My Foodarama

[Brneyedgrl80]

Well, this weekend I finally had time to really check out and clean the Foodarama. I was wondering if it worked, so I plugged it in and nothing happened. A little disappointed, but not discouraged, I decided to see if I could figure out why it didn't work. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm no electrician or anything, but I like to pride myself in knowing a little it more than the average person when it comes to mechanical/electrical things and my husband is an HVAC tech, so I've learned a lot from him.

As I looked at the wiring diagram on the back of the fridge I decided to have a looksee at the wiring inside the fridg and saw that the thermastat wire weren't connected because the original T-stat broke. Luckily, the previous owner had bought a new T-stat, but never got around to installing it. Seeing as that it was only a coule of wires I thought I could do it.

I tied it all together and plugged it in. The Foodarama came right on without incident! Let me tell, she gets cold fast! Apparently the Foodarama has not had any leaks as far as the refrigerant goes. In about ten minutes, all the freezer shelves had frost on them including the the removable shelf that doesn't have any coils running under it, and the humidi-plate in the refrigerator got cold immediately. Also, the Foodarama is a lot quieter than my Gibson fridge from 1993. Amazing.

The only bad thing is that it uses 4.9 FLA while my Gibson only uses 1.2 FLA. And at start up, the Foodarama uses 12.8 amps, very close to blowing my 15 amp fuse. Oh well, the Foodarama is a dream!

 

[frontaloadotmy]

Foodarama

beg80,
that's great; it's nice when a vintage unit works well and is in god condition. looking forward to seeing it spit shined and polished!

 

[veg-o-matic]

Duhhh....

What are FLAs? And who cares how many it uses--you have an unrefrigerated banana bin!

veg

 

[Kevinpreston3]

We have been using our 1963 GE fridge

as our daily unit for almost 10 years. It will be retired as a 2nd fridge within a few weeks. I am going to super clean it and have it out in the back kitchen, and I will send pictures then.

It is not as cool as the Foodarama, but it has two different lit panels inside, swing out shelves, a wonderfully odd ice maker, and the freezer on the bottom. It looks alot like the Cleaver's fridge (later episodes). We love it!

 

[fixerman]

FLA is Full Load Amps. Maybe someone else can tell us exactly what it means as far as energy consumption. I assume it means exactly that, when the motor is fully loaded this is the amps it draws. Presumably it is not fully loaded all the time. I would think it would be fully loaded at start up only. Someone please enlighten us.

 

[drmitch]

Yaay!

Glad you`ve got it working. These old fridges are very quiet compaired the new ones. Moms kenmore sounds like a truck! Have fun with your Kelvy!

 

[Cybrvanr]

One thing a good appliance tech ( or any electrical / electronics tech) ought to have around is a power meter. I've found the "Watts Up" meter for about $100 to be very accurate and useful.

One thing to consider too is something called "power factor". This is caused by inductive loads that do a little phase shifting of the power. It's a little hard to explain, but imagine a generator. Basically, a generator works the exact opposite of a motor, converting mechanical energy into electrical energy. When a motor is spinning under a no-load condition, it sort of acts a little like a generator too. A motor can pull a certain amount of power, that amount of power, at full "lock up" conditions (motor shaft is not turning) is considered full load, and is the maximum amount of power the motor can draw. Now the less load that is on the motor, the less power it is going to draw. As the load lightens, the free magnetism in the motor actually puts some of the power back into the power line, but these pulses of power are a little delayed from the pulses of power the motor is consuming. This is the reason why you can't always get an accurate wattage measurement from VOLTS X AMPS to =WATTAGE. The Watts up meter measures peak amperage, and total wattage consumed, but the numbers don't always add up because of this power factor.

For your refrigerator, I imagine F.L.A. is measured when the freon is at maximum evaporation & condensation, which will put the compressor at the greatest "running load", since there is no way that a refrigerator compressor would ever experience a locked motor condition. Starting loads can be much more than even a full-load amperage, becasue most motors engage an additional winding for starting, that would not be engaged even under a locked up condition.

