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Post by mikerodrig27 on Jul 3, 2016 18:16:47 GMT
I just recently picked up a General Electric refrigerator. I'm going to restore it by filling in the beer tap holes on the front, making some shelves, re-insulating it, installing a new seal and replacing the start/run relay.
I had a couple of questions. Mine takes a good while to start getting cold. I must have had it running for a solid 20 min before the coils started to get cold. When they did, they were very cold developing a dry frost on them almost immediately.
My next questions is I want to replace the start relay as the previous owner said that it wasn't getting cold. When I plugged it in a few times, the compressor started intermittently. I figured the start/run relay is a good place to start since it is likely original and served it's worth.
There is a 3-N-1 relay and a standard start/stop. Is there any disadvantage to the 3-N-!?
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Post by ckfan on Jul 3, 2016 18:47:31 GMT
I wouldn't use a 3 in 1. I tried one on a Frigidaire one time and it burnt the compressor up. They have a very "generic" overload protection that could not be good enough for your compressor. I would instead use a supco RO81 relay for a 1/8 HP motor or a supco RO41 relay for a 1/4 HP motor. You will have to look and see which one yours is. Most of the old residential GE fridges had 1/8 HP motors but you will need to make sure.
As far as the cooling effect goes, yours sounds like it is working fine. What exact model is it? A picture would help ID it quickly.
I'm glad you are saving it from being a kegerator. Thank you for taking the time to fill in the holes and RE insulate and RE seal it. Good luck!
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Post by mikerodrig27 on Jul 4, 2016 5:25:50 GMT
Yes, I am very excited to get it all sorted out. It was also spray painted hot pink!!... I've taken most of that paint off so far. It has porceline enamel beneath so I was able to use paint stripper which was really nice. I've seen the exact model on Google images but the picture was posted by someone who was trying to identify it as well. So I don't have the exact model #. So my original intentions were to use this fridge as a freezer if possible. My wife and I do a lot of U-picks with fruit and needed a place to store them. I took the seals off of the freezer portion hoping that the cold air will go throughout the whole fridge. I'm also hoping the extra r-value will help make this possible. Supposedly 0f degrees is a proper temperature. The previous owner said the thermostat went out and it ended up getting down to -20f. I don't know how he figured that out. Anyways, thanks for the help so far! Glad to know it is likely working properly. Now I have no hesitation to get cracking on this project.     upload images free |
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Post by coldspaces on Jul 4, 2016 13:58:17 GMT
Run times as a freezer will be very long, might not be the way to go. If you do try to use it as a freezer the area were the door seal closes against will have to be heated or it will frost and freeze the door seal to the box.
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Post by ckfan on Jul 4, 2016 17:23:50 GMT
Glad that you are getting that hot pink paint off! The porcelain coatings on those old fridges are relatively tough.
Not to be pedantic but I'm sure you have noticed that this is indeed a Frigidaire. At least that is what is pictured. That means that it will have the famous meter miser compressor. Very reliable and it has a very low watt draw.
However, they take a long while to cool off in my experience and using one as a freezer means that it would likely never turn off. If it were me I would just put it back to normal operation. Just use the freezer section as a freezer and have above freezing temps for the fridge section. Otherwise you will make it work real hard. What coldspaces said about having to add a heater is true too.
I would first locate the wires that go to the thermostat. Safely tie the wires together, making sure there are just two of them. If there are more than two don't do that. Then plug it in and see if it fires up. Do this several times leaving a few minutes between each try. This will tell you for sure that your start relay is good or bad. It will also let you know if the old thermostat is the problem.
In my experience, those old Frigidaire relays are good but the thermostats go bad. The relays are also rated for smaller horsepower compressors than what that supco will work on. The motors in those Frigidaire compressors are tiny.
Let us know what you find out. Good luck!
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Post by mikerodrig27 on Jul 6, 2016 5:54:59 GMT
The porcelain is a really tough finish. I like it a lot. I'm going to buff a lot of it out. There are some chips here and there. I don't know if I am going to do anything about them yet. Likely not unless there is some easy solution.
I'm going to paint the bottom half of the door since I will not be able to restore the porcelain there. I don't want to do white as it likely will not match. My wife wants Seafoam Green. I like that color as well. I've seen a few boats that color and it is really pretty. My guess is that I need a special bonding primer and some sanding on the porcelain. Any suggestions?
I took the fridge apart the other day taking the inside part completely out.I wasn't planning on going that far with it but I wanted this fridge to be sort of a learning experience in case I decide to pick up another vintage fridge to restore down the road. I set the cooling parts aside. I took all of the old insulation out. I took great stuff and covered the outside part of the inside part of the fridge. I hope you can follow that... Lol.
I put the fridge back together, and will fill the rest of the gaps with great stuff. I'm not sure if I would do it this way again but it seems to be working out. Fitment was an issue. I put the fiberglass insulation back on the back wall before I put the inside part of the fridge back in as I will not be able to access it with great stuff. The R-value is 3.7 per inch of foam. After looking into it more, I'm not sure I gained much by using the great stuff.
There are some coils glued to the outside of the inside part of the fridge (man I really need to learn what it is called!). I don't know what these are for since they aren't attached to the compressor. My best guess is that they are for transferring the cold to different parts of the fridge.
So it was a struggle to get the inside part back together. I had to trim the great stuff in different areas. The coils that aren't attached to the compressor got mangled on the bottom but they didn't get any kinks or cracks. I put the evaporator back in and plugged the compressor in just to make sure that nothing went wrong there. All is good.
So essentially this fridge is a learning experience. The next time I get my hands on an old fridge, I will try to find an better insulation or process for insulating it.
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Post by mikerodrig27 on Jul 6, 2016 5:57:58 GMT
I need to look into the motor and see if it is the meter miser. It looks like it from the pictures that I see on google. Is there any place to find model info on this fridge?
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Post by mikerodrig27 on Jul 6, 2016 14:16:19 GMT
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Post by ckfan on Jul 6, 2016 14:50:24 GMT
Usually you can find the model info on those Frigidaire fridges on the back wall facing the rear. The rigid foam works very well and has a higher R value than the expanding foam. The expanding foam can get quite messy as well.
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Post by mikerodrig27 on Jul 7, 2016 0:38:13 GMT
In retrospect, I would have gone for the rigid foam and skipped on the expanding foam. It would have been cheaper as well. There isn't any info on the back. I think it is a 1951. Oh well, there is always next time.
I'm likely going to stuff a lot of the clean fiberglass back on there and cut my losses. We'll see.
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Post by Travis on Jul 7, 2016 1:42:27 GMT
1950-52. I had a similar one. I have never seen much information of that vintage of Frigidaire refrigerators. It would have a meter miser compressor. It's a shame that someone transformed that nice porcelain cabinet into a kegerator.
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Post by coldspaces on Jul 7, 2016 1:58:07 GMT
Have you looked for a model tag behind the kick plate?
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Post by mikerodrig27 on Jul 7, 2016 2:23:13 GMT
Travis, you're right. There isn't much info other than pictures. I don't have any of the shelving and drip pan so I can't even compare that.
Coldspaces, Nope. I haven't looked behind the kick plate yet. I'm going to mess with the fridge tomorrow night so I'll remember to check that.
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Post by coldspaces on Jul 7, 2016 4:08:48 GMT
Here are your choices for 50-51 as listed in my tech master.  |
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Post by mikerodrig27 on Jul 7, 2016 5:12:16 GMT
Wow, thanks for posting that!
On the placard behind the kick plate is says:
80A36434 D0-90P
So based on your chart it must be a 1951. I'm guessing the P a the end must be a color code or related to a specific feature.
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