Questions & help picking out new overflow/garage fridge

[russkat]

My current garage fridge (1969 GE Deluxe No Frost) finally quit a couple days ago.
My father bought it in 1969 and passed it down to me in 1992 when he purchased a new KitchenAid during a remodel.
53 yrs & never serviced! I'm thinking about a replacement from the 1980's or 1990's. Just an ordinary top freezer model & no side-by-sides.
My Garage is not insulated, but is heated in the winter to keep chemicals/paints from freezing.
Kept at 40-45 degrees.
The next overflow fridge in the house this time around though.

Anyway... a couple questions.
1) Are there any visual clues in the freezer sections of fridges that might indicate they are "manual defrost"? Most ads on Craigslist don't mention that.

2) I've learned here on the forum that the 1980's-early 1990's KitchenAids are very reliable, any other specific brands to focus on or avoid?

3) Are ice maker equipped fridges always frost free?

3) Out of curiosity, when did the quality really start to decline? Circuit board failures, compressor failures, etc...

I did find an early 1990's KitchenAid, but the seller wants $400 which seems high to me. I tried a couple Restore locations, but they seem very overpriced.
The other option is used appliance stores in the Denver area.

Thanks for your help!

 

[russkat]

Found this one locally, but I think it's probably close to the same age as what I had. Manual defrost though. Do most manual defrost freezer sections look like this? Just a plain empty box?

 

[combo52]

80s GE cycle defrost refrigerator

That’s a nice simple refrigerator for the garage, the freezer section needs to be frosted every year or two,

The problem with this refrigerator or any two door refrigerator pretty much is that if the temperature of the garage dips down around 40° since the thermostat is in the refrigerator section the compressor may not run enough to keep the freezer anywhere near zero so you really can’t use the freezer and have it packed full of meat in the winter or something it needs to stay really cold this was also true of your old refrigerator.

Otherwise this would be a great refrigerator for your garage uses less power and should last about forever. When you get it if you get it clean the condenser and fan thoroughly underneath it.

If you want to make it a bit more energy efficient you can steal the condenser fan motor and blade out of a new refrigerator that has electronic fan motor you could shave about 30 W office running wattage .

John L

 

[DADoES]

 
John, interesting to note that I've had no trouble with frozen items in a 1997 KA topfreezer running as a garage unit since 2005.

 

[henene4]

When did quality start to decline

While throwing things out isn't the best, cooling equipment got seriously efficient over the past few years.
Since they run 24/7, that adds up

My mum had a freezer she bought with the kitchen in the late 80s. Built in, small thing, common in Europe.
Here old model used about 1kWh per day.
The new one - same size just about - and used half that not being that efficient a few years back.
The coat for the new one was recouped in about 4 years with our electricity rates.

Unfortunately, the time the high efficiency systems came around, is around everything got cheapened.

Everything since 2010 or thereabouts is generally about half the usage compared to the 80s/90s.

That quickly eats up any savings from a used model.
Most calculators suggest gaining the spending back in 5 years or less compared to a 1990s model.

So even if it bites the dust after 5 years, it's still cheaper.

And yes, a flat wall with no ventilation is a manual defrost.
An automated defrost has always some kind of ventilation somewhere there.
They move all the refrigeration to a small heat exchanger that is seperate from the main freezing compartment. All the frost builds up there and is thawed away regularly by a heater. Since it is seperate the heat dosen't creep to the food fast enough to cause problems.
Cooling is done with cold air and usually a small fan does that - thus the ventilation system.

Honestly, just grab what ever can be had cheaply locally.
Online, a cheap auto defrost goes for just below 550$ from what it seems.

Just my 2 cents though.

 

[rp2813]

Did I understand correctly in the OP that this next overflow fridge will be inside the house instead of in the garage?  If so, then a manual defrost model with a single cold control located inside the fresh food section should be fine.

 

The fridge pictured above is for sure a manual defrost model.  Besides the lack of a circulating fan, the unpainted textured metal liner is another dead give-away.  GE started producing this design back in 1948 and its reliability was proven over the next few decades.    Under normal ambient conditions, the separate freezer sections were capable of maintaining a temperature of zero degrees or even lower.  I had a 1957 GE "Combination" model and defrosting was easy since the freezer section had a drain.

 

I'm not a fan of cheap electronic controls, but they're unavoidable these days unless you're buying a super basic model, and maybe not even then.  I think if you find anything made before ~2000, you'll be OK.  Even 50 years before.  They were built like tanks back then.

 

[russkat]

Yes... the replacement will most likely be in the house, not the garage.
Thanks for all the comments, that helps!