earlg
New Member
Posts: 48 
|
Post by earlg on Aug 3, 2022 2:21:50 GMT
I got this yesterday pretty much for hauling and it's in such nice shape I thought it was worth putting some effort into. It had been in the same house since it was new (the house is a year older) but it was very dirty and the people didn't want to do any work on it. The wiring is quite soft yet (It was out of direct sunlight) so I haven't done too much with that. I did get about 95% of the dirt off the whole thing including the compressor area, et.
Anyway, late this afternoon I figured I'd better see how it runs. The walls of the freezer compartment get cold within a couple of minutes, but the little fan does not seem to run. I did oil it and get it to turn fairly easily, but I will take it off tomorrow and look at it a little closer. Should that fan run the whole time the compressor is working, or does it run when it's needed? I let the thing run for about 10 minutes is all. No point in making any more work for myself. The people i got it from bought the house 6-8 months ago and the lady they got it from left all kinds of stuff (mostly junk) behind, but this was still plugged in with food frozen in it. It runs very quietly, I will give it that.
I know this is kind of outside of the main subject here, but I know you guys will know something about this, or at least where I can find out some answers. Thanks now. Earl.
|
|
|
|
Post by ckfan on Aug 3, 2022 11:56:12 GMT
That poor freezer! Yes, the fan needs to be running the whole time the compressor is running. The fan should get its power directly from the compressor. The condenser coil is also filthy from the looks of it. I assume you already cleaned that. It amazes me how much abuse these things can take and still work.
|
|
|
|
Post by turbokinetic on Aug 3, 2022 12:58:22 GMT
I got this yesterday pretty much for hauling and it's in such nice shape I thought it was worth putting some effort into. It had been in the same house since it was new (the house is a year older) but it was very dirty and the people didn't want to do any work on it. The wiring is quite soft yet (It was out of direct sunlight) so I haven't done too much with that. I did get about 95% of the dirt off the whole thing including the compressor rea, et.
That's in such amazing condition! It is so sad that they left it behind, but you did get a good deal for sure, getting it for free. I can second what Ray said; the fan should run at all times the compressor runs. Many of these fans were 2-phase motors. Basically, the fan motor has a three wire circuit as opposed to a more conventional two-wire circuit. These have very thin and fragile windings in them, and tend to have open circuits. Most likely, you simple need to get a new fan motor for it. That is going to be easy because they still sell those motors. The new one will be a two-wire motor. I have a feeling the only thing which saved it from burning up is the fact that the fan was working the last time it had to start from ambient temperature, and cool down all the way. After that initial run, it would only run for a few minutes at a time. If it had been started up from ambient temp with no fan and that mat of dust on the condenser, it would have been damaged after enough time running. |
|
earlg
New Member
Posts: 48
|
Post by earlg on Aug 3, 2022 13:48:20 GMT
I'll get that motor out today and see what's going on with it. It's a testament to how these things had a very robust design and they really didn't want to have trouble with their products back then. I gave them $25 for it as I didn't want any hard feelings over it and they were glad it wasn't going to get scrapped.
That makes sense about it staying running since they always left it plugged in so it didn't have to work hard to get things cold in the cabinet again. Plus, it was near one of the furnace ducts so it would have air moving around it from that. They also have central air. It sounded like the woman that had it was in her 80's now and moved to an assisted living situation. The kids came and got what they wanted, and left the rest. After we got it out of the house and I was getting ready to put it in my pickup, a HUGE tree limb fell out of an old oak tree, so I figured I'd better go. He was really ticked about that dead tree, but the limb looked like a week's worth of heat to me...
Thanks you guys for your help on this.
|
|
earlg
New Member
Posts: 48
|
Post by earlg on Aug 3, 2022 14:39:14 GMT
It is a three wire motor like you said it probably would be. I don't see any way to open it up, unless that red stuff around the back is some type of glue. It looks like the red shellac cement they used for gaskets back in those days. I'll see if heat loosens it up. It is very stoved up and needs to be oiled. Maybe it's not worth trying to mess with and maybe you guys know about the likelihood of that. It's a nice looking little motor.
This is what the text on the back reads. 1W-110/55v-60+ - 2 cents CW 5K51AL12B
  |
|
|
|
Post by turbokinetic on Aug 3, 2022 15:48:09 GMT
Nice. That's a little two phase motor. They use a Greek "phi" symbol to represent phase and it looks a little bit like a "¢" symbol.
I may have misunderstood something, in that you said the motor was free to spin. If it's stuck, it may work fine after oiling!
|
|
earlg
New Member
Posts: 48
|
Post by earlg on Aug 3, 2022 16:06:12 GMT
When the fan blade is on it, it does seem to rotate fairly easily, but with the blade off the thing, it is pretty stiff. It was kind of hard to tell when it was still in the cabinet. I'm not sure how to get the thing apart to get some oil in there, but I can pull the shaft in and out about 1/4" and that has loosened it up some. It looks like that cast iron housing is set in place with shellac. If that's the case, some heat should loosen that up and get it opened up. In some of the old car manuals they mention that you can drill a hole in the back of the heater motor on cars to the rear bearing can be oiled. That might be an option as well.
