My 'new' Westinghouse... Frost-free???

[turquoisedude]

Among the goodies recovered from the former top secret storage site (just off Dufferin Road in Stanstead) was this Westinghouse refrigerator that an old friend from high school gave me.  We reconnected at a party a few years ago and she had mentioned she had this 'ancient huge refrigerator' that she wanted to find a new home for, and well, I said "I'll take it!".  

 

It's a Canadian Westinghouse model TP-12,  style 94394 and it claimed to be 'Frost-Free'.... 

 

[turquoisedude]

Well, I had it running for a few days so I thought, let's push the button and see what happens.   Funny, I think Nancy said the same thing to Ronnie a few times back in the 80s....  LOL

 

[turquoisedude]

Fearing for the safety of the rest of the collection in the garage, I hung around for a while.   I heard the refrigerator running and smelled something 'hot'.... 

 

When I opened the freezer compartment, there was steam and water from melted ice!    Yikes!!  My first hot-gas defrost??

 

At the end of the cycle, there was a wee bit of water (I'd not let the freezer get all frosted up) but by golly, I think this may still be working!

 

Now, I have NO idea about how hot-gas defrost machines are supposed to work and specifically how a Westinghouse of this vintage (I guess mid-50s) is supposed to work.  If anyone has owned something like this and can 'splain to me how it works, that would be cool... LOL 

 

Wheee!!  What fun to get to play with all these toys that have been locked away!!

 

[tomturbomatic]

More self-defrosting than frost free

There is a reversing valve so that what usually would go to the condenser gets routed to the evaporator, including the heat from the compressor. There is either a timer or thermostat to take them out of defrost. That can go bad and you get stuck with a hot box. In cases where a thermostat is used and it goes bad and cannot be replaced, a timer can generally replace it. The nice thing with your Westinghouse is that the defrost is manually initiated so you can be on hand to make sure that it terminates.

 

[pulltostart]

Paul

Again, from "Monopoly - The Appliance Version"...

You land on "Chance", draw a card and the card reads:

"Your hot-gas defrost timer failed. Lose One Turn."

lawrence

 

[a440]

Very nice Westy! I have seen these in vintage ads but never heard of anyone having one.
I wonder why all of the refrigerators do not use the hot gas defrost. LG is using it on some of their refrigerators. I have two LG dehumidifiers that uses it. It is so FAST! Seems to me that it would be more "energy efficient" since it is so fast compared to the traditional heater type defrost. Only takes about 30 seconds.
Congrats on the Westy!

 

[turquoisedude]

What a gas!

Thanks for the info on how hot-gas defrost worked, Tom!   I cracked the refrigerator section of book I've had since I was a brat called 'How To Repair Major Appliances'.  The book was originally published in 1963 and has some concrete examples of vintage appliances I own used as illustrations - there's a section on defrosting in the refrigeration chapter and there is a description of how a hot-gas defrost system was automated by using a timer or other device to send hot gas through the system to melt ice.  Fascinating!!  There is no description of a 'push to defrost' mechanism, though - I wonder if there could be some kind of a countdown timer that opens the defrost solenoid for x number of minutes...  I'll need to find some service info on this one for sure.  

 

Lawrence, this 'Appliance Monopoly' could be fun!  Hubby would want a Chance card that reads: 'You've gone over your allowed appliance limit - go directly to jail AND pay $100 for crusher rental'... LOL

 

Brent, that's interesting that the defrost on the dehumidifier is fast - the 'cycle' I initiated yesterday on the Westinghouse seemed pretty fast, too.   I'd love to find some user instructions on a refrigerator like this to determine how often the defrost was intended to be run.  

 

In the meantime,  I am defrosting the 62 Frigidaire CyclaMatic AND the GE LW11 freezer today.  The old-fashioned way, though... 

 

 

 

[tomturbomatic]

Did you use a blow dryer? It makes defrosting really fast and LOUD.