Post by ckfan on Mar 23, 2016 18:29:55 GMT
As I've mentioned before I'm converting my friends and family. One by one they will all appreciate old, cold steel. One of my good friends had a 10 year old Frigidaire go belly up on him. It lost its charge through a corroded steel line coming from the compressor. The door never closed right as it had bent hinges, that led to the freezer getting a lot more frost than normal and also made the damn thing run all the time. That in turn led to a large amount of defrost water being sent to the tray above the compressor. It must have overflowed regularly and dripped onto that refrigerant line leaving the compressor. Before you know it, it gets corroded and you loose your charge. Just goes to show you how one crappy part can lead to a catastrophic failure. It just kept getting warmer and warmer. He told me what was going on since he knows that I like fridges. He found the corroded line and gave me the bad news. I told him there was not much that could be done. This fridge was NOT worth saving at all. What a piece of *^@%! Anyways, he started looking at getting a new fridge and found out pretty fast that they are expensive and all of them get horrid reviews for reliability unless you step up to an even more expensive brand such as Amana or Sub Zero. I honestly don't know which company churns out the "best" anymore, don't really care! So he was getting frustrated and kept asking my opinions on models that I have no clue about. I then jokingly quipped that he should buy my 57 Westinghouse that I haven't been using since I got my monitor top. He immediately took that offer seriously. I then told him that it is small and has a tiny freezer and you can only put tiny bottles in the door shelves. He didn't care, he told me that he wanted something reliable and stylish. Since I had already repainted and put a new door seal on it I told him that it was ready to go! I was going to rent a truck and take it to his house yesterday...which we did. His girlfriend and roommates loved it! I thought they would complain about the size but they all thought it was cute. It went well but I had a very interesting opportunity present itself before that happened.
I was randomly browsing Craigslist yesterday and boy am I glad. Right in my town appeared a nice GE chest freezer! I have been looking for a chest freezer to replace my rusty and failing upright coldspot for quite some time. (If somebody wants a free early 70s coldspot freezer that uses a whirlpool style rotary compressor and R22 let me know). I think it is running low on its juice because only the top coil is frosting. It runs for long periods of time before it turns off. It uses about $12.50 a month in power as it is.
The price for the GE was right, $100. It looked like it was in good shape. I gave the owner a txt and got a response back immediately, he had only posted it 18 hours prior. I took a look at it after work and it really impressed me. It worked, looked good, only a little scratch here and there, a little surface rust but only a little. I paid the man and used the truck I rented to take it home! It was a heavy SOB! Real American steel. Made in the days of wooden ships and iron men!
When I brought it home I pulled the kick plate off and took a look at the compressor. Pretty nasty amount of dirt on the condenser coil. I fixed that quick. Then I noticed that the fan behind the coil sits in front of the compressor and is in a metal housing that completely covers it. I will have to figure out a way to get that off so that I can oil the fan. I fired it up and it all works and sounds good though! The compressor is a hoss, 1/4 HP. Looks a lot like the FEA unit compressor. Not sure though. If any of you know how to get at the fan in one of these I would love some insight. I don't want to continue running it without oiling that old fan. For now though it sounds right and moves a little bit of air.
I noticed at the house where I bought it from that it had a neat pilot light on the kick plate. It is just a night light style C7 bulb. When I tried it at my house though it didn't light up. I thought maybe it had come loose but no! It actually only turns on when the temperature reaches the "safe" zone. A sticker on the inside of the kick plate told me that.
It also came with the 3 baskets that it left the showroom floor with. The interior was immaculate. It even had a box of baking soda from the 80s! Notice the GE fridge that is advertised on the box. I thought that was very appropriate.
The gasket is cracked where it meets the textolite strips but seems to seal good where it actually meets the door. I couldn't pull out a dollar bill in several spots and it gave good resistance in other spots.
I let it run overnight and when I checked the temp it was at -10! That is on setting 4 out of 9! I dialed it back a little, no need to run it that cold. My Kill-A-Watt already has it pegged at using only $7 a month in power and I expect that to drop. Watts at full load start up were quite high around 290. It quickly dropped to about 250 before I went to bed. This morning it kicked on and was at 190. I think that is pretty good and is right in the range that the plate states 3.3-5.5 amps.
Overall I am really impressed. I just want to oil the fan before I transfer all of my food to it. I really like the way the baskets are set up since they slide on rails. The insulation is super thick so I think it should beat the pants off of my current freezer.
To view the photos in this post, please follow this link: drive.google.com/open?id=0B8_jm7K-ahMaSFhQaG9aX2dPMU0
I was randomly browsing Craigslist yesterday and boy am I glad. Right in my town appeared a nice GE chest freezer! I have been looking for a chest freezer to replace my rusty and failing upright coldspot for quite some time. (If somebody wants a free early 70s coldspot freezer that uses a whirlpool style rotary compressor and R22 let me know). I think it is running low on its juice because only the top coil is frosting. It runs for long periods of time before it turns off. It uses about $12.50 a month in power as it is.
The price for the GE was right, $100. It looked like it was in good shape. I gave the owner a txt and got a response back immediately, he had only posted it 18 hours prior. I took a look at it after work and it really impressed me. It worked, looked good, only a little scratch here and there, a little surface rust but only a little. I paid the man and used the truck I rented to take it home! It was a heavy SOB! Real American steel. Made in the days of wooden ships and iron men!
When I brought it home I pulled the kick plate off and took a look at the compressor. Pretty nasty amount of dirt on the condenser coil. I fixed that quick. Then I noticed that the fan behind the coil sits in front of the compressor and is in a metal housing that completely covers it. I will have to figure out a way to get that off so that I can oil the fan. I fired it up and it all works and sounds good though! The compressor is a hoss, 1/4 HP. Looks a lot like the FEA unit compressor. Not sure though. If any of you know how to get at the fan in one of these I would love some insight. I don't want to continue running it without oiling that old fan. For now though it sounds right and moves a little bit of air.
I noticed at the house where I bought it from that it had a neat pilot light on the kick plate. It is just a night light style C7 bulb. When I tried it at my house though it didn't light up. I thought maybe it had come loose but no! It actually only turns on when the temperature reaches the "safe" zone. A sticker on the inside of the kick plate told me that.
It also came with the 3 baskets that it left the showroom floor with. The interior was immaculate. It even had a box of baking soda from the 80s! Notice the GE fridge that is advertised on the box. I thought that was very appropriate.
The gasket is cracked where it meets the textolite strips but seems to seal good where it actually meets the door. I couldn't pull out a dollar bill in several spots and it gave good resistance in other spots.
I let it run overnight and when I checked the temp it was at -10! That is on setting 4 out of 9! I dialed it back a little, no need to run it that cold. My Kill-A-Watt already has it pegged at using only $7 a month in power and I expect that to drop. Watts at full load start up were quite high around 290. It quickly dropped to about 250 before I went to bed. This morning it kicked on and was at 190. I think that is pretty good and is right in the range that the plate states 3.3-5.5 amps.
Overall I am really impressed. I just want to oil the fan before I transfer all of my food to it. I really like the way the baskets are set up since they slide on rails. The insulation is super thick so I think it should beat the pants off of my current freezer.
To view the photos in this post, please follow this link: drive.google.com/open?id=0B8_jm7K-ahMaSFhQaG9aX2dPMU0