With a watts up meter, it all becomes apparent. It's rather interesting to watch appliances consume different levels of power as they go through their different modes. You can see if an appliance is drawing power even though it doesn't appear to be "on" (this also saves on the power bill becasue you can find applicances that are pulling standby power)

You can also see if the appliance is pulling to much, or too little current from it's rating when properly working, or tell if certain components are pulling or not pulling power when they are supposed to.

http://www.electricitymetering.com/category/detail.scd-pscdrv230100276-selectedzq19zq2scdrv230100401-selectedzq19zq2scdfa-230100401-selectProduct-idzq3148zq4category_idzq315zq1true

 

[tolivac]

Power factor

In most applications both generators and most motors(large ones)are designed to be around .8 power factor.Engineers realize its not always possible to get better than .8 with reactive loads such as motors and transformers.A lightly loaded or unloaded motor will have worse power factor(more reactive ) than a properly loaded one. Same as with a transformer.The little "Watts Up" meter sounds useful.The lightly loaded motors and transformers is why electric companies have the powerr factor correction capacitors in substations and on some utility poles. You can see the capacitor banks on the tops of poles or in substations.Sometimes you may even spot a swollen cap about ready to go!!Saw one on a pole-got away.In old days companies used motors bigger than what they really needed-thus power factor correctiuon because the motor was lightly loaded.Now machines have motors better matched-less PF correction required.

 

[Brneyedgrl80]

Exactly!

I'm all about the unrefrigerated banana bin!! lol

cybrvanr pretty much explained it for me. Full Load Amps is pretty much the amount of amps it uses to continually run. When the Foodarama first started up it used 12.8 amps, but that is not it's Full Load Amps, 4.9 is.

kevinpreston3, your fridge sounds very cool. Let us know when you have pics to put up!

For now, that's the most excitement that I'll be getting out of the Foodarama for awhile. It won't be till sometime next year that I'll be able to take it in and get it refurbished, but I go in and check on the Foodarama and O'keefe & Merritt stove everyday, just to see how they are doing ;-)

 

[Cybrvanr]

Yep, Tolivac, smaller motor sizes today are definitely the case! I don't think you will see a fridge today like that Foodarama cool down as quickly. In the interest of efficiency, most refrigerators have very small compressors, and tightly insulated boxes.

My friend just recently bought an energy star compliant 30 cu/ft GE refrigerator. It took that fridge about a day or so to get down cold enough for the thermostat to shut the compressor off. The Watts-Up meter regestered that it only pulls 86 watts off the line when it's running, and it's duty cycle is close to 70 percent. My 20 cubic foot Whirlpool that's about 20 years old pulls about 300 watts, and has about a 50 percent duty cycle.

Now, the startup surge is quite interesting to look at. My friend's GE hits the line with about 2,800 watts at startup, where mine hits at about 2000 watts. That Foodarama looks like it's only surging about 1000 watts or so....definitely a sign that the motors in new compressors are smaller, and under a harder load than in the older units to perform the same task. This could be a product of efficiency, but is probably a cost-cutting measure too, since it probably saves a few dimes to produce a smaller motor within the compressor.

What I find is interesting is that Foodarama pulls about the same amount of power as a modern half-ton room air conditioner! Now, the duty cycle of the Foodarama is probably much less than that of the air conditioner. The result is a quick cooldown!!! I imagine the cooling system of the Foodarama is probably almost as powerful as as a small air conditioner!

 

[tolivac]

another thing for refrigeration compressers-they have gotten more efficient over the years.That could apply to household fridges to large compressers for larger building airconditioning.Yes-sounds like the FoodARama compresser was large for the units size-I would bet the cooling capacity would be about half ton for the fridge.Remember the compresser system is pulling down the temp in a small space and has to be cold enough to preserve the food stored in the box. also fast recovery to compensate for items added or removed.The AC system has to cool a large area (building or home)to a temp for comfort-not preservation.Another example-in one of the buildings I used to work in they had 5 700 ton capacity centrifical chillers to cool two buildings. Each chiller had a 700Hp motor.Was impressive when one of those started-was like a small jet engine winding up.then those old Carrier chillers were replaced in 1995 with newer Trane units. The Tranes had DOUBLE the cooling capacity with HALF the motor horsepower! That meant lower energy costs for the building operator.And the Tranes system could be automated. The Old Carrier system was manual(installed in 1939)But was a fasinating installation.It was amazing they lasted as long as they did.Not only more efficient compressors-but also more efficient refrigerants.Sadly some of the more modern ones can be VERY toxic.the refrigerant in those newer chillers was capable of causing serious liver and kidney damage as stated on the labels on the drums.In case of spillage or leakage-a system was in place to exhaust the gas to the outside and an alarm system to alert people to evacuate the building.Fortunately centrifical chillers do not operate at high pressures.so the likely hood of plumbing rupture is low.The centrifical chiller is more like a very large vacuum cleaner fan system!!It has no pistons.It does have a special transmission(on the older Carrier ones and they still use it on their new ones)that steps up the motors 1800 RPM speed to 8,000-12,000 rpm to spin the compressor "fans"The Trane units had a multistage compressor that ran at 3600 RPM motor speed.No transmission or "Speed increase gear"

 

[kenwashesmonday]

I bet your Kelvy fridge uses less energy in a year than a brand new 20 cubic foot frost free fridge does.

