Nice Look Back - Admiral Duplex DNS22H9 Owner's Manual

[launderess]

Think one of my grandmothers may have had this model fridge, not sure.

Love the wine rack concept, but not too sure about those metal supports for adjustable shelves.

Overall a pretty feature packed SxS fridge-freezer for the time I shouldn't think.

ADMIRAL DUPLEX DNS22H9 OWNER'S MANUAL Pdf Download

View and Download Admiral Duplex DNS22H9 owner's manual online. Duplex side by side refrigerator with no frost. Duplex DNS22H9 refrigerator pdf manual download.

www.manualslib.com

 

[jamiel]

Believe those came out of Galesburg, IL. Note the non-Whirlpool icemaker (twisting plastic ice tray).

 

[combo52]

Admiral SXS

Yes this was differently a Galesburg built refrigerator , these were fairly reliable but crude and noisy refs.

 

They were prone to all kinds of broken interior plastic parts worse of which the inner door panels would crack and break loose where they were attached to the outer steel and the door seals would loose the ability to stay in place.

 

The plastic Flex-Tray IMs were also a major problem, most owners gave up on having a working IM after a few repairs on it.

 

John L.

 

[launderess]

Speaking of the devil

Look what's on fleaPay!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-vintage-refrigerator-STILL-WORKS-1960s-Admiral-Duplex-fridge/233622601210?hash=item3664fdfdfa:g:GMgAAOSw-Rle6vO8

 

[paulg]

Huge refrigerator

The largest SXS I ever saw was an Admiral at a convent. I later saw an identical model at the Salvation Army. Admiral “Imperial” if I remember correctly.
Anyway, I would have loved to have it but looking at the schematic on the rear revealed the unit had many heaters throughout the unit. It seemed to be more of a heater than a refrigerator!
I wondered after many years of use would the unit ever be reliable again? Beside that, I could never fit the thing down either stairway to the basement.

 

[goatfarmer]

Paul

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[neptunebob]

Is this when Admiral and Magic Chef were the same company?

And more I want to know: Did anything Good ever come from Magic Chef?

 

[paulg]

Yes! That is the one.

I admittedly am a bit of an Admiral fan. That is one huge fridge and I remember the super large refrigerator door. I owe Admiral for my start into the TV business. Long story... Later....
As far as Magic Chef history is concerned:
Magic Chef bought Admiral in about 1979. That gave Magic Chef a full appliance line, a refrigeration factory and Admiral’s microwave oven plant to boot. Magic Chef financed Admiral’s TV warranties for about five years. After that Admiral and Magic Chef worked merrily together. The refrigerator above was from the pre-Magic Chef days.
Maytag started shaking in their shoes as Magic Chef was now a more complete manufacturer of kitchen appliances and Maytag’s competitiveness was waning. If I remember correctly, Maytag bought the Magic Chef, Admiral (and Norge I believe) grouping and sailed into relative success for a few years.

 

[goatfarmer]

What I most remember about Admiral is the large sign along I294, in the area of O'Hare airport.

 

[launderess]

In their day Magic Chef ranges were about good as one could get. Sadly like many other appliance makers they felt need to diversify and their other lines weren't very successful.

Maytag getting their mitts on MC didn't do wonders for brand. Now of course it is mostly a brand name slapped on tons of various imported made in Asia goods of various quality.

Magic Chef - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[launderess]

Admiral corporation was started by an Italian-American and was a great company that began with radio, then onto televisions and then appliances including their famous refrigerators.

Sadly by 1970's as Asian countries began dumping appliances and other consumer goods into US market, it hurt Admiral like everyone else. They were sold to Magic Chef who in turn was bought by Maytag, we all know the rest.

In USA at least Admiral fridges are still sold as an exclusive brand to Home Depot.

Founder of Admiral Corporation created the Siragusa Family Foundation that still is going strong.

