
1930s Household Refrigerators (2013) - userbinator
https://musingsonentropy.com/2013/04/04/1930s-household-refrigerators/
======
francis_t_catte
Anecdote, but I rescued a 1947 Kelvinator C-7-R (essentially a 1930's pre-war
design) last year from the National Grid fridge scrapping scheme. It'd sat in
an unheated garage since 1993, after being continually in use by the same
family from 1948 to 1993. I plugged it in once I got home, and it cooled down
to 38F within an hour. :)

Functionally, it just needs a new door seal to go back into service.
Unfortunately I turned it into another restoration project... the original
glass drawers got smashed in the 70's, and replaced with pieces of wood
paneling, the interior door panel is cracked, and most importantly, it needs
all the wiring replaced.

Something of note for post-war appliances like this; due to copper shortages,
a lot of manufacturers switched to aluminum wire. This, combined with the
natural rubber insulation, and the lack of grounding, it's basically waiting
to electrocute me, then set my house on fire.

A lot of other 40's and 50's appliances are probably the same in terms of
aluminum wiring. Pretty much everything prior to the 70's is gonna be full of
natural rubber insulation and no grounding (or double insulation), however.

~~~
war1025
What is the energy use of such an old fridge compared to a new one?

~~~
userbinator
Much better than you'd think --- I have a late 30s Frigidaire which consumes a
bit less than 300kWh/year, which is actually on the low side compared to some
of the newest ones today. GE's famous Monitor Tops from the same era (which
sell for absurd $$$ in working condition today) are also very energy-
efficient:

[http://web.archive.org/web/20121218033749/http://www.greenbu...](http://web.archive.org/web/20121218033749/http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/choosing-
energy-efficient-refrigerator)

The ones with the highest consumption are the late 60s to 80s thin-walled ones
(which makes for more interior space, but obviously less insulation) and those
with defrost heaters.

It's both depressing and a bit amusing, both from the point of view of
historical accuracy and saving working products from being scrapped, that a
basic search on how much energy a fridge uses turns up misleading results like
[https://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/refrigerators.html](https://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/refrigerators.html)
\--- that one cuts off at 1976, and is essentially claiming 2200kWh/year for
all models before that year, which is a gross generalisation and exaggeration.
2200kWh/year is equivalent to consuming 250W for 24/7\. The compressor in my
fridge has a rated power of less than 100W, and certainly doesn't run 24/7.

~~~
war1025
The thing I think is really interesting about this is the implication that
efficiency got much worse before starting to get better.

I guess intuitively that makes sense since the first refrigerators were
probably upgraded actual "ice boxes", where efficiency is obviously very
important.

~~~
userbinator
Electrical costs were also quite high --- many places still had not been
electrified yet. Combine that with The Great Depression and efficiency
definitely became a concern and marketing point.

------
AnotherGoodName
An aside but i'd like to point out the biggest design difference and why that
changed. The doors. They used to have a latch. That resulted in numerous
deaths of children. The modern design using magnetic seals came about because
of this.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator_death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator_death)

~~~
walrus01
Glow in the dark interior trunk release handles in passenger sedans also exist
for this reason.

~~~
philwelch
Similar reasons, at least. There is also usually a way to access the passenger
compartment from the trunk.

If you like to be prepared for worst case scenarios, get a friend to duct tape
your hands together and lock you in the trunk of your car and see if you can
escape. Make sure the friend sticks around to rescue you if you fail or cry
out for help.

------
contingencies
His article [https://musingsonentropy.com/2013/01/26/i-caught-the-
refrige...](https://musingsonentropy.com/2013/01/26/i-caught-the-refrigerator-
bug/) is an informed summary of issues with current refrigerator designs.

