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Rotating Vents

Fedders had the "Weather Wheel".

GE had four round vents on some models

Phil... are you talking about Automatic vents or round rotating for air direction ?

Good Lord Robert and Fred... You even find Minty Vintage Air Conditioners !!!!

That's amazing and congrats.
 
Automatic vents

toploader - I was talking about those vents that are automatic, not the manual ones. I remember seeing them somewhere sometime. Thanks for replying, Eddie.

I saw this : http://www.air-n-water.com/product/rads-81h.htm#description
and thought there was a window air conditioner made by Chrysler or another brand, maybe late 60s or 70s, that had a control built in for humidity control. I know you can attach an external humidity control that enables the unit to turn on or off when it reaches a selected humidity level. So maybe I'm dreaming, regarding that feature being offered 40 years ago or so.
 
ovrphil

that is a sweet looking Chrysler Airtemp you got there! I have your videos of it saved to my favorites on my youtube channel
 
unimatic1141, awesome find on the RCA Whirlpool. never seen one of these before. can you show us what the back of it looks like? maybe id recognize one if I saw it from the back, as that is the part of the unit more people can see because its outside.

Thanks!
 
Hunidity Control on A/C units

Bill(wiskybill) - Wow, that's it! Do you have such a model? What happened to features like this? Were they marginally successful or like so many other things, just didn't get the interest because of de-humidifiers(talking to myself here...lol) Thank you for posting this.

rstacey1990 - I wish I was the owner of that Chrysler Air Temp...but I just posted it as a "like". I've never seen one like it.

It's amazing how generic looking today's window A/C's look.. Then again, nah.
 
I'm just wondering if that RCA Whirpool was built by them or if it's a rebadged Heat Controller which all had similar top mount air discharge. I'd almost bet on it. They were right down the road from Whirlpool in Jackson Mich.
 
Sadly, no. I only have the product literature.
It appears to have a print date of Oct/59.

This was for a model 106.60150 which has the
controls in the top picture.

According to charts for Sears mfg. codes that
I've looked at, 106 is a Whirlpool code.
 
Pete,
I think you're right, it looks like a Heat Controller product. They also made GM Frigidaire units for the canadian market from 1964 to 1970. The model P052K below looks similar to Fred and Robert's Whirlpool P50.

 
proto type window unit carrier

my father inlaw worked for carrier as an engineer in upstate ny back in the day.relocated to Louisville ky.i believe in the 60's.one day we were cleaning out he's basement when we came up on a box that had a window unit in it.he told me that it was the 1st proto type window unit that they worked on when he worked for carrier.we plugged it in and still worked.but compared to todays unit it pulled some juice.sorry don't have pictures of it now.i still currently use it sometimes at our cabin in the woods plugged into a generator.dont have any kind of paper work but my father inlaw is still here to tell ya.he still works for an heating and aircoditioning here in town.was layed off by carrier.
 
Re vintage AC current usage..

I still contend that even though the old ac's used more current...they were not really less efficent because the air coming out of them was so much colder than todays junk...in other words, the old air cond. would run much less than whats made today...just as a vintage dishwasher might use 12 to 15 gallons of water, but run only 35 to 45 minutes...water is still cheaper than electricity so in essence the old one is no less efficent than the new one that runs 2 hours and does nothing!...Robert and Fred, that Whirlpool is beautiful!! I guarantee you will get some ice cold air out of that!!
 
Hans,

Among vintage units, there are some that have a poor EER, and others with a better EER. I think anything with an EER of 8 or more is fine, with less than that, it's better to either have cheap electricity rates or for occasional use. There are some older units with a surprisingly good EER. My 1974 Frigidaire pictured above has 9.6 which is almost as good as some new units. And it's built to last!
 
What is this?

I bought this today and I can't figure out who made it.It looks like it was made for a car like an under the dash type deal. The box says it is a demonstration unit. It is in mint condition and works great.I was hoping someone here can shed some light on it.

lostasever-2014060801130201590_1.jpg

lostasever-2014060801130201590_2.jpg

lostasever-2014060801130201590_3.jpg

lostasever-2014060801130201590_4.jpg

lostasever-2014060801130201590_5.jpg
 
Those were popular in the mid to late 50's. They are automotive evaporative coolers.
You put water in them and then mount them between the window and door frame and drive away. The ram air that comes in the front of the unit provides the cooled air.

These work well out west where there is little humidity. But in the deep south they don't work very well.

You usually see these things around vintge VW club meets. They are in high demand with vintage VW Bug enthusiasts.
 
YES--Remember those--Dad bought one of those things to use in an old grey Hearse to haul us kids around--In New Mexico for those trips to our camp property near Pikes Peak.You had to pull a string sticking out of the unit to move the evaporator pads-as you did-you got a blast of cold water in your face.the unit cooled the front of the car well,but not the rear where us kids were.Sometimes we could sit in the front-if you sat by the unit in the window-you got to PULL THE STRING!!Funny how it says that the unit shown was made in Florida-the evaporative cooler would be USELESS there-in fact would make you even MORE miseable by adding even more humidity.
 
1964 Norge

In the spring of 1964 my dad emptied the savings account to spend ~$325 on a 10,000 btu Norge window unit with a real wood detachable front. The unit performed flawlessly for over 35 years. It eventually would up as a 'loaner' to friends whose units broke and couldn't afford to replace theirs. My parents lost track of it about 10 years ago. For all I know it's still humming away in a window somewhere.

It cooled 3 upstairs bedrooms (sheet hanging at top of stairs) and kept 4 rooms downstairs 80-ish and dry.

When EER was introduced I followed the Sears catalogue instructions and got 7.5 for the Norge. That actually qualified as "High Efficiency" at the time (mid 70's?).

The only downsides were that the unit was HEAVY. It needed 2 guys to lift and a 3rd person to open/close the window, guide it into place, and prop it up with a log so it wouldn't rip the window frame out. The compressor was loud when it first kicked in but quieted down after a few minutes.

Now? I use 35lb 5,000 btu units that I can manage myself, lol.

Jim
 
Someone mentioned in this thread they had a GE or Hotpoint unit that cooled real well but the fan output was weak. Several years back, an HVAC repairman showed me a little trick to restore some cooling and operating efficiency in these units. The squirrel cage fan would accumulate dirt and gunk on each blade inside the cage. He took an old butter knife and cleaned off each blade. Then plugged the A/C unit in the outlet and turned it on. The unit put out like it was brand new increasing it's efficiency. If you want to see lots of pictures of old window a/c units go to Flickr.

http://https//www.flickr.com/photos/aircondman2
 
Thanks zippy for the link to the older a/c units. Remember a lot of those units growing up. One that I saw and had never seen is the unit that's part a/c on one side and a refrigerator on the other side, and each can be run together or on their own. Very interesting concept.
Jon
 
Vintage air conditioners for sale?

Hey everyone! I'm doing a tv so set in 1973. I was wondering if anyone wanted to sell their late sixties, early seventies wall unit air conditioners to our show? I know this is a stretch but trying to cover all my bases since they are practically impossible to find. Feel free to email me: [email protected]
 

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