Green and white two door

Hey glad you managed to get it. As with Travis, it's never a sure thing until it's safely delivered. We're all going to be nervously awaiting good news of a delivery!

As for locating a "big" DR type unit - those are very scarce. They were powerful enough to wear out sooner than their smaller brothers. They are also heavy enough that the scrap vultures destroyed most of them.

Glad to hear it got there!

I was never aware of the heater much. I always plugged them in and turned them on. After reading various threads I realize how important it it now.

It’s quiet as a mouse. I’ve always had DR machines. It’s evenly frosted and running silently. The porcelain inside has some pinholes in the top. It probably had wet insulation inside at some point. Nice running machine.

Hey wonderful that you got her in your place, safely!

It seems that many of the side panels are a little bulged outward. Some of them are curved from the manufacturing process and when they aren't completely and properly fastened; this is the result. It may be that some of the wood is deteriorated where the screws attach the paneling. Once that's fixed, it will lay flat again.

The bottom with cover instead of legs is really different! Back in this era, Frigidaire also offered models which sat directly on the floor. Interestingly, they were also often two-tone, with grey and white instead of green and white. In my opinion (and this is just an opinion) they look a little incomplete when sitting directly on the floor. One of the reasons GE used legs was for cabinet access. The other manufacturers had the machinery space at the bottom, thereby elevating the cabinet and easing access to the interior. The Monitor Top had the cooling unit at the top. There were customers who didn't want to stoop all the way to floor level to get items out of the cabinet, so the legs were very popular.

Cablehack already explained that the CK machine doesn't have a heater. It is really, really good that you had the presence of mind to "let it heat up" and error on the side of caution. If you're interested, I'll try to explain why the CK doesn't need a heater.

For the DR and CA cooling units, the refrigerant gas exiting the compressor is pumped into the dome on the top of the unit. It needs to stay in a gas form until it starts to flow through the condenser coil. The gas wants to condense in the coolest place of the high-pressure side of the system. You don't want it staying in the compressor housing, so the heater makes that area a "hot and unattractive" location for it to collect. So for this system to work, the condenser and the float chamber must be cooler than the compressor housing. The heater ensures this is the case.

The CK doesn't need a heater because the compressor pumps the hot gas refrigerant "directy" out into the condenser coils, without the high pressure gas ever going into he dome of the compressor where it could condense accidentally. The compressor dome is under low pressure. The low pressure created when the compressor runs will boil off any stray refrigerant from this area without any additional heat.

Yeah the CK machines are, arguable, the most highly refined and engineered hermetic units. They are so over-engineered it's really a shame that the parts are hidden away inside the dome!

One of the things which happens to the older cabinets is SO2 leaks and corrosion. The original DR machine which came on this cabinet was surely not completely trouble-free. You can bet that it required servicing and possibly leaked SO2 into the cabinet, leading to extreme corrosion between the cabinet liner and the outer shell. 

There is a porcelain company who could do up a set of legs in green for you!  Check out www.ipe-porcelain.com/ 

Sincerely,
David