New to me refrigerator

[oliger]

My kitchen will be pretty much finished after I get this beauty in there. Its a 1960s RCA-Whirlpool "Icemagic" I'm pretty sure it has one of the first automatic ice makers. Poor thing was in someone's basement, so the bottom 1/2 inch has been eaten by rust, but this trusty old fridge still works. I'm waiting until summer to paint it coppertone, so now it lives on in the garage. Ill also make a short wood base because of the rust, and to make it match the cabinet height, and paint it coppetone to match. The set of 4 wires on the freezer door, is that for canned juices? Also, the meat drawer is missing in the refrigerator, it would be nice if I could find a replacement.

 

[oliger]

Also, they try to tell you that these fridges use copious amounts of electricity; This one is 6.8 amps = 782 watts. My late 90's model fridge is 11.6 amps = 1,334 watts. That's like running a toaster all day. They are about the same size, and both have automatic defrost, what could possibly make the newer one use nearly double the electricity?

 

[combo52]

Neat mid 60s RCA Whirlpool Ref

I remember these refs well, they were quite good in their day.

 

Whirlpool bought Servel in 1956 partly to get the IM. Servel had been building selling IMs since the late 40s and when WP bought Servel they continued IM production uninterrupted.

 

When judging power consumption you can not go by the model tag, even this WP ref only draws between 300-400 watts when running, the only time it gets close to 700 watts is when its defrost heater in on, although a newer ref will only draw 1/2 that much and not run nearly as much.

 

John L.

 

[norgeway]

these have

That wonderful rotary compressor that they bought Seeger refrigeration for in 1957, one of the best ever.

 

[oliger]

Don't forget to clean your coils!

Painted the fridge coppertone to match my kitchen. I was told the fridge worked, so I didn't mess with it, until it was running for hours and hours without shutting off, only stopped running 3 times yesterday. Pulled the front grille off, and sure enough whole thing, everything was dust. I had no visible sight of coils, it was ALL DUST! I took my air compressor and took the service cover off the back of the fridge and blew it out. My entire house was filled with a fog of dust, (yay fun). However I plugged it back in, and in 12 minutes it had cooled down and stopped running. The coils before were nearly 150 degrees, and after cleaning them run at about 75-85 degrees (F).