 _Full of toxic plastic, insufficient insulation, energy wasting door
construction, poor compressor and condenser placement, almost no thermal mass,
highly toxic and expensive refrigerant gas, uneconomic to service generally.
Basically, they’re cheap boxes of toxins designed to be discarded and
replaced!_

~~~
tfvlrue
Hmm, there could be some context I'm missing, but his comments on this come
across to me as a bit ill-informed. But I'm just an avid DIYer who has taken
apart and repaired many appliances, so take as you will.

> toxic plastic

I'm not sure what this is referring to. You don't normally eat (or eat off of)
the plastic components of a refrigerator. Maybe this is more an environmental
concern than a health one?

> almost no thermal mass

Isn't this a desirable property of a highly-insulated box? Ideally, the most
thermal mass should come from its contents, not the appliance itself.

> highly toxic and expensive refrigerant gas

R134a is the most common refrigerant used in residential refrigerators these
days, which is not particularly toxic to humans. It's the primary ingredient
in canned air dusters and no one seems to have a problem with that. 30lb tanks
of this can be had for a little over $100, and a refrigerator would hold less
than a pound of it. It does have a very high GWP though--an environmental
concern, not a health one. (Side note -- I've also noticed propane (R-290) is
becoming more common in commercial refrigerators.)

> energy hogging

To be fair, modern refrigerator compressors have become much more energy
efficient than they used to be. Additionally, a variable speed compressor
would have previously been unheard of in a residential appliance, but are now
becoming relatively common in middle-to-high-end refrigerators.

> uneconomic to service generally

Well, this is hard to refute :) The problem is definitely broader than
refrigerators, but residential appliances do seem particularly prone to it.
One issue here is that refrigeration work in particular requires special
equipment and expertise. From my experience, parts are often the least
expensive aspect of repairing an appliance.

~~~
Spooky23
As someone dealing with a failed fridge right now, I’d beg to differ.

Most modern fridges rely on controllers that are vulnerable to fail in high
heat conditions, which are common given the awful placement of the coils and
motors of fridges.

The pursuit of energy efficiency replaced easily serviced, long lasting gear
with “efficient” junk with a MTBF of ~60 months. I have a garage fridge that
my dad pulled out of the garbage 35 years ago.

~~~
redshirtrob
> given the awful placement of the coils and motors of fridges.

Oh, man. So much this. The refrigerator that came with my house, a circa 2006
Samsung, has coils that grow ice. The (evaporator?) fan is positioned in such
a way that the ice eventually grows into the fan blades. First it makes a
super-annoying scraping sound, then the temperature in the fridge slowly
creeps up to unsafe levels.

The fix only takes about an hour. You have to remove the back panel and
defrost the coils with a hair dryer. I've done it a couple times now.

It boggles my mind that we can't have nicer appliances. I'd certainly be
willing to pay more at this point in my life, but I have zero confidence I
wouldn't just be paying more for the same trash.

~~~
contingencies
Modern fridges have a defrost cycle built in which does this automatically.
Are you by any chance in a high humidity location or running the fridge
without adequate ventilation? You could possibly ask the service staff to
adjust the thing to make it run more frequently, or request a replacement
controller.

~~~
redshirtrob
> Modern fridges have a defrost cycle built in which does this automatically.

I believe you. The point is this doesn't work very well. It's a pretty common
complaint with the model.

> Are you by any chance in a high humidity location or running the fridge
> without adequate ventilation?

Eh, I have AC and a dehumidifier. The humidity is well under control inside my
house.

As for ventilation, the refrigerator is in the only place you could possibly
put a refrigerator in my kitchen. If it's not designed to work for that
placement, then Samsung has no business being in the refrigerator business.

> You could possibly ask the service staff to adjust the thing to make it run
> more frequently, or request a replacement controller.

I am the service staff. I'm sure I could spend a good chunk of money on this.
I'd rather not. I don't enjoy it, but manually defrosting the coils every
eight months beats handing a couple hundy to a service person.

~~~
dugditches
Issue is with controllers is that you can't manually defrost anymore.

They rely on boards like you said, or thermistors that only close when cold to
turn on the defrost coil.

Look up if your fridge has an actual manual defrost method(rather than your
'manual' defrost). Some of them are rather absurd. But if you're lucky enough
to have one you can simply force extra defrosts when it's real hot/fridge
being opened often instead of having to pull the shroud and manually do it.

 _First Test Method:

    
    
        Turn the thermostat off for 15 seconds.
        Turn the thermostat on for 5 seconds.
        Turn the thermostat off for 15 seconds.
        Turn the thermostat on for 5 seconds.
        Turn the thermostat off for 15 seconds.
        Turn the thermostat on for 5 seconds.
        Turn the thermostat off.*

~~~
redshirtrob
If I follow you, you're suggesting I look up some of the obscure button
sequences to press to force some hidden behavior? We did that early on and
didn't get great results.

------
xpasky
Little known fact: Albert Einstein and Leo Szillard worked on refrigerator
designs in the early 30s. They didn't find commercial success but the designs
are revisited occasionally.
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_refrigerator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_refrigerator))

(Leo Szillard conceived of chain nuclear reaction few years later and this
friendship with Einstein allowed him to indirectly petition Roosevelt to start
the Manhattan Project.)