Good luck with it!

Ken D.

 

[Cybrvanr]

I'd be curious to see myself...I bet the Foodorama does use less power. Even though the Foodorama uses more power when it's running, I imagine it's run time is much shorter than the newer refrigerators. The Watts Up meter will calculate estimated KWH used in a month's and year's time if you leave it plugged into an appliance for a few days (enough for it to get a good measurement of it's average on/off cycle times and the power consumed during these cycles). I'd love to plug it into a Foodorama for a few days to see what it comes up with.

It would be cool to try the Watts-up meter on various vintage refrigerators (especially pre frost-free ones) and see how they compare over the years for energy consumption. I'll hafta try and make it to an appliance convention sometime and bring it!

These "real world" measurements would be more useful than the energyguide stickers on the front of the refrigerators, and it would also reveal the truth to much of the energy hype thrown around by appliance makers too!

 

[petek]

Speaking about the energy usage

I've heard conflicting stories on whether a fridge and/or freezer operates more efficiently when it is full or when it is empty or not so full. I always believed a full fridge or freezer used less power once all the items inside were cold or frozen because opening the door on an empty fridge let out all the cold whereas many cold or frozen items inside would leave less air space and also help maintain the internal temp. Thoughts?

 

[kenmore1978]

Refrigerator power

"The lightly loaded motors and transformers is why electric companies have the power factor correction capacitors in substations and on some utility poles."

I have a set of capacitors on the lines that feed out neighborhood. My roommate noticed that at the same time every morning, the UPS on his computer would beep and everything would brighten up a bit. Curious, I took note also, and I have one of the meters that measures voltage, amps, & cycles, and the voltage would rise about 3 volts at teh same time eery morning. Turns out there was a bank of capacitors that were on a time clock. They were switched in at Midnight and switched out at 6:30AM everyday. I was amazed at the service in that I called the Department of Water and Power (the city-owned utility in Los Angeles, largest municipal utility in the country) to ask what caused it, not really expecting a prompt response and they actually sent a crew out, checked it out, and came back and explained in person to me what was happening. This was late in the evening, so I guess there wasn't much to do at the time, they were glad for the distraction.

 

[kenmore1978]

Foodarama fusing

"And at start up, the Foodarama uses 12.8 amps, very close to blowing my 15 amp fuse."

IF you are actually still using fuses, jsut make sure the fuse is a time-delay fuse, designed to deal with the extra current motors draw to start, as well as allowing temporary overloading of the circuit

 

[kenmore1978]

Gibson vs Food-A-Rama

"The only bad thing is that it uses 4.9 FLA while my Gibson only uses 1.2 FLA."

So how large inside is the Kelvy vs. the Gibson? The Kelvy is pretty huge. I imagine if the Gibson were as big, it might draw the same amount of power.

 

[tolivac]

UPS

Thats interesting on the UPS-The interaction between your UPS and the power factor caps-is interesting.Computer equipment can put some strange loads on powerlines-esp in large office buildings where hundreds or even thousands of computers are located.The odd order harmonics created from them rapidly overheat distribution transformers and now transformer companies are making them just for that type of use.The semiconducter rectifiers in computers and many other devices creates a "Harmonic Load" to the lines.It can be spotted and measured by measuring the neutral current in Y type 3 ph power systemsrt.normally the neutral has low current from balanced loads-the Harmonics cuase it to rise.The transformers and wiring has to be designed to handle that type of load-size up the neutrals and the sec(LV) windings on building dist transformers.The PF caps as you point out have a timer on them and sometimes a load sensing switch as well. also they are fused so if one shorts it is removed from the line.If you see a swelled one-call the utility-I did when I saw the one I spotted years ago.A swelled cap is dangerous even if no power is on it-the pressure inside has built up and it could rupture.You wouldn't want to be around if it does.Have seen and heard them rupture in the transmitters I work on-they have similar caps in the power supplies.Makes a loud "BOOM" when they go-like a shotgun going off.

 

[Brneyedgrl80]

Thanks for all your suggestions! I will definitely look into a Watts-Up meter to check things out further. You guys got me curious now, lol

As for what size my Gibson is, I'm not sure. I no longer have a manual for it and it doesn't say on the inside label. All I can tell you is that is was bought in 1993, is a top mounted freezer unit and it is taller than me (I'm 5'7"). The Foodarama has a 15.9 cu. ft. capacity.

As far as cooling efficiency, the Foodarama definitely cools down quicker than the Gibson. It took almost a day for the Gibson to cool down enough to put food in it.