Take Hope, Vintage Appliance fans, and Sieze the Day!

[red_october]

Because today I got my dream machine. Tomorrow you might get yours.

The build quality is amazing. The rubber is still supple, there are no squeaks, and it is phenomenally quiet. I see why these are so popular in Florida -it seems to extract moisture very well. The air stream is very quiet and you can point it wherever you are or want it.

 

[frontaloadotmy]

Nice Looking Air Conditioner

Do you know the year model?

 

[red_october]

Thanks man!

I can tell you everything that's on the tag but I'm not sure how the year is indicated. I know these are still made, though. Anywho, the tag has the following info (aside from the cooling capacity (8,000) and the amps. etc,:
Model 5A12E2, Rev. A.
What I'm pretty sure is a serial number: 5188263
and a code printed on the tag (not stamped): 11-21-1725C-5
Perhaps that is the date code?

 

[63getelevision]

That's just beautiful, Red, there is a former veterinarian office-animal hospital on U.S. 1 in Fort Pierce, it is a nice antique mall now. It has one for sure, maybe two Sears Coldspot units from about the early '60s in there running up a storm.

 

[petek]

Down in the basement of our local flea market the other day I saw a vintage Admiral a/c in with a pile of a/c for sale. Didn't look to be in that good a shape but interesting all the same,, has a regular fan fan on the front, not a squirrel cage type inside.

 

[thor]

Check the air filter!

Nice unit, seems quite in shape also. Many years ago I used to work in an office cooled by these type of units. These models had a name which I cannot remember, but had something to do with the gyrating wheel on front. They did an excellent cooling job, but one piece of advice: be sure to check the condition of the foam air filter.

The design of these units, air path wise, is contrary to what is usually found in other window air conditioners. Air gets sucked through the right perimeter of the plastic front, then passes through a "suspended" air filter, then through a squirrel cage blower, then makes a U turn to the left and is blown through the evaporator, which sits right in front of the gyrating (stationary) grill.

The plastic foam air filter used in these units has an aluminum frame, and it sits in front of the squirrel cage blower held in place by the frame. The problem is that the foam does not "rest" against anything, like it does in regular air conditioners, where the foam rests and presses against the evaporator. As the filter gets dirty with use it tends to buckle towards the squirrel cage blower, bent by the force of the incoming air. With time, the foam deteriorates, gets mechanincally-wise weak and gets sucked by the blower, resulting in an ugly triturated foam mess. Parts of the foam filter pass through the squirrel blower and gets stuck to the inner side of the evaporator, which will be quite difficult to remove.

I saw this happen in many of the units used in the office, and once this happened they had to be sent to the service, where they would clean the filter mess with a compressed air pistol.

My advice, buy many of these filters, they are cheap, clean it often with just water, and get the habit of discarding the filter after every season.

Emilio

 

[red_october]

Filters...

The air filter in this unit was replaced by the previous owner with a simple piece of (bright green!) Air Con filter material. It's a right bitch to get it to stay in place while you place the grill -where do you get the filter? I'll try Fedders themselves... seems a likely source.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Originally, Fedders ACs had a frame shaped like an X in front of the squirrel cage blower. The original foam filter had 4 metal gromets near each corner to hold the filter in place. If you have trouble holding the filter in place, you can find the dark foam filters that have not only a frame, but also a grid of solid black plastic within the filter. You cut it to fit your unit, but maybe a little bit larger to enable you to wedge in into position so that it remains where you want it. Your lovely Fedders has the vastly improved front grill with the solid front panel that enables you to direct the air flow to the right. Our early 60s unit had a gold tone metal perforated grill and if you turned the big louver to the right, the cold air was pulled right back in to the unit and the thermostat cycled on and off constantly. Our big Fedders never ran a night without frosting up, with my parents at home. A lady on my paper route said the same thing about their 2 Fedders. When my parents were away on a trip, I would turn the thermostat to a warmer setting before going to bed and it would cycle enough that it did not ice up. But the damage had been done and rather than have to deal with anything like that, mom would just shut it off before going to bed and open the windows and let all of the hot humid air into the house. The thermostat coil was behind the filter and in front of the blower, but it had nothing on the coil to sense icing. John said that the way Fedders ran their evaporator coils restricted the air flow which caused the evaporator to get very cold and start icing. I hope that your smaller size unit does not ice up during the night and that you enjoy it very much. Tom

 

[thor]

The local manufacturer of Fedders air conditioners (BGH) had designed a replacement filter which was all metal, something that looked like the filters of a kitchen exhaust hood. These filters would hold in place in spite of how clogged with dirt they were due to heavy use, and would last forever. You could wash them under running water, shake the water out and put them right back into place!

I hope you can find something of the kind in the US!

Emilio

 

[red_october]

Fedders!

Mine can direct the Air Flow wherever you want it. It does not ice up (or hasn't yet!) although a weep hole may be plugged or I may need to re-seat it as it seems intent on dumping some of the copious quantity of water it takes out of the room onto the window sill. In front of the squirrel cage blower on this unit is a solid metal grille to keep the filter from being sucked in and it facilitiates the use of the piece of loose filter material that the previous owner instituted.

At any rate, I have an advert showing the older type with the front grille that would allow it to eat its own output. I've posted it before but I think that post went into the land of old posts so here is some more vintage A/C eye candy:
The top right two and the one on the bottom left are very clearly able to eat their own output.

 

[cuffs054]

RED, what is the unit in the bottom right?

 

[red_october]

That unit is a floor console model for permanent install

That is a very old form factor of Air Conditioner. I have seen adds for them from the 1920s, I think. I'm not sure if they were heat pumps, or had very large capacities, or what, but the advert had it being purchased by a fat, sweaty office manager who was coplaining to his secretary about how hot it was in the office.

 

[red_october]

Piddling Air Con fixed!

I've pretty sure I've got the "Air Conditioner pees on the window sill" problem licked. First of all a quick check with a spirit level reveals that the unit was canted into the room and not out. A little muscling the unit around in the window fixed this. Second the weep hole was plugged up with some rust (only rust on the whole chassis), a quick twiddle of an awl cleared it and it started pouring water onto the deck outside. We shall see, but I'm pretty sure this will be the end of it peeing on my window sill.