Who here as the oldest working freezer or refrigerator.

[texanwitch]

I have a refrigerator that came with the house built in 1976, still going strong.

It came from Sears.

The freezer is almost as old.

Both are a dark brown, it was the 70's.

Could have been worse colors.

[lastlib]

1. My parents have a Zenith freezer, 1960.

My sister (age 5 at the time) remembers playing in the box it came in.

The original light bulb burned out about five years ago.

[texanwitch]

2. My Grandparents has one freezer that they bought in the 40's, lasted forever.

It was huge, must have weight 1000 lbs filled.

Don't make them like they used to.

[caraher]

3. This is one case where some turnover may be for the best

Refrigerators are immensely more energy efficient these days...

[texanwitch]

4. I have a new one, the old one is a second one.

It didn't seem to use that much energy.

The light bill didn't go down that much.

It is also a lot smaller then newer ones.

I bet it will outlast my new one, which is always having problems.

[caraher]

9. They're definitely more durable

My in-laws have an old fridge in their basement - probably dates to the 50s. It's outlasted a few in the kitchen, but it's also much smaller and tends to need defrosting that it somehow never gets...

[Curmudgeoness]

7. I don't know about that. I have a 40's frig

in the basement, running like a charm. I did decide one time that I should be more responsible and unplug it. I watched my electric bill for months and saw no decrease in usage. I plugged it back in and still saw no change. This refrigerator is not auto-defrost and that is what I am told takes the most energy.

[caraher]

8. I guess that mostly shows it's not a huge fraction of your total electricity use

The best way to know is to use something like a "Kill-A-Watt" meter on the thing. Depending on the time of year, whether you have air conditioning, etc. your monitoring total household electricity might see the consumption masked by other shifts in electricity use.

Older refrigerators do tend to be smaller and, as you mention, not have some features that can use a lot of power. Those factors certainly work in favor of keeping consumption down.

[Curmudgeoness]

16. Where does one get a Kill-A-Watt meter?

That sounds pretty fun and I think that I would go crazy with one.

[caraher]

20. Any of the big box home improvements stores should have them...

Such as Lowes and Home Depot, or lots of places online. They're $15-$30 or so; a Google search will give you lots of options.

[HopeHoops]

14. Those had the click latches that caused kids to suffocate when they hid in them.

Rounded edges, big metal pull handle, aluminum ice tray with the pull lever to crack the cubes. My grandparents had one that was about 350 years old (well, seemed that way to me when I was little).

[Curmudgeoness]

15. Yes, no one said it was safe to crawl into.

It also has this little aluminum box that they call a freezer, with a drip pan below it for when you defrost. And of course, the drip pan is really really hard to get out and walk to a sink with and not spill it everywhere.

And actually, this one was my grandparent's refrigerator before they passed away.

[HopeHoops]

24. Yep, same kind. Kept the vodka really cold in the freezer section! At least Pa thought it did.

He always had a few bottles tucked in there.

[angstlessk]

5. Well, ya know the icemen used to come around..now I have to go to them!

Those kitchen bins in the rich folks homes for milk and ice are useless these days, now that I can afford the rich folks homes.

[Raven]

6. Until last year I had a water

heater which sat exposed to the elements under my cabin which was 32 years old.

[panader0]

10. I've got a 50's Servel propane powered one in storage

Great if you have no electricity. Small capacity but works good.

[likesmountains 52]

11. Not a fridge, but a box fan from 1950 is still going strong here. It must weigh 10 lbs

but it has out lasted multiple plastic window fans that I have bought.

[texanwitch]

12. I know the kind.

I have a old radio, record player combo in wooden cabinet very pretty.

It would work but the station control switch is broken.

The tubes light up still.

I use it for a tv stand.

I want to get it fixed on day.


It has a switch for FM, wonder how many FM stations there was back then.

[HopeHoops]

13. Ours is a cheapo from Montgomery Ward, 1987, and is the garage (beer) fridge now.

The kitchen fridge is about 12 years old and came from Sears.

Our washer and dryer were also from Montgomery Ward in 1987, went through three daughters worth of cloth diapers, dealt with cat and dog hair all of this time, and have never needed a repair. Great. Now both will self-destruct today just because I posted this.

[mrmpa]

17. 1946, natural gas powered refirgerator..........

not mine, but a friend in her late '80's has it in her kitchen. Her husband bought it for her when he came home from WWII.

[femmocrat]

18. I have an upright freezer from the early 1970s.

It is not self-defrosting. It works fine!

[Brickbat]

19. We have an International Harvester refrigerator from the 1950s that still works.

We keep it in the garage as a beer fridge.

[MrMickeysMom]

21. In our rec room, we have an 82 small fridge from Monkey Wards!

All in fine working order, this is a dark brown square "small" one that we got when we moved 2 houses ago and couldn't afford a regular one. Montgomery Wards had a sale, and boy, does it still keep the beer and soft-drinks cold!

[cyberswede]

22. We have a fridge that looks like the one in Ralphie's kitchen...

in "A Christmas Story." That movie took place in 1939, but I think the fridge is probably from the 50's. It's in the basement, and we mostly keep beer in it.

Ralphie's fridge:


Ours (we painted it red):

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

23. Not any more, but my grandma's old refrigerator

from the early 1930s was still running and in use well into the '80s. It looked like this:



When I became acquainted with it as a kid, it was being used in a little vacation cottage my grandma had, although I think it originally had been in her regular house. The compressor was in that round thing on top, and it vibrated so much that it kind of crept across the floor and periodically we had to shove it back. But it worked.