MY TEST: 1) 1998 Maytag (R134a, side-by-side) uses 3.5kwh/day, 2) 1995 Amana (R134a, bottom freezer) uses 2.4kwh/day. Note that they where made DRASTIACALLY better than current models. 27 years old and 24 years old and operate perfectly fine.
I call it DISGUSTING and totally UNACCEPTABLE. They should last at least 20. These damn corporations are robbing us blind and they got HUGE tax cuts that don't expire. Considering that most buy major appliances on credit cards, it is no wonder that most Americans are up to their eyeballs in debt. This is CRIMINAL in my opinion. I would rather pay a few hundred more and get something that will last than this GARBAGE that last 4 freaking years. I am not rich and I can't afford to buy all new stuff every 4 or 5 years.
My appliances are going on 24 years and I have no intention of replacing them. I’ve made minor repairs and when I go for parts, the guys tell me NEVER get rid of them and they are from “The Golden Age of Appliances.” 😊
My grandma kept her original refrigerator from 1951 in her garage to store drinks, or when she made a ton of food (Thanksgiving casseroles that had been assembled, but not cooked) or when she had lots of leftovers (also Thanksgiving). My dad finally convinced her to sell the thing in the late 90s when she downsized to assisted living. No joke - her power bill dropped 20% after they took the fridge out!
Im sure it did drop 20% But the thing was built to last forever These new appliances are made to last 10 years at most and always have premature issies that need to be repaired
@@chachisuave3470 Exactly, there are better tricks to keep your appliances more efficient (a full fridge doesn't loose heat as fast as an empty fridge) but built-in obsolescence is a harder mountain to get around.
if you want a fridge that consumes way less power you should buy a chest freezer, as the cold air tends to go down and since it's staying that way the machine will still be efficient even when the sealing components degrade, and it wont lose cool when you open it
When I was in university, in one apartment I rented, there was a 1932 GE Monitor top fridge. It had a footpedal on the left leg which would release the door if your hands were not free. The condenser coils were exposed completely and fairly warm. The actual freezer part was minute compared to today's fridges. BUT it did work well - it was 1969- 1970 when I was there so it was already 36 years old. I was fairly conscientious about defrosting it - which didn't take much time. One thing about having to defrost a fridge is that the insides would get wiped out every few weeks or so with baking soda and water. So the interior was usually much cleaner than most fridges are today. Considering the technology available at that time (sulfur dioxide was the refrigerant in the 1932 one) it was relatively efficient. I kept the condenser coils vacuumed and as clean as I could which helped with heat exchange. And of course the freezer section of it was quite small so keeping ice-cream around wasn't an option. But it made ice cubes in four hours, kept frozen veggies well as well as any meats I'd put into it. We have to have perspective about the topic of refrigeration. An electric refrigerator was a huge leap forward - my grandmother had to go shopping daily for fresh veggies and meats and she had an ice-box which had it's costs - a half block of ice cost $.10 in the winter months. The ice-men would jack up the price during the summer months to $.25 per half block. A block might last two and a half days. If you multiply that out for inflation today, you'd be spending about $15.00 a week to keep food only cool. So an electric refrigeration "machine" as they were originally called was a real step forward.
That footpedal sounds very useful. Would love to find a fridge that does that today. I used to be into old cars and it’s amazing the cool functions some of these older cars had that really would be nice to have today but have been fazed out of car manufacturing
I have a 1933 GE monitor top with Methal Formate. 90 years old.. it runs like a champ. It runs less and cycles less than my 18cu ft modern refrig in the basement. granted a size difference, BUT like yours, other than the refrigerant, it is remarkably efficient and cold!
I have fond memories of going to the ice house and getting a treat (a big chip of ice on a hot summer day). We had the ice box downstairs as it leaked, at our family cabin. And had another newer model up in the cabin kitchen. Things used to be made to last and were so much better made.
As a teenager I worked with the appliance repairmen in my father's business. One job was the replacement of the door gasket in a late 1920's GE refrigerator that had the coil and compressor on top. I was astounded that we could still get new replacement parts for it, more so than the obvious fact that it was still working. Another appliance was a 1910 electric hot water heater that was rust free and still working. The electric coils were on the outside of the tank and coils insulated by wood slats! Amazing! The owners of the ancient hot water heater wanted something more efficient. Over 110 years old, and still working fine. The technician and I replaced the rubber tub in an ancient Bendix clothes washer. Again, I was astounded that we were able to source OEM parts for it. Upon carefully examining the replacement tub was new.
