What Exactly Is "Moist Cool" Anyway?

[launderess]

Have seen in various adverts vintage and not so much makers of refrigerators touting "moist cool". Supposedly this kept foods fresher longer all without need for crisper drawers and or other closed off areas.

Only time see any sort of condensation in my GE fridge is during humid weather when have had door open too long, or going in and out.

 

[combo52]

Moist Cold ?

That is a very good question Launderess, some refs are differently more moist than others depending how the cooling system is designed, one would think that if a refrigerator manufacturer actually had a better system they would talk about what the humidity level is in their refrigerator.

 

My pantry all-refrigerator I modified so the inside fan runs all the time which causes the evaporator to defrost without a heated defrost cycle whenever the compressor shuts off, as a result the moisture stays very high. You can tell by cardboard boxes in the refrigerator because they are damp and soft compared to my other all-refrigerator., overall I can not tell any difference in food life although I did have some apples last over one year in the pantry ref.

 

John L.

 

[DADoES]

 
Single-evaporator refrigerators, which recirculate cooled air from the freezer into the fresh food section, are by-and-large a low-humidity environment.  Moisture (frost) is continually collected (and drawn out of food) onto the cooling/freezing coil and then drained away via auto (or cyclic) defrost.

Freezer burn is dehydration.

Moist cool would be a design effort to provide higher humidity in all or some areas of the fresh food section.

Dual-evaporator refrigerators can do that better by way of having separate cooling coils in each section.  The refrigerator evaporator doesn't need to run as cold and gather so much moisture and defrost it away.  Sub Zero and such that have two compressors, completely separate refrigeration systems for the two sections, are touted as excelling at storage longevity of fruits and veggies.  Other designs (such as the GE Arctica that was included with my house) have one compressor with a valve that can send refrigerator to either the freezer coil, the fresh food coil, or both.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Moist cold was a term invented to describe a refrigerator environment that simulated the moist cold of an ice box which did not dry out foods because the block of ice that kept the fresh food compartment cold my melting at temperatures above freezing. Having an evaporator in a mechanical refrigerator that was the coldest part of the refrigerator/freezer naturally tended to pull all of the moisture out of the fresh food compartment and turned it into frost on the freezer coils. To counteract this drying, Frigidaire had sealed vegetable compartments called "Hydrators" because they were sealed from the cold, dry air of the fresh food department. Refrigerators with moist cold used various ways to add moisture to the air, but they all eventually had sealed high humidity compartments for fruits and vegetables.

 

[launderess]

Interesting....

Frigidaire had something they called "Cold Wall" refrigerators.

Apparently a "Dew Mist" glass seal seperated lower chamber from top (freezer?), and refrigeration coils were built into walls surrounding lower compartment. There you had it, a cold refrigerator without "moisture robbing", air circulation.

https://digital.libraries.ou.edu/sooner/articles/p21_1938v11n9_OCR.pdf

Tend to focus mostly on laundry appliances, but guess early on refrigerator makers were thinking up ways to lure hold outs from ice boxes to their products.

 

[rolls_rapide]

I wonder if 'Moist Cool' refers to a standard refrigerator... the type without a fan recirculation system?

My mum has a Tricity Bendix fridge-freezer (made by Electrolux/Zanussi), with a frost-free freezer (fan forced) and the refrigerator section also has fan forced air blowing through it. It seems to dry out fresh foods in the fridge compartment quite readily.

There were other versions from different manufacturers, where only the freezer section was fan forced frost-free; the fridge section had no air flow, just the standard cold wet wall, which periodically slightly frosted up and melted into a drainage channel.

 

[supersuds]

Frigidaire Cold Wall

Consumers' Research Bulletin discussed this in their September 1949 test of twelve fridges.

They say, in effect, what's so great about storing food uncovered?

 

[launderess]

Bosch Farm Fresh

Everything old is new again.

 

[brisnat81]

Reading about the Frigidaire cold wall, was the secondary coil that ran through the fridge wall, just a fluid transfer from the primary cooling coil? From the diagrams I've found online, the Secondary coil doesnt seem to be connected to the compressor?

If I'm seeing that right, what an intriguing way to change the refrigerant temperature from the freezer to the fridge walls.

https://www.applianceblog.com/mainforums/threads/1939-frigidaire-cold-wall.66667/

 

[tomturbomatic]

I think that is what John found to be the case in an old Hotpoint of similar design that we were looking at in the shop decades ago.

 

[vacerator]

"cool and boist"

Total boisture, because it has nanospheres. Ida Tibeon narrating the Victoria Principle cosmetic line back in the early 90's.

 

[frigilux]

[No message]

 

[launderess]

That Frigidaire "cold wall" design sounds rather complicated and an accident waiting to happen. One puncture in wrong place and there went that fridge.

Still an interesting design concept for sure. Does anyone today make fridges with "cold wall" design? That is coils surrounding fresh food cabinet instead of blowing cold air.

 

[combo52]

Frigidaire Cold-Wall

GE and Hotpoint also did this, All the original two door top freezer GEs and HPs from about 1948-53 had a second freon filled cooling system powered off the freezer evaporator. This expensive design to build gave you a higher temperature evaporator which did not wring as much moisture out of the air, condensed water ran down the inside walls to a drain in the rear corner of the refrigerator liner.

 

Hi Laundreress , No it was not a disaster waiting to happen, the refrigerators evaporator tubing was behind a porcelain enameled steel wall, the only way to puncture or otherwise cause a freon leak would be with a 38 calibrator weapon, it was very built, LOL.

 

THE BIG PROBLEM with very high humidy in refrigerators is MOLD growing inside, Sub-Zero  had big problems with mold in the FF section of many of their refrigerators. My high humidity all ref in the pantry has to be taken all apart and the shelves etc bleached at least once a year and the defrost drain gets clogged at least as often and has to be flushed.

 

John L.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Maybe it needs a UV bulb in the air flow path.

 

[jamiel]

Then you have a problem with rancidity for fats...

 

[brisnat81]

Hi John,

When you say Powered off the Freezer evaporator, you just mean via heat transference, or does the secondary coil actually have a refrigerant path back to the compressor?

Cheers

Nathan

 

[henene4]

When moving I bought a Samsung Combo cause it was on offer no more expensive than other even less reputable Brands.

It does have 2 moisture and temperature controlled drawers, one for produce one for meats and such.
Both are cooler than the rest of the fridge.

Never really belived in that but I do have to say that produce and such appear to last significantly longer.

 

[sudsmaster]

I think moist cool means you're cold, wet, but not hungry because your new 1950's fridge has plenty of nutritious fruits and veggies in peak condition.