Post by ckfan on Jun 7, 2016 15:02:27 GMT
Man have I been in fridge mode! Since I brought home all of my treasures I have been going through and fixing them up one by one. Here are some pics of two that I got running this weekend.
The first is a 1937 Westinghouse that is in very tidy shape. This is the quickest cooling fridge I have seen. Bar none. I timed it, from a dead stop to the evaporator getting very cold took only 50 seconds. I believe this is due to a fan cooled condenser with a gigantic fan, big burly compressor, R12, and a float valve. You can actually hear the float valve open and then count the seconds (1 or 2) before you feel the cold! I had to completely re wire the unit. It needed it. The door seal was perfectly fine and still very pliable. Now it should be plenty safe...and cold!
The second is a 1941? Frigidaire Cold Wall. As fast as the Westinghouse is to cool...this one is slow. I mean slooooowwwww. It takes about 30 minutes before you can start to feel frost...on the "first" part of the freezer circuit. After a few hours of running it gets nice and cold though. Once it is cold it really stays cold though. This is due to sealed insulation and evaporator tubes running in the walls of the refrigerator cabinet. Yes, it actually is a "cold wall"! The freezer section is mostly sealed off from the rest of the cabinet even though it doesn't have a separate door. It has little seals on the drip pan that seals it off. Even the drip pan itself is partially insulated. The reason for sealing off the freezer section is two fold. First off, it makes the freezer colder. This unit uses R-114 which is a very low pressure refrigerant. I believe this is one of the reasons why it takes a long while to cool off. The second reason for sealing off the freezer compartment (the selling point) was so that Frigidaire could advertise that the refrigerator compartment would always stay between 85-100% humidity inside. It works, the walls are always wet with condensation. Yes, I have the original door seal on it but it is still in good shape and works fine. It just keeps moisture inside since it can't freeze on anything. This keeps veggies and fruits fresher longer apparently. Just like the 37 Frigidaire that I have, the compressor sounds healthy and only uses 110 watts or so. It just uses that for a long while before it cools down!
Oh, and look at this light bulb in the Frigidaire! From a quick google search, GE and Westinghouse stopped using the "mazda" moniker on their bulbs in 1945. So the light bulb is at least that old. I bet it is original to the fridge.
To view the photos in this post, please follow this link: drive.google.com/open?id=0B8_jm7K-ahMaM3k4S0lZTTlYT2s
The first is a 1937 Westinghouse that is in very tidy shape. This is the quickest cooling fridge I have seen. Bar none. I timed it, from a dead stop to the evaporator getting very cold took only 50 seconds. I believe this is due to a fan cooled condenser with a gigantic fan, big burly compressor, R12, and a float valve. You can actually hear the float valve open and then count the seconds (1 or 2) before you feel the cold! I had to completely re wire the unit. It needed it. The door seal was perfectly fine and still very pliable. Now it should be plenty safe...and cold!
The second is a 1941? Frigidaire Cold Wall. As fast as the Westinghouse is to cool...this one is slow. I mean slooooowwwww. It takes about 30 minutes before you can start to feel frost...on the "first" part of the freezer circuit. After a few hours of running it gets nice and cold though. Once it is cold it really stays cold though. This is due to sealed insulation and evaporator tubes running in the walls of the refrigerator cabinet. Yes, it actually is a "cold wall"! The freezer section is mostly sealed off from the rest of the cabinet even though it doesn't have a separate door. It has little seals on the drip pan that seals it off. Even the drip pan itself is partially insulated. The reason for sealing off the freezer section is two fold. First off, it makes the freezer colder. This unit uses R-114 which is a very low pressure refrigerant. I believe this is one of the reasons why it takes a long while to cool off. The second reason for sealing off the freezer compartment (the selling point) was so that Frigidaire could advertise that the refrigerator compartment would always stay between 85-100% humidity inside. It works, the walls are always wet with condensation. Yes, I have the original door seal on it but it is still in good shape and works fine. It just keeps moisture inside since it can't freeze on anything. This keeps veggies and fruits fresher longer apparently. Just like the 37 Frigidaire that I have, the compressor sounds healthy and only uses 110 watts or so. It just uses that for a long while before it cools down!
Oh, and look at this light bulb in the Frigidaire! From a quick google search, GE and Westinghouse stopped using the "mazda" moniker on their bulbs in 1945. So the light bulb is at least that old. I bet it is original to the fridge.
To view the photos in this post, please follow this link: drive.google.com/open?id=0B8_jm7K-ahMaM3k4S0lZTTlYT2s