Yea I could see keeping an old fridge but not a hot water heater. Even an all electric hot water heater from 10 years ago is much less efficient than one today and further compound the fact that heat pump water heaters are about 3-4x as efficient as the best electric coil hot water heater it's really a no brainer not to get rid of the old one. I just bought a house with a tiny little 30 gallon all electric water heater that is 15 years old. According to the energy star label it uses around 4700kw a year. A 50 gallon rheem hybrid uses about 900kw a year. It's been replaced haha.
@@AustinMichael but that heat pump water heater will fail before it’s 10 years old and it won’t be worth fixing and you’ll spend more than what you would expect for electricity running older water heater. The heat pump water heaters all run above the critical temperature of the refrigerant it using none of them will last.
@@AustinMichael What nonsense are you talking about? Electric heaters are all almost 100% effective, old ones, new ones... It is a piece of metal that is resisting the current and creates heat energy. You are not gonna save anything by installing a new electric heater over your century old one. Heat pump is something completely different and it is enormously expensive, can only be installed if you have the property fit for it and does not last that long
@@ron9381 You can say the same thing about most air conditioners, last time I checked they typically last more than a decade. It really isn't that hard to design a machine to last even one with moving parts like a heat pump, all you need is something to incentivize reliability like a decent warranty.
Fun video. I'm 81 and we had a GE frig like your grandma's. It still was going strong when I moved out around 1959. I remember GE was a great company back then. That's sure not the case now. Of course, that's pretty much the case with all appliance manufacturers now
GE appliances is not even owned by GE anymore or an American company. It's owned by a Chinese company now and the quality has plummeted from a low end ok product to absolute trash.
My folks are a little older than you, and they didn't need to replace their late 1960s Zenith television because it broke, but because it really became obsolete with different adapters (HDMI etc.) and much larger screens. The TV still works. Same with their GE washer/dryer from around the same era (replace for features not because it broke). My mom also still has her Kirby vacuum from the early 1970s, but also has a newer model for upstairs so she doesn't have to tote the heavy old Kirby.
As someone who loves old technology (I have a 30 year old truck) I definitely wanna see that old fridge stay in one piece or at least stay in use. That machine probably has a good number more years left in them
@@johnrobinson8323 fire up a '79 chevy Silverado when you are gathering firewood in the wildlands. There's something special about those bench seats and mechanical / not computer run systems.
One reason the staff refrigerator did so well is because it was so full. The fuller a refrigerator is the less warm air that can enter when you open the door. This requires less energy to cool.
Hmmm. I always thought the rule of thumb was, a little less packed in the refrigerator so the fan could circulate the cold air better to keep the food fresh longer. And, a packed freezer is better as the frozen food allows the freezer to work less. Maybe this thought process was meant for older models?
@@lindacbenson4400 There's a difference between being full and packed. Air circulates around a full fridge. It may not circulate well when packed. And the strategy is identical for both the freezer and fridge. The only difference is the temperature and the fact the freezer does more work to room temperature air. When the door is opened cold air pours onto the floor and warmer air enters and the mechanism needs to work to cool the air. The longer the door is opened, the more often it is opened and (key to this discussion) the more air that leaves means more work, i.e. the higher cost, is required.
Good job .As a semi retired Maytag man I have seen many changes over the years. One thing the mover and shakers don't take into account are the costs of recycling on those 5 to ten year old units... What happens with the plastics, glass and foam insulation not to mention the melting down the metal for other use ? Is that what is called "saving the earth". I could go on and on but I won't . Some of us remember the days of appliances lasting 20 to 30 years and getting the first service call after 15 years use...No more lonely Maytag Men.
One of the videos I didn't use at the ending montage was the FANTASTIC Maytag ad from 1990 (I got the first second of it, but really didnt figure a place to put it otherwise). The whole ad was people shoping at a futuristic Maytag store for a "New Maytag" because their old one finally died after many, many decades. The ad was trying to sell people on the warranty of the 1990 Side by Side. Just an amazing ad, but too long for me to use sadly.
@@bensappliancesandjunk I went to work at a Third generation Maytag sales and service shop in 1988. We wore the Maytag light blue pants and shirt with the Maytag patch ( like the one on your cap ). Red Carpet Service... There was an element of pride in Maytag . Hard to believe Maytag started out making farm equipment.
