The Vintage air condtioner thread

[josephdaniel]

I went to a smear camp with one of those still in use in east texas I remember the sound of rushing water and it didn't dehumidify the air very well
I tryed to look inside it but I couldn't get a look inside it but I never had time

[truetone36]

I know of one of those in the neighborhood I grew up in that was still in use as recently as 3 years ago.

[Tim R.]

One of those tower units is literally across the street from me. I'll snap a picture of it and post it on here.

[josephdaniel]

I got some pictures of the units today!

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by josephdaniel

I went to a smear camp with one of those still in use in east texas I remember the sound of rushing water and it didn't dehumidify the air very well
I tryed to look inside it but I couldn't get a look inside it but I never had time

I don't think an evaporative cooler is intended for a high humidity area.
It probably works great in Arizona, where the humidity is low.

[dieseljeep]

The Westinghouse looks like the one I had. They had an aluminum case. I think the base chassis was steel.
It worked great for several years.

[josephdaniel]

According to an advertisement that I found from 1965 it has a zinc plated chassis

[bgadow]

My parents had a Westinghouse like that, but it conked out before I was old enough to remember it. I only know about it because they still had the owner's manual. Got replaced by a GE slimline in the mid-70s. The main AC in our house growing up was a giant 220v Hotpoint, I'm not sure of its rating but I'm thinking 22kbtu? Real noisy when the compressor was running (mostly rattles, needed new rubber probably) but very quiet with just the fan. It was from the early/mid 70s and still cooled fine when Mom sold the house. Recently I was looking at a photo taken when I was very young and it showed the Hotpoints predecessor, which I don't remember. Couldn't tell what it was in the photo. At one point a friend of my Dad gave him a beat-up Chrysler Airtemp 5k unit, missing the grille. I don't know what he ever intended on doing with it but I finally could stand no longer looking at it sitting in the shed while I roasted in the bedroom. I struggled and finally got it in my window-and it fell out! Got it back in, the thing ran but wouldn't cool. Finally Dad figured out I had installed it so he took it out, carried it to the appliance shop in town, and he came back and told me "they said it looked like it had fallen out of the window". I always assumed he knew my secret after that! Later I used a 70s GE Carry-Cool...at work we had a Carry-Cool from 1988. We never used to take it out of the window for the winter, and every spring the motor would be stuck. They would always cover it under warranty-they finally replaced the whole AC about 93 or so. Finally I figured out that if I stuck a pencil in the front and turned the fan it would run just fine, and putting the unit in dry storage for the season eliminated problems altogether. It ran okay until last September. It was doing okay and I walked into the office, noticed it was getting warm and I could smell the unmistakeable scent of refrigerant oil.

At home right now I'm running a 5k Kenmore (Whirlpool) that my wife bought used years ago, and a 10.5k Gibson that came with the house. Both are 1991 models, made in the USA. I really need to install some new compressor mounts in the Gibson before I install it this year. Last year I had a lot of trouble with it tripping the breaker, mostly because of too much drag on the fan. The plastic cage at the condenser end has some crud in it, and it isn't easy to get it all dug out.

Had a friend in high school, his parents rented a place with a great big Admiral in the wall from the 60s. He only knew it didn't work. Our middle school, built in '62, didn't have central AC but the front offices had window units. I recall an older Fedders and Friedrich, among others. The little drugstore down from my shop has a 70s (if not older) Gibson mounted above the front door; my optometrists office, which dates from the 30s, has a 60s Philco AC in the waiting room.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by josephdaniel

According to an advertisement that I found from 1965 it has a zinc plated chassis

I saw one at a garage sale last year. Larger than the one I had. A 230 volt unit. IIRC, it was an apartment sleeve unit, as it only had an opening on the back. It even had the original packing carton.
I don't think anyone bought it, because it was a 230 volt.
Regarding the GE carry cool, they were good units for the money. They had the strange wire brush-like condensor and evaporator.
They were quiet and did a good job.

[Kamakiri]

FYI, I use the liquid form of this to clean my units. You'd be surprised at all the black mold and crap that gets into these things, no matter how they're cleaned externally.

http://www.nucalgon.com/products/aer...-brite-aerosol

[josephdaniel]

I use a power washer and bleach water to clean mine but that stuff probably works better

[josephdaniel]

In a neborhood that I lived in a few years ago most of the houses were built 1952-1954. Today I was talking with one of my friends who had moved in a few months before we moved away I was talking about vintage window units and they mentioned that they had one in that shed that came with the house and that the previous owners said they had bought when they first moved in. According to them it stuck out very far out the back and had round ball swivel vents (a 50's voranado). Sadly this couple has gotten divorced because of some serious stuff that was going on even when I lived next door to them and the husband has gotten the house and isn't the friendliest person in the world
I wish I had a way to get it out of there but I do't want to get killed

[DavGoodlin]

The 230 volt units seemed to be over 12,000 BTUH and covered half your house usually. The 1980 Gibson was just for the one bedroom, but
a 1983 Fedders 15,000 BTUH really put chill on the downstairs my city row house, that got hellishly hot due to a brick wall facing south and no shade.
It had the brown knobs, gold escutcheon and round diffuser characteristic of Fedders units for so many years.

My neighbor gave me thier Airtemp 14,000 BTUH 230 volt, so the Fedders went to a friend who lost their Frigidaire 230 volt unit to a lightning strike. A year later, the Fedders got zapped that same way.

I encountered many junked units due to a compressor winding shorted to ground, mostly the 230 volt ones, being that neither end of the winding were grounded via neutral. No smoke, just a hum, dimmed lights and a click as the overload element tripped. An ohmmeter check usually showed a short to ground if the compressor was not locked.

[egrand]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

I saw one at a garage sale last year. Larger than the one I had. A 230 volt unit. IIRC, it was an apartment sleeve unit, as it only had an opening on the back. It even had the original packing carton.
I don't think anyone bought it, because it was a 230 volt.
Regarding the GE carry cool, they were good units for the money. They had the strange wire brush-like condensor and evaporator.
They were quiet and did a good job.

Something else to consider when looking at these larger 208/230v units is if they are single phase or three phase. If they are hard wire or don't have the plug anymore then you need to check the label. A lot of REA and co-op utilities did and still do provide home three phase service. So I know three phase window units are out there.

[josephdaniel]

Originally Posted by egrand

Something else to consider when looking at these larger 208/230v units is if they are single phase or three phase. If they are hard wire or don't have the plug anymore then you need to check the label. A lot of REA and co-op utilities did and still do provide home three phase service. So I know three phase window units are out there.

I think having three phase power would be cool. Some of the advantages to three phase power is that the motors are often simpler and more robust and there is Consistent power delivery. Single-phase delivers zero power each time the voltage crosses zero while with three-phase each time a phase crosses zero there is still power being delivered. This leads to three-phase motors running more smoothly.