Nuts

[Bargeon]

Well dang! That's everything a 61' fridge should be. Sort of like a Volvo wagon on end with the wheels off.

Is that a "frost free" or do you have to de-frost it?

[For the helplessly young: there was a time when frost built up in your freezer and you had to take everything out and shut it down for a copule hours while you waited for the frost to melt and drain off. If you waited too long, it built up into ice and you really had problems.}

[eb2]

My parents had the old 1940s Frigidaire that grew an abominable snowman in the freezer every year.  The shut down and pan in the fridge was a regular thing.

My dad still calls any fridge "the frigidaire."

[Highlander]

Old catering gear is a favourite with the engineer on a comission...

Sharp intake of breath when you are shown the "vintage" item, tool bag on the deck, open the beastie up, lots of muttering (oh dear, dear-oh-dear...), stands up to face the customer whilst taking another deep breath...

You just know it's going to be expensive... you have my commiserations if it's this road... may you could change your byline to compressor from oil-filter... (ducking)

I remember working in a restaurant one winter after being called out to repair an icemaker that wasn't making ice - the joiks had put it in the yard - it was minus three degrees celcius - I will always cherish the look on there faces when they realised their stupidity... (worked fine in the summer, they said )

[Pilgrim]

My father-in-law has a 60's chest freezer that had a change of thermostat in the 70's and has been a "cooler" (38 degrees) ever since.  Lots of room for beer and soft drinks.

[jumbodbassman]

they sure don't make anything the same.  My house came with a 65 furnace that lasted till last fall..  bought the house in 1998 and the inspector said i woul dneed to replace it in a year or two.   ha ha ha...   

Cost me over 16k to replace and add some zones/ baseboards and a separate water heater.  wish i still had it....

[Highlander]

We had a 1973 gas boiler when we moved in here in '92 - we took out the offered service contract from the gas suppliers - the "lump" failed in '94 and an overtly concientious engineer spent 2 days modifying a #2 "lump" to fit the obsolete parts to create a hybrid #1.5 - lasted until 2 autumns/falls back...

Pretty much no-one makes stuff like they used to and most of it's made in China these days...

[Lightyear]

Hell, your problem is all the damn magnets!  Making a mess of the electrons and such   Just pull 'em off and plug the old girl back in - should be fine

[Denis]

i notice the dash rip rock sticker, a great band.

The service technician said it was a faulty starter relay but his laptop showed no available parts. Called a local appliance parts guy who had a universal one which plugged right in. He also gave me the number of a guy who's been repairing this stuff for 25 years (heh heh, my fridge was already 24 years old THEN). Put it on and the compressor started up, ran for a second, then quit. Called the old gent, described everything and he said, "Compressor failure". Balls.

Here's a scan of that sticker (since I had to take it off the recently deceased fridge. Brilliant move to make it look like a car dealership sticker!

[Highlander]

Dearly beloved, we stand here today to pay our final respects...

Cheer up, could alway use it as a nuclear bunker... (heading for cover)

Commiserations, dear boy, commiserations...

[Denis]

Well, after looking at bunches of refrigerators and having been warned away from Frigidaires and Amanas, I posted an ad on Craigslist asking if anyone restored vintage/antique refrigerators. Sure enough, an older fellow in Rougemont contacted me and told me he's repaired hundreds of them in the past 37 years of his business. We spoke for a while and today he came and picked it up. He told me it was a nice one, much better built than any of the new ones and didn't think it would be a problem to rebuild.

So, we'll see!

[uwe]

Don't rush into buying a new one. I'm sure it has a few more centuries in it. 

[Pilgrim]

Too bad it's not a Norge.......

[Muzikman7]

Haha, well, the fridge is 3 years older than I and has been great the whole time. The freezer has only had to be defrosted once in 14 years. Lots of people who've seen it have told me, "Dang, you should get a new one and save a lot of energy. That's fine on the face of it, but a new, inexpensive fridge costs $450 and bumps up to over $700 for Energy Star rated ones.  Since my energy bill can be in the low $40s some months of the year, the payoff on a new fridge just to save $5 per month is an inefficient way of looking at it. Now, if the fridge REALLY is doomed, then it's worth getting a new efficient one, of course.

Here are some pics of the possibly doomed fridge. Reading up on it, the clicking can be caused by any number of things: capacitors, relays, dirty coils and yeah, the dreaded compressor. I'm hoping it's one of the former items not the last.

I use to have one of those after I got a new fridge the old one went into the garage for beer until it died.

[Grog]

My first fridge was a Whirlpool from about the same era. It had a bottom freezer and was repainted coppertone to cover up the original "PINK" finish. I paid $18.00 & the guy delivered it for that. It was still running last I heard. I gave it away when we decided we needed new appliances. I'm on my third refridgerator since then.

[Highlander]

You must really love that fridge - has it been that cold or have you been surviving on carryouts...?