MY TEST: 1) 1998 Maytag (R134a, side-by-side) uses 3.5kwh/day, 2) 1995 Amana (R134a, bottom freezer) uses 2.4kwh/day. Note that they where made DRASTIACALLY better than current models. 27 years old and 24 years old and operate perfectly fine.
Speed Queen seems to have taken the place of the old Maytags. My mom had a Maytag washer that was over 30 years old. She had it until she passed on. Those old Maytags made in the 50s- 60s- and 70s were lifetime appliances. You bought them and they lasted a lifetime. Maybe they needed a minor repair in between but they didn't totally crap out in 5 years. If there is still a lonely Maytag repairman around he is working for Speed Queen. Maytag is owned by Whirlpool now.
We had an Amana fridge that gave every indication that it would never die. It was big, painted white and it was incredibly quiet. After 24 years I finally had a service guy come to give it a checkup. There was nothing wrong with it at all. Couple of years later it was decided to get a new stainless fridge because that's what was hip and would help us sell our house. The new fridge is a piece of crap. It's much smaller and it's so noisy it wakes me up at night. I hate it. God how I wish I had my Amana back again.
Some appliances have actually useful improvements but in my limited knowledge, freezers and fridges are the same tech as they were 50 years ago. That being the case, a unit with loose manufacturing standards or shipping damage is going to be worse regardless of age. So if you get one that works, keep it.
@@gorkyd7912 I didn’t want to lose it but our realtor said it looked dated so the better half said out it goes. That fridge was made by Amana when they made things in Amana. I hope it was sold secondhand instead of being scrapped-somebody would be getting a very high quality appliance.
My 1995 Amana is still running. It uses around 2.5kWh a day, and for some reason runs every 50 minutes whether I open the door or not. But the point is - It works even at 27 years old, and is still fairly efficient. I'm still disgusted that manufacturers plan on people replacing appliances every 7 years. Mine are all from 1995 and still running. Could they be more efficient? Yes, but is it worth it?
We have a 70 year old kitchen range/stove that works fine. I remember growing up when my mom got rid of a 25 year-old range/stove to buy a new one. Well that new one didn’t last 10 years without breaking down. I use that as a cautionary tale and a reminder to not replace the 70 year old appliance I have.
I got my Grandma's 1974 GE Americana Double oven range in 1998 when she passed. She never used the bottom oven except on Thanksgiving for a turkey. The upper oven did all the work. We did the same. In 2016 I finally replaced the upper oven gasket, and clock timer assy. Other than that nothing has been replaced on it. Wife and I are getting rid of the induction frigidaire stove that came with the house we have now and redoing the kitchen to accomodate the Americana, along with a 70's GE Side by side, and a GE Dishwasher from 70's. Currently we have frigidaire stuff that constantly breaks down and is less than 5 years old. Went looking at newer stuff and to say I was not impressed was a massive understatement. I can still replace parts, so the old stuff stays. My grandkids call me a tech Neanderthal as my stereo setup is all tube (no solid state) FISHER gear from the early 60's. And I drive a 1964 Corvair Spyder, and a 69 C10 with a inline 6 and a 3 on the tree. No power anything. If god wanted me to have power windows, and automatic transmissions, he wouldn't have given me arms, Just stubs.😁😁
I had exactly the same fridge he shows here. In 2020 we finally cleared it out in preparation for upgrades, etc. I found a place here in Los Angeles (turns out, literally right down the street from me) that cleans, repairs and restores these old refrigerators. They repair or replace the compressor, replace the wiring and insulation, repair parts and finally, they repaint the cabinet, so the whole thing looks fresh and new. It won't be a modern machine, but it will work well and will have a whole new Life with a new family who loves it. I'm really glad I made the call to that shop. That reminds me, I gotta check out his youtube channel and see if he's made any videos about that fridge. Happy thought.
Power consumption is not the only thing to consider. Given the prices of new refrigerators, it would take a very long time to recoup the replacement cost, and the less-reliable new appliance may need more service calls. I'm keeping my old fridge as long as it continues to work.
Hi, Ben! At the very beginning of your video, you stated you just purchased a new one. Which brand / model did YOU purchase?!? Looking forward to hearing your response, thank you!