~~~
scottlocklin
It always blew my mind that refrigerator gas used to murder people in their
homes.

aka "The two were motivated by contemporary newspaper reports of a Berlin
family who had been killed when a seal in their refrigerator failed and leaked
toxic fumes into their home"

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mc32
An aside, but watching old 40s and 50s programming (older silent movies as
well) do expose you to a bit of how things were back then -iceboxes in
people’s homes, the decor they used, lighting choices, modes of transport,
undershirt habits, milkmen, ice blocks, all kinds of incidental things outside
of the main thrust of a movie or TV programming.

~~~
ndespres
This is true but you may also encounter some anachronisms. For example,
married couples sleeping in separate beds was not something that historically
happened- it was just how TV producers dealt with censorship dictated by The
Hays Code, the rules that governed what could be shown in television and film.
If you tried to use programming from the 40s and 50s you might wonder why none
of these people seem to have indoor toilets!

~~~
themaninthedark
I know it happened in some cases. My paternal grandparents had separate beds
in their house.

Grandmother is in her 90's now.

~~~
c22
Mine did too, but grandpa was gay.

~~~
mc32
I guess you mean after he had kids?

~~~
rsynnott
Used to be quite common for gay people to have kids heterosexually; at one
time it was more or less socially expected that everyone would marry and have
children, particularly in the middle classes.

------
ncmncm
Not widely known is that if all the HFCs currently in use end up vented, it
will produce as much greenhouse effect as all the CO2 currently in the
atmosphere, and do it orders of magnitude longer than the CO2.

We all thought that HFCs would save the world from the Ozone Hole, not
realizing what a disaster they would turn out to be. Specify refrigeration
equipment that uses ammonia or propane refrigerant.

------
tdeck
> they had typical charges of 1# to perhaps 3.5#

Is this using the pound sign to represent an actual pound? First time I've
ever seen that!

~~~
stan_rogers
It was still very common when I was a kid - as were handwritten bills of sale.
That's probably not mere coincidence. (I haven't been a kid in quite a while.)

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agumonkey
I forgot where I heard or read that fridges were one the main factor driving
post war urbanism, supermarkets/mall far away. Prior to cheap refrigeration
people just bought local and ate fresh because they had no choice.

~~~
namdnay
Bought local yes, ate fresh not necessarily. The staple diet for factory
workers living in cities was mainly starches and fats

~~~
jandrese
Pickles. Everything was pickled because it didn't keep otherwise. The
invention of the refrigerator significantly reduced the incidents of stomach
cancer.

~~~
agumonkey
so the past was filled with a lot of ulcers ?

------
mschuster91
> The number of U.S. and Canadian deaths due to suffocation in refrigerators
> declined a significant amount in the years following federal legislation.

Who would have thought, government regulation literally can save lives.

~~~
mc32
Seatbelts. Safety glass (not sure if that was gov reg).

Little is ever black or white. Some things are best implemented by gov, some
by the marketplace.

~~~
mschuster91
Seatbelts were available in the mid 50s, it took until 1966 for Congress to
mandate them.

~~~
philwelch
Safety features in cars usually get invented before they become mandatory.
Backup cameras took about a decade to become mandatory, too.

~~~
clairity
backup cameras are nice, but are marginal at best as safety features even
though they're marketed heavily that way. they're for convenience, so we don't
have to crane our necks when backing up or parking. seat belts, on the other
hand, have easily saved thousands of lives.

point being, mandating backup cameras is an overreach of safety regulation,
but not for seat belts.

~~~
tezzer
The individual who lead the effort to mandate backup cameras (after backing
over and killing his son) cited ~200 deaths and 15,000 injuries, annually,
mostly small children and elderly [1]. I don't know if I'd call it overreach,
but I also don't know what the equation is for cost versus tragedy when
looking at an issue like this.

[1] [https://www.kidsandcars.org/2018/05/14/after-his-sons-
tragic...](https://www.kidsandcars.org/2018/05/14/after-his-sons-tragic-death-
this-doctor-fought-to-put-backup-cameras-in-every-car/)

~~~
clairity
running over anyone is tragic, and i'm not trying to make light of it, but
that's the same misapplication of risk, fear, and bias that lead to security
theater, housing crises and regulatory capture generally.

we don't regulate for the people (US, annually) who accidentally drown in a
bathtub (~300) and get injured in a bathroom (~250k), even though it would
address more harms (at a larger scale and possibly greater cost, depending on
the mitigations).

