. I like the term "Frost Guard" better.

 

Well, until I find a larger, white, left hinged, bottom mount with Frost Guard, this will be the one for now. And something tells me I'm in for a LONG wait. Ralph, I only saw one shot of your combination, an interior shot at that. Have you posted any more pictures of it?

 

[Ultramatic]

Couldn't help myself...

 

 

 

[pulltostart]

Oh Yeah!

Contratulations! Another example of some fine General Electric styling. Please update us with pics after you clean her up.

lawrence

 

[turquoisedude]

Glad you got it, Louie! That is a very stylish fridge indeed. I miss the swing out shelves (had a 57 GE growing up. It's in really great shape, too. Congratulations!

 

[gansky1]

That is a great interim refrigerator, stylish and functional!  ;-)  You may even find that you needed less space than you thought initially and grow to love it.  The swing-out shelves are really nice, my favorite thing about these GE's.

 

 Congrats on your new leap into insanity, as others may see it, we're be behind you 100%.  

 

[mayguy]

Nice!

 

[cfz2882]

50 yrs of ford mustangs.

ford mustang now 50 yrs old-closest I have came to owning one was back in 1985 when a '65 fastback 289 2v/4 spd was a contender for my first car-white and blue,it had the base falcon style dashboard.In pretty decent shape,they wanted $2500 for it.I bought a 74 nova for $250 instead.My favorite mustangs are 71-73 fastbacks;more of a "GT"type car than the"ponycar"smaller,mid-'60s generation of mustang.

 

[retropia]

Ice Cream

Well, Louie, if this General Electric refrigerator's freezer can hold all of the ice cream that Betty required during her "Big Betty" days, it should be of adequate size for most households.

 

Certainly we know that the refrigerator does a good job of keeping whipped-cream-in-a-can fresh and delicious.

 

 

[hydralique]

Defrost System . . .

Does this unit have the GE reverse cycle defrost system or conventional electric resistance heaters? While the reverse cycle (aka heat pump) design is more complex it sure is clever and eliminates problems with the resistance heaters. I had to deal with the latter on my '66 Frigidaire, not a hard job but a PITA as it took numerous adjustments of the heater position under the freezer floor to make it work consistently and not slowly frost up.

 

[rp2813]

Defrost systems

I think John L. covered the defrost mechanism in the original thread Phil posted about this fridge in Shopper's Square.  Apparently the larger model had the more reliable system in John's opinion.

 

Louie, here's a shot of my fridge toward the end of its initial cleaning prior to moving into the house.  The grille at the bottom wasn't yet installed, but otherwise the exterior was ready to go at this point.

 

It's the 12 cf model so is fairly short as well as being only 30" wide. 

 

 

 

[rp2813]

Happy Easter

The colored eggs are a year-round installation, but this weekend is an ideal time to share . . .

 

 

 

[danemodsandy]

Louie:

Your new fridge - long may it wave - was designed for a world without today's Big Kahuna package sizes. Milk came in quarts, not gallons. Oh, you could buy half-gallons, but that was huge back then.

Pop came in single-serve bottles, not monster two-liters. Juice was little cans of concentrate, not big jugs of Tropicana or Sunny D. Frozen vegetables were little cardboard boxes of same, not ginormous plastic bags. A TV dinner was small, not like today's "Hungry-Man" sizes. A frozen pizza was eight inches across; they didn't try to emulate the dimensions of pizzeria pizzas. Pot pies were little 7-ounce things, not today's one-pounders.

If you'll watch your package sizes, you'll find that fridge more than adequate.

 

[epixstar128]

I have this fridge one year older and its got hot gas defrost. Its not complicated at all comp has a high side and low side. It takes the hot gas from the compressor and just opens a solinoid to direct feed it to the coil.

 

[epixstar128]

Louie open tge back panel up and look for a wiring diagram. One was installed in mine snap a pic and we can see what kind of defrost system it is.

 

[yogitunes]

just beautiful......

remember when fridges came with those built in egg racks......nice touch for adding color Ralph....

this reminds me of the joke, does the little light stay on when the door is closed?.....there was also a cartoon of this little sliding door that allowed you to look inside and see a tiny man running to hit the switch once the door was closed

 

[ptcruiser51]

Frost Guard

According to my GE factory rep when I worked at THD, it works this way. Most GE and Hotpoint models have a timed defrost cycle where the coils will heat up to melt rime buildup. About 10-15 min. before the cycle starts, the fridge will drop the temperature about 5 degrees or so to compensate for the heat generated during the cycle. This is to eliminate things like nasty ice crystals forming on top of ice cream or inside boxed frozen vegetables. I think Maytag used a similar system but the name escapes me.

One thing I noticed on the models in this thread is the new Trimwall design which was introduced around 1964. It used a new type of insulation to keep the walls thin, thus increasing interior capacity.

My mom had a 1966 model GE top-freezer that said "Frost Guard" on the freezer handle. It was the same one as was in the coffee break room at Sterling-Cooper on "Mad Men". They sold it with the house in 1993 - never a repair.

 

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Hey thanks for all the well wishes guys! I fired it up this morning after giving it 8hrs for the oil to settle back into the motor. It's cooling like nobodies business. I placed a bottle of water in the freezer and it was frozen solid in 3 hours. Needless to say, I'm damn impressed with it's performance. And boy is it quiet! I'll be posting more pictures in a bit.