Post-War Westinghouse Fridge Questions

[rp2813]

This refrigerator is for sale near me. The asking price is about twice what I'd be willing to pay, so I'm hoping there's little interest and it sits for a while. The first thing I'd like to know is the approximate year of manufacture. It's similar to the 1949 model (D 9 49) I grew up with but I can't decide if it's older or newer. Ours didn't have the butter keeper, but it did have a meat keeper drawer under the evaporator and a pair "humidrawers" under bottom shelf. The drawers had a blue and white color scheme on the plastic parts, and so did the freezer door. The exterior door handle looks the same, and likely long ago lost its "Lucite" trim as so many of them did. I want to say this fridge is older because the badge design is different and I vaguely recall seeing it on large Westy appliances that date back further than 1949. The badge on ours had the blue W "meatball" on it. Based on the model information, I'm leaning towards 1947, but can't say for sure that this style of handle was in use yet.

It's tough to read the model information but the ad copy contains this:

Mod. D A 7
Style Q-45104
Ser. W-K 120572
Unit Part no. Y-3 53

I've included pictures to help with determining the age of this fridge. I'm curious about the Sears reference for parts and service as well.

P.S.

Could the recessed W to the left of the butter keeper be a blank where the defrost counter would be on models equipped with that feature?

 

[supersuds]

Hmm. The last patent number was issued January 18, 1949, so it would have been made some time after that.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US2459173A/en

Yet there are no shelves on the door. Crosley's patent on that expired in 1951, and most other makes immediately added them. So my guess would be 1949 or 50.

 

[rp2813]

Thanks John,
Maybe it's a later model than 1949. On the outside it looks the same, but its lack of features like meat keeper and crisper drawers makes me think it's a lesser model, and Westinghouse may have retained the older cabinets for those into the early '50s. I'm fairly certain that the recessed W emblem by the butter keeper indicates a year of manufacture after the door counter defrost system had been added to higher end models. I'll poke around for images on the web and see what I find.

 

[circlew]

I agree with Supersuds. The only models I saw in ads that had this cabinet styling were 1949 and 1950. Some sizes had full width freezers, and others like your picture. I don't know why they included that Sears model tag, as Westinghouse had nothing to do with their Coldspot refrigerators, which were made by Seeger Refrigerator Co. in Evansville, IN.

 

[rp2813]

Thanks Tom. That settles it. Now I wait and see if the price goes down. I don't think a lot of people would be interested in this fridge, at least not at its current price. It would serve as a placeholder for another GE Combination in the '48 - '58 range.

My '52 Kelvinator has been acting up more and more lately. I need something more reliable and this Westinghouse has been in the same family since it was new. I saw a Marquette fridge on FB marketplace today. That's a make I've never heard of and I couldn't see any clues inside or out that would suggest it's a major manufacturer's rebadge. It's kind of rough and more work cosmetically than I want to do, though.