My first interesting air conditioner from Canada!

[philr]

I just found a 1966 Frigidaire air conditioner on my side of the border!

And a model that was very high on my wishlist!

Unlike most air conditioners, this one is charged with R-12. It's the smaller of the two "Prestige" models sold that year. It has a two cylinder compressor. It'still in my car's trunk and will need some cleaning. It was bought new by a doctor who studied in Boston and he got this in the States as this model wasn't available in Canada.
That's a very unexpected find!

It weights more than 150lbs. Very heavy for a 8000 btu unit!
Here are a few pics.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Congratulations

We share your thrill; most of us having been through a similar experience ourselves. It really makes life wonderful and is such a simple pleasure.

You are probably going to want to buy some electric utility stock if you want to run that thirsty ampeater very much OR you could have solar panels installed on the roof.

 

[DADoES]

 
8,000 BTU at 1,070 watts figures an EER of 7.47.

I've not had any usage experience with GM Frigidaire (or the Montgomery Wards versions) window units but always found them to be nice-looking machines.

 

[philr]

Tom, it's not that bad. It uses less electricity than my less powerful 1967 air conditioner. The EER is about 7.4...

 

[davey7]

Does that have the sliding front cabinet door? It looks like my 17000 btu model, my smaller units don't have the sleek front cover. Great find!

 

[philr]

This one has a hinged front cover. Newer ones have a sliding cover.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Sorry, it just seemed like a lot of juice compared to my higher EER disposable Chinese piece of crap that I had to buy to replace the very expensive made in America Friedrich 8000 BTU with an EER of 10 that absolutely disintegrated over a short period of use. Of course, down here the ac is needed more than in Canada. I'm not disputing that you got a great piece of equipment, it's just that I would not want to pay to run it 24/7 for 5.5 months.

 

[philr]

Tom,

 

I have to say that I'm not that concerned about the efficiency of these air conditioners because I do use them but not that much, and the electric utility is 100% public here so there's no need to buy stock, as it already belongs to me (but very partially)!

 

In fact, there are some that I have just plugged to see if they worked and never used them. And the electricity rates are also a bit cheaper here (but all other sources of energy are more expensive than elsewhere in North America).  And the electricity here isn't produced by fossil fuels or nuclear power so it's not still not pollution-free but it's probably not that bad.

 

With this air conditioner, I'm more concerned about the weight of the unit which makes it hard to install/uninstall but I'll install it anyway (hopefully with some help as it's still in my car's trunk and too heavy to get out by myself!).

 

I just cleaned the front panel and grille, tomorrow I'll install it!

 

Here's what the grille on the exterior side looks like and the front panel that I just cleaned. 

[this post was last edited: 8/9/2014-03:09]

 

[turquoisedude]

Wow!  It's a very cool find, Phil (pun intended...)   It looks as if it's in great shape!   

 

Where will you install this one?  

 

I think the next place will have to have at least one vintage A/C.

 

Congratulations!!

 

[philr]

Paul, I plan to install it in the laundry room.

;-)

 

[philr]

I just took some pictures of the chassis. That's the first air conditioner I get that has a Frigidaire compressor. Back then, Frigidaire used many brands of compressors in it's air conditioners. This isn't a rotary (I think the last air conditioners to use one were small capacity models from the mid-1950s) but a two-cylinder. And as I said earlier, this air conditioner runs with R-12 rather than R-22. 

 

[philr]

The same model is featured in this promotional video at 3minutes 17 seconds.

 

Now if I could get the fridge beside it!

 

Look at how the toaster and coffee maker have a dull finish... I guess that since they weren't Frigidaire products, and since their rounded shape and chrome finish would make it hard to hide the camera, they just made them less shiny!

 

Click on the link below if you want to go directly to 3 minutes 17 seconds as the embedded image will start the video from the beginning. 

 

 

[philr]

And here's a printed ad on Google books. 

http://books.google.com/books?id=-l...OJWAygT3joGwBw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=true

 

[wayupnorth]

My Frigidaire 7500 btu, model #A08LH5F looks very similar to this one with the faux wood finish. I bought it in 1988 and has the Energyguide rating of 8.5 out of a best 9.0. Always worked fine but is extremely heavy too. Unfortunately, it is a WCI, not GM.

 

[philr]

Here's a video. You can barely hear it while it's running... 

 

 

  

 

http://https//www.flickr.com/photos/33723086@N02/14866789281/