Our Founder | Siragusa Family Foundation

Established in 1950 by Ross D. Siragusa, the Siragusa Family Foundation continues to support charitable organizations in the Chicago area.

www.siragusa.org

 

[twintubdexter]

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">I remember that the first time you got a summer heat wave in San Jose you'd see a parade of Admiral Duplex refrigerators come in for repair. The service guys would make jokes about them. That king-sized one was no fun to pick up for the shop or return afterwards. Not heavy, just big and bulky. </span>

 

[launderess]

What was wrong with them?

That caused such a run on repairs during warm weather?

 

[launderess]

Well I found one....

https://books.google.com/books?id=v...hUKEwjh3NfBsbXqAhUahXIEHdjqAuoQ6AEwCnoECAsQAQ

As someone already stated, Admiral had a heater for everything in these Duplex fridges. Looks like just more things that could go wrong.

 

[launderess]

@ Rely #4

Think this is largest size "duplex" Admiral made, and they didn't do it for long either IIRC.

https://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?77631

Besides problems many mentioned in this thread, perhaps there just wasn't such great demand for such a huge fridge/freezer.

Perhaps yes, in convent or some other place with large numbers of people. But otherwise you'd need a pretty big kitchen to fit something that big.

Personally have always felt along lines of my mother, grandmothers and aunts.... Better have a normal size fridge/freezer and also a chest freezer for long term storage/buying in bulk.

When you open door of these SXS freezers all that cold air comes out.

 

[paulg]

Magic Chef

I used to read the newsletters that my dad would bring home from GE/ Hotpoint. During the Magic-Chef Admiral merger period, the writers of the newsletter, analyzing the merger, referred to Magic Chef as a fine product of high quality. Agreed, but weren’t those the days?

 

[twintubdexter]

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">I don't remember what the warm-weather problems were with those Duplex fridges. I never repaired refrigeration (oh maybe a light switch on a trade-in) and of course I was forbidden to work on customer's appliances. Let's face it, you wouldn't want your new purchase to be fixed by a high school kid. Like the circus elephant that helps put up the tent, I got to help with pick-up and delivery of most hospitalized stuff and clean off any fingerprints or "perm-a-gum" residue the technician left. </span>

 

[combo52]

Admiral SXS Etc

I never saw a great Admiral refrigerator , may they were better before 1955, but by the late 50s they always were full of cheap plastic parts that book easily, they were not even close to the quality of Frigidaire, GE and Whirlpool-Coldspot.

 

I remember one of these big SXSs that one of our customers had, It had 18 electric heaters in it, when our customer gave up on it in the early 80s and bought a Bottom Freezer WP from us she could not believe how much her power bill dropped I imagine our power company shut down a power plant when that thing was scrapped, LOL.

 

I never saw a Magic Chef Gas range that was worth a dam after around 1970 [ and we won't even mention MC electric ranges ] MC gas ranges were never as good as Hardwick, Caloric, Tappan.

 

There Was No Reason For Maytag to buy these companies over MTs period of ownership they did not improve these products at all, the only thing they did was cheapen them further and ruin Maytags reputation.

 

Maytag could still be a strong laundry brand if they had just stayed with building W&Ds and commercial laundry products [ Speed Queen has done quite well doing this ]

 

At one point MT spent 160 million on the Galesburg factory and the refrigerators that came out were worst than before. One of the many things they did was switching to plastic hinges on their top freezer refs, we used to have customers when they opened the loaded ref door have the whole thing fall off and fly across the kitchen floor, more than a few people were injured when the door fell on their foot. Even to this day I have never seen another refrigerator with plastic door hinges.

 

John L.

 

[neptunebob]

How much volume was the Admiral refrigerator?

I remember years ago that GE had a side by side fridge that was about 30 cubic feet, bragging it was the largest made.  There may have been a Kenmore version too.  GE Appliances now, their largest is 25 cubic feet.  Was the Admiral larger?  Did the Admiral maybe compete against Sub Zero, GE Monogram, Viking?