Vintage Fridge Shopping

Stoves, Fridges, Radiograms and more
phil
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Re: Vintage Fridge Shopping

Post by phil »

Manalto wrote:I rejected both refrigerators today. First was the (1920s?) square Frigidaire with the hardware that let it be converted to left or right. We plugged it in and it shrieked - a seized motor? Condition was exceptionally good - all shelves, even ice trays in pristine condition. The seal around the door was wood! A flashlight revealed the mechanism beneath the refrigerator compartment (from whence came the squeal) with some obviously new replacement parts. I wonder if it was a commercial fridge - or perhaps a built-in.

Second rejection was 1949 GE (With the manual - can you believe it?) running quietly and cold, but missing one of the vegetable bins on the bottom, and pretty rusty around the edges. It was only $50, but I'd rather pay $200 for something complete. Am I being too picky?



a squeaky motor might not be a hard fix. disassemble or maybe just lube the bushings if it is bushings and not bearings. most old motors are ok once you do that, if they run. I often change ball bearings in little motors , they are standardized usually. problems with the compressor or lines might be harder as you have to fix the issue and recharge it. good chance you can work on the motor without working on the compressor or opening the gas circuit. most AC motors will run until the bearings fail so if it still runs that means the armature is probably ok.. larger motors have a capacitor start and those ones have a switch and they will make a click when they roll to a stop and the switch closes.. sometimes those switches go faulty but a fridge wont' have one..

I doubt it would have a brush motor but if a motor as slip rings or brushes that can cause failure.. most little AC motors don't have brushes so I doubt your fridge motor has brushes.

if motors have oil fittings near the shaft bushings, a drop a year is all they need,, but maybe purge them with oil a bit or disassemble and clean if they need it.

if you ever open the case of a motor , of course unplug it. If it has brushes remove the brushes.( or you will break them) always mark the orientation of the case so you know how the parts went in relation to each other. when you re-assemble turn the rotor as you tighten up the bolts to check it isn't binding.. sometimes they will bind if parts aren't perfectly aligned. I often give the cases a tap with a rubber hammer as I draw the cases tight to let them settle and often this prevents them binding the rotor.

on the weekend I picked up a free Coleman cooler. It has a little plug on it so I can hook it to may car battery and it is supposed to stay cold. it also has a switch to make it warm.. I'm not sure if the intent was to store warm things, it's a plastic cooler.. maybe the intent is so if you put the cooler outside when it is below freezing it can heat your beer so it doesn't freeze..

I find it interesting if you just reverse the wires to the peltier cooler it can heat or cool. the cooler has a switch on it for that.

anyway I opened it to have a look it has the peltier cooler which is just an aluminum thing that looks like a heat sink. near it there is a little fan to move the air around inside.. that's the only moving part.. ,, but you 'd have to find the right one.. the one in a cooler might work for a cooler but for a fridge maybe you'd need a bunch of them or a bigger one. i think most of those mini fridges work this way. maybe 3 or 4 of those would do it? you might turn the ice box into more fridge and use a little deep freeze for the freezer?

what happens a lot with old fridges is they leak some of the charge and then become inefficient. some will run all the time but still work. If you start playing with the Freon, you aren't supposed to just let it go as it's bad for the atmosphere so an AC guy could change the refrigerant or recharge it and would also have a pump to suck the old stuff out so it doesn't get released to the atmosphere. he would convert it to a newer less environmentally hazardous gas. You can get those rigs to charge up your AC in your car, they might work ? newer refrigerants are a different substance.. they also have oil in there to lubricate the pump. I think it runs around with the gas in there too.
I bought the kit for about 50 bucks meaning to try to get my car AC working. I never tried it. it comes with a pressure gauge so you know when to stop filling it. one of the cans has stuff that is supposed to swell the old seals to make it not leak. I spoke to an auto mechanic instructor and he said that is a bunch of hokey.. ;-)

I think if I were fixing up an old fridge I'd try not to play with the compressor but I'd disassemble the motor and lube the bushings and no more than that unless necessary. otherwise the motor may run OK until the bushings or bearings go dry and it stops, causing you to loose your food perhaps. a lot of times those squeaky motors can be fixed with just a drop of oil too , look at the housings and see if there is a little oil hole, if so put a couple drops in there.

If it has ball bearings you can usually get replacements from a bearing retailer . look on the bearings for tiny numbers. You may have a bit of a challenge pulling them off the motor shaft.. You can use a bearing puller if you have one.. sometimes I need to cut them apart with a dremil because they are too close to a plastic fan for the puller to work , for example. Other times I can just use a brass drift and hammer and get them off that way. i wreck the odd motor trying to get the bearings to pull off but for the most part I can usually fix them so long as the windings are ok.

one other thing that happens if the motor has aluminum end casings, sometimes the bearings can go loose and spin inside the case where they should be a press fit. sometimes I can add a very thin shim or some Loctite to make the outside part of the bearing not turn. looseness there can cause the armature or rotor to touch the magnets or field windings on the case. If you take them apart look for signs of rubbing , if so it will be evident by scratches.

the other things that can cause noise is a loose pulley - bad belts. sometimes the setscrew that clamps the pulley to the shaft comes lose and the thing won't fall apart because the belt is holding the pulley from sliding over and often there is a key holding the pulley from turning , so the pulley gets a bit loose and wobbles, makes noise and the fix is simply to check that the pulleys are aligned and tighten the setscrew. I see this a lot. often things will have cheap pulleys and a good quality cast iron pulley will work better. often these are cheap and standardized.

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