I see what you mean about that "cent" symbol. I didn't look at it very closely, but even if I had, I wouldn't have known what that meant...
|
|
|
|
Post by turbokinetic on Aug 3, 2022 19:34:40 GMT
When the fan blade is on it, it does seem to rotate fairly easily, but with the blade off the thing, it is pretty stiff. It was kind of hard to tell when it was still in the cabinet. I'm not sure how to get the thing apart to get some oil in there, but I can pull the shaft in and out about 1/4" and that has loosened it up some. It looks like that cast iron housing is set in place with shellac. If that's the case, some heat should loosen that up and get it opened up. In some of the old car manuals they mention that you can drill a hole in the back of the heater motor on cars to the rear bearing can be oiled. That might be an option as well. I see what you mean about that "cent" symbol. I didn't look at it very closely, but even if I had, I wouldn't have known what that meant... Some of these have an oil hole in the rear cover; but others need to have a hole punched in that cover. That entire rear sheet metal cover is full of felt oil wick material. It can be re-oiled with light electric motor oil such as Zoom-Spout turbine oil. |
|
marko
7 Cubic Foot
Posts: 141
|
Post by marko on Aug 3, 2022 22:23:22 GMT
Some of these have an oil hole in the rear cover; but others need to have a hole punched in that cover. That entire rear sheet metal cover is full of felt oil wick material. It can be re-oiled with light electric motor oil such as Zoom-Spout turbine oil. Yes, but more often than not, the felt is rotten and the motor never really oils good again. It would be really cool to get the two phase motor working again, but if not, all refrigeration parts houses carry 'unit bearing "watt motors" ' in the shaded pole variety. Just try to match the watts as close as possible, and rotation, or get a blade to match the motor. |
|
earlg
New Member
Posts: 48
|
Post by earlg on Aug 3, 2022 23:45:09 GMT
I kind of messed around with that motor for about an hour earlier today and also did some looking about getting a new one and I think that's the best route for this thing. It isn't going to be seen and some of the new motors look almost like this one does. I think I'm going to get one made by US Motors model 2108 evaporator motor. It looks like the old fan blade will mount on it and I'm sure the three screw holes won't line up, but I shouldn't have too much trouble sorting that out. It's too bad that the old motor won't come apart, but it's been in there for almost 75 years, so I guess that's something.
When did GE start selling home freezers? I'm guessing it must have been around 1940 but I really don't know for sure. They really didn't seem to have much in the way of frozen food before that.
|
|
|
|
Post by ckfan on Aug 4, 2022 16:29:24 GMT
I believe they didn’t start selling freezers till the post war era. So yours is one of the first.
|
|
|
|
Post by jake on Aug 7, 2022 13:20:03 GMT
The CW stands for clockwise rotation. That would be, in your case, holding the motor in front of you like if it was installed in the freezer. To prevent the condenser from getting blocked up again with dust and dirt you can get a piece of universal air conditioner filter material and cut it to fit in front of the condenser. I did that with my dehumidifier and it works great. Just clean the filter about every six months or so and you'll be all set. That's a really nice freezer, by the way!! Glad you got it and will be using and enjoying it!! Home freezers like this became popular after WW II because most people still had refrigerators with very small freezer compartments in them. The popularity of frozen foods was growing after the War and Depression era adults, who didn't want to throw away a perfectly good refrigerator, opted to buy a freezer instead.
|
|
earlg
New Member
Posts: 48
|
Post by earlg on Aug 8, 2022 23:27:47 GMT
After I bought the fan motor that I put in yesterday it dawned on me what the CW meant and by luck, the one I bought rotates that direction. You know, it does make sense to anyone with one of these old refrigerators that buying a freezer makes a lot of sense. That's what I did, and I was thinking about getting a second small freezer when this one turned up. I like the idea about the filter paper in front of the condenser and that makes sense.
It's been running for about 9 hours now and it has not shut off that I'm aware of. It's got the temperature down to about 7-8 degrees. I did put some bottles of water in there and a few other things to freeze as it seems like these things work better when they aren't empty. Nothing seems to be hot under with how long it's been running.
It also has a replaced control on it. The original one turned to the right for the thing to be colder and this one is marked under the knob that colder is to the left on it. It also does not shut the freezer off when it's turned all the way in either direction and the original control must have as it's marked for that.
I have looked around on the internet some, but the manuals for these are a bit elusive. There is an old appliance store on my route and I'll ask them tomorrow if they have anything on these freezers. I'll post a few more pictures of it tonight if I get a chance. It does run quietly, the fan makes more noise than the rest of it does.
|
|
