The antique AC saves the day!!!!

[norgeway]

Of course, air conditioning never gives trouble until its hot as you know what, anyway ,our heat pump began making a noise yesterday, and to make a long story short, we are without ac until tomorrow or the day after, its under warranty, and the problem is not too serious, but ill be darned if im going to sleep in a hot house, Donald said, "I guess we will just have to be miserable until tomorrow", to which I replied,"Do you remember that Frigidaire AC in the storage building,Lets put it in the living room window!!"So, here it is in all its glory, a mid 60s Frigidaire, quietly blowing ice cold air!

 

[norgeway]

I got this!

From Robert Perdue "Roanoake Robert" several years ago.

 

[norgeway]

Donald Supplied!

A little cardboard to fill in the gap!! TRASHY! But it works!!

 

[rp2813]

I love it when a vintage item gets pressed into service after a modern one fails.

 

So are you guys sleeping in the living room tonight or does the Frigidaire's cooling effect reach the bedroom?  Usually units like that are rated to cool a single room.  They used to measure cooling capacity in "tons" instead of BTU, with a typical window unit rated at one ton, supposedly adequate to cool one large room.

 

[DADoES]

 
One ton typically = 12,000 BTU.

 

[hydralique]

I bet that unit is earlier than the mid '60s, more like the early '60s or even late '50s. I love the "dinette set" knobs for adjusting the airflow!

 

[miele_ge]

bet its a 'meter spinner'

A neighbor gave us an older AC that was too big for her windows to use one summer.  It cost more to cool one room on that beast than doing the entire house on our new system.  Not sure how old it was, but it was nowhere as old as yours.

 

glad you are comfortable tho.... 

 

 

 

[norgeway]

One thing is for sure!

The air coming out of it is COLD COLD COLD, MUCH colder than any of the plastic junk made today.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I'm so glad y'all had a spare to call on. I always like to have a back up for all systems. It's not redundancy. It's being prepared.

 

[gfm8959]

I agree...

Vintage is more like late 50's to early 60's. I remember the GE Trimline series of the mid sixties which was more modern looking. Nevertheless, a tribute to the quality of the appliances of an era and mindset gone by.

 

[wayupnorth]

Old AC's

I usually put an at least 25 year old Frigidaire 7500 BTU in the bedroom window for the hottest days and it works just fine but is a "meter spinner". In my garage attic I have a 1950's Fedders, the kind with one big round diffuser in the front that would cool the whole house, but talk about something that would really spin the meter. But the way the weather is going here, I may not have to use AC this summer, that is if we get a summer. Its 50 and raining AGAIN here and expected to thru next week. Guess I wont be using the clothesline for a while.

 

[norgeway]

Model..AEGLG

Best I can tell it is a 64 model, 6000 BTU.

 

[super32]

cooling

I tryed to be a good boy this year and try all the AC both in the house and in the cars. WELL......2 out of 4 failed! Of course, my big plastic 15K was dead and so was my work car. They are both fixed now and none too soon as it got into the 90's over the weekend.

Old or not, at least you had backup and it worked!

 

[rp2813]

It probably uses R-12 which is probably why it blows out much colder air than a modern unit.

 

[whirlaway]

Old Mitchell AC

My 1953 Michell ac gave up the ghost 2 summers ago,the new I bought doesnt cool half as good and its bigger.The old one stuck out inside about a foot.You could almost throw a table cloth on it and serve dinner on it.I t always had what I called movie theatre cold.It did use r12but by 1956 almost all window units switched to r22.I have an ancient coldspot downstairs and still cranks up every year.The Mitchell was very good on current and whisper quiet.Thanks Bobby

 

[cfz2882]

vintage ACs

my oldest in use AC is a westinghouse from about 1975;it just keeps going year
after year and really cranks out the cold!The oldest one i have is a big GE
"through the wall"type made in 1958-this one does pull it's share of 230v current,
but with it's 4-pole 1725RPM compressor it runs oh so nice...This one gets cranked
up when the little 5000BTU '79 coronado has trouble keeping the garage workroom
cool

 

[supersuds]

Mitchell

Wow, a Mitchell! We had one back in the Sixties -- very quiet and it seemed like it would run forever. Guess yours almost did.

 

[circlew]

Another Mitchell

The first air conditioner in our house was a used Mitchell my dad got when I was 5 or 6. It was from the early 50's. It was in my parents bedroom, and I remember it put out very cold air, and I loved to stand in front of it. It must have used a lot of electricity, as it would blow fuses if we turned on many lights in that part of the house, or my mom ran the vacuum while it was on.

 

[whirlcool]

My parents had one of those for their bedroom in turquoise! I think they bought it in 1963 or 64. I remember it was 6,000 BTU. It sure did pump out the cold air!

It's kind of funny now, but I remember my mom in the summertime telling us in the morning "Better close the windows and doors because I'm going to turn the air conditioners on, it's going to be a hot one today. I think it's going to get up to 83 or 84!

 

[toploader55]

Fedders and Chrysler Airtemp

My Parents had a 1 ton Fedders from around 1958. It had the "Weather Wheel" Air diffuser. That had to be R-12. I still have the 1971 HO7-91 6,000 BTU Chrysler Airtemp I bought when I was a Freshman in Highschool. Where I live now the Casement windows cannot accomodate the beast. It uses R-22. I fired it up about 2-3 years ago and it still worked.

For a 6,000 BTU, it must weigh just over 100 lbs. It's all steel.

 

[toploader55]

1971 Airtemp Model Guide

Forgot I had this.

These are the different series Airtemp had to offer in 1971

 

[toploader55]

Custom Series was

A heat Pump

 

[toploader55]

Sliding and

Casement Windows. For the "Garden Apartments"

 

[toploader55]

The Chart...

For sizing out the Unit you need

 

[whirlcool]

One thing I remember about my parents Frigidaire was the paint on the unit. It was not normal appliance paint but more like a heavy duty automotive finish on it. When we first got the unit I remember my dad put some auto wax on it to protect it from rusting.
I know it lasted as long as we lived in that house (8 years) it was left behind when we moved into a house with central a/c.

 

[norgeway]

Well...Believe it or not!

I closed off the bathroom and the spare bedroom, set a 1955 Westinghouse fan in the hall, and...the living room is 68 degrees and the other end of the house is about 72, not too bad for 6000 btu!

 

[petek]

See that one in the ad above "Freeway Series" for side sliding windows. I had one very similar back in the 70's. It was made by a company called Heat Controller in Jackson Mich. I wonder if that one is a rebadged one. Anyways, it was great, so quiet because the window slid between the inside and the outside parts. I'd love to have another one.

 

[112561]

Wish I could talk you out of that sweet little Frigidaire

There is an antique mall in Fort Pierce that used to be a veterinarian office and residence. Two different rooms each had a grand looking Coldspot air conditioner through a wall or a window. They're gone now, I don't know if they gave up the ghost or the owner thought they were too old. They had to have dated to the early '60s, the building is from around the late '50s.

 

Over in Okeechobee, there is a building that was briefly used for a thrift store, it was a car showroom with an upstairs. Upstairs, there was a vintage sticker saying "Air Conditioned by Frigidaire", and not too far from that, was the ancient but nice window unit Frigidaire. I think the building is the Chevy dealer now, and I imagine those goodies are long gone now.

 

[toploader55]

Heat Controller...

Heat Controler was the company that made "Comfort Aire".

Another Great A/C from the 60's and 70's.

But wait... there's more... OMG !!! they're still in business

http://www.heatcontroller.com/

 

[firedome]

Old A/Cs...

some of the old Friedrich's were real workhorses, my wife's German aunt (Viola Volkert) in Baltimore had a big ol' Friedrich built-in window unit they bought in the late '50s that was still cranking out freezing cold air and cooling off the whole bottom floor of a big 4-square well into the mid '80s when she died. Wish I'd yanked that thing out and taken it home when they sold that house.