Was just randomly reccomended this video and it definitely satisfied my random curiosities. Great info, easy to watch and listen, short and to the point and I love the wholesome touch at the end with your grandma. Keep doing your thing Ben!
@@1coldshot493 what you are talking about I was talking about how new ones break after a few years of use while the old ones keep on chugging alone forever power is irrelevant to that one mind you, I guess that's what modern fridge makers use to say their fridge is more energy efficient cause if it dies it cannot use power, so I guess in the long run the old ones use more power that way I guess
@@raven4k998 I understand what you're talking about. Relax. Never denied it or went against it..... The end of his video talks about how a model that pulls slightly more power than another is actually beneficial (TO HIM) as it holds more capacity to the amount of power it pulls. Which plays an equally important role in a decision instead of "What pulls the least amount of power".
@@1coldshot493 easy fix rip the compressor out of the old fridge from 1950's and put it in the 2020 fridge and you greatly increase the 2020 fridges life expenctancy
My father's "beer" fridge in the garage is a 1940 or 1941 Frigidaire by General Motors that still works. It was inherited from a late aunt in the latter 1980s and still works great. It could probably use a new door seal. I believe I have documentation somewhere as I entered it in a APwagner old refrigerator contest in 2007 or so... it came in like 3rd place... beat out by some 1930's models with compressor on top.
I was given a 1942 Frigidaire to make a smoker out of because of the all metal interior. Before I started that project the shop Beer Fridge died so out of curiosity I plugged the old fridge in and it's still chilling my refreshments today! Had to go find another Smoker fridge project donor.
@Motorheadmike Very interested. Can these still be sourced through Frigidaire or can you can point me to speciality vendor? I'll try to get exact model info. Thanks!
@@audreyappliance You can buy the gaskets through case parts . You just have to look at your gasket profile and measure your gasket precisely and they will build one for you
Up until the early 1980's, my grandmother had a 1930's refrigerator with the round compressor housing on top. It came with them when they moved from a duplex to their then new 1952 rancher in the suburbs.
My parents moved into a place a couple years ago which has some of the original first owners appliances. The washer, dryer, and fridge are decent mid-late 2000s electric units, but the Westinghouse electric range and the retired old Hotpoint fridge found in the garage were from the 40s. I pulled it apart, added a new power cord, and it fired right up and works. Love the (quiet) sound of the compressor.
"A fridge is kind of like a kid. They quit working, but you kinda hate to throw them out, so they just end up sitting out on the porch, full of beer" -Red Green
Except my Grandmother's old Westinghouse Refrigerator that still works up to this day. While my 10 year old Kenmore fridge stopped working and the repair is not worth it so I dismantled my fridge, parted it out I took a lot of copper, bronzer and aluminum and assorted metals as well. Sold the materials to make some money out of it. Sold it to the metal recycling center and got some money, then I add whatever is the cost of the new fridge at the home Depot and got a new one
My parents had a 1953 Hotpoint refrigerator that survived a house fire and ran another 45 years. We got a new side by side in the seventies that also lasted about 40 years. Each time we got a new fridge, we moved the old one into the basement as a drinks fridge and simply as additional fridge space until they finally gave out. Did the same with an upright freezer, adding a chest freezer later. Having extra freezer space was always worth keeping the old appliances when the folks bought new for the kitchen. My folks would buy a side of beef at a time and we had plenty of storage for it. I love your grandma's GE.
I sell appliances for a living. Keep creating these relevant videos. They are jam packed with helpful information. I use the knowledge gained from your site to assist customers with their buying or repair questions...thanks!
OK then, which brand of refrigerator is the most reliable that you have seen from your sales job? I’m considering replacing a working 6 1/2 year old Whirlpool refrigerator. Black Friday sales are in effect!
Short answer is they are all garbage that needs replacing in 5 years. Sad but true. I am in the same situation as you are. I am a very handy guy, I can fix literally everything. I can repair refrigerators with ease. But the cost of parts, the lack of availability of the needed parts and amount of cheap plastic components that break upon disassembly is astounding! America just need a built better brand made here in the USA.
This guy is very intelligent & informative & one thing I want to point out is keep the condenser coil clean . That right there will make your refrigerator or freezer last longer & help keep the electric bill down . & work better .
Wow, a blast from the past. I grew up with this GE frige. My folks got theirs in 1950 