Trivia Question. Put on your thinking caps!

[stevet]

I am sure this question has been asked somewhere here before but just for the mental exercise, here is the question(s):

In what year was the first electric refrigerator for domestic use produced or sold?
What manufacturer brought it to market?
What was the price of it when introduced?

Thanks for your help on this one!
Steve

 

[douglasdc6]

Don`t know all the details but what I do know is electric refrigeration was around as early as 1920 - In those days the small belt drive air cooled condensing units most were mounted to laminated plywood & the units had small feet under the plywood.

General electric I believe was the 1st to pioneer the hermetically sealed compressor system when they introduced there monitor top refreigerator around 1925 or 1926 The 1st monitor top refrigerator cabinets had all wood exteriors & shortly after porcelain came into use.

 

[maytagbear]

Others may not agree, but this is what I know

I may be wrong, but the first home electric refrigerator I know of was a Frigidaire, in 1918. It was big, and had a wooden case (like ice boxes). I don't know the price, but it was costly for its time.

I do know for sure that Frigidaire offered coil and compressor kits that allowed people to retrofit their ice boxes, if they were otherwise satisfied with them.

To think that mechanical refrigeration for the home is not quite 100 years old!

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[crevicetool]

I don't know any particulars, but had always thought Frigidaire to be the first in home refrigeration.

Rick

 

[norgeway]

Kelvinator

Kelvinator always advertised that they were first..1915 or so, belt drive sulfur dioxide unit I think.

 

[laundromat]

I thinkmthat Kelvinator made the first electric refrigerator but,FRIGIDAIRE made the first self- contained model that didn't need the works sepeate from the frig.

 

[douglasdc6]

Guys, You are correct - Frigidaire & Kelvinator Pretty much had the market in the teens & Early twenties .

Somewhere around here I have 30 pages of pictures showing a bunch of some really cool refrigeration air cooled condensing units from the early 1920`s I would kill for to have in my collection .

 

[abcomatic]

I think Maytagbear is correct. My neighbor across the street has a huge old Fridgedaire wooden frig. from around 1918. You can see where the compressor was. She uses it now to for storage, and it takes up a LOT of room. Gary

 

[appliguy]

Actually guys you are incorrect......

According to A Walk in The Park: The History of Appliance Park, the first domestic refigerator offered in this country was developed in France and sold by GE from 1911 to 1928. The design used in this refigerator was developed by a French Monk named Abbe' Audiffren and used sulphur dioxide to cool a salt/brine solution. These were made by GE at their Winter Street plant in Fort Wayne Indiana from 1911 to 1928. GE introduced the first hermitcally sealed refrigeration unit in 1924/25 but it proved very unreliable. The Monitor top was introduced in 1927 as a successor to that model. Christian Steenstrupp designed a much more reliable oscillating unit and added it to the previous model and the Monitor Top was born. The 1927 Monitor Top came in 5 cubic ft and 7 Cubic ft models and both were ALL METAL allowing GE to extend its customary 90 day warranty to a 5 year warranty. In it's first year the Monitor Top captured 7% of the domestic refigeration Market......PAT COFFEY

 

[spankomatic]

Lets go back in time...

 

[laundromat]

1965

Mr Abee,our day camp instructor (who,by the way I saw cruzing me and my lover,David at the Hippo one summer night decades later)drove us(my brother and other boys in our daycamp)up to New york to see The new york World's Fair>We went different places and saw lots of cool stuff.While in the GM booth,I saw this huge FRIGIDAIRE emblem and was in a trance of surprize,excitement and joy to see every FRIGIDAIRE appliance and numerous prototypes of future products.As I reached my climax,my brother grabbed my arm and we left to go to the Chrysler booth.On the way there,I saw GE's emblem and walked into the maze away from the group.I saw the Carosel of Progress and they were looking for me for almost 3 hours.Abee was furious and my brother seamed a bit anoid.I didn't care! I had so many promo items,suites catalogs and brochures.I got a neat FRIGIDAIRE poster and three pocket protectors with pens.When I was finaly found,I was eating samples of LaChoy Chinese fried noodles and chicken chow mein.We were supposed to be back home by 6PM and it was already 7PM when we got back on the road.After that,my brother dropped out. I stayed and got awards for swimming,tennis and golf games we learned to play.I went on and was at Mervo,a tech school near the old Memorial Stadium.There I went on to a more advanced swim training and did 50 laps of American craw,back stroke,inverted back stroke,breast stroke and butterfly every other day from June through august and chose that over staying home and being abused.I don't think Abee was as mad as my brother because he never said word one after we got back home.When he found out once Dave and I strolled over to say hi to him at the Hippo,who I was,he conveniently melted and dissapeared into the crowd.We laughed thinking about what may have happened to other "little boys" in the locker rooms as they were showering and changing into and out of their clothes.He never aproached us but,who knows??

 

[ptcruiser51]

100th Anniversary

I keep seeing ads for Frigidaire's "100th Anniversary Models". What were they making in 1909 if it wasn't refrigerators? Maytag brought out their "Centennial" washers in 2007 because they began manufacturing them in 1907.