Regarding Post #2 (1937 Vitalaire) Consumers' Research Bulletin 1937 annual said it was the best-performing ice refrigerator tested, maintaining an inside temperature more than 2 degrees below the Coolerator model J-5. However, none of the ice refrigerators tested could maintain a temp as low as 45 F when in a room "at summer temperatures."
They noted that ice refrigerators had a higher operating cost than mechanical fridges. "The cost of icing a refrigerator (at 60 cents per hundred pounds) will average from two to three times the cost of electricity (at 5 cents per kilowatt-hour) required for running a modern electric refrigerator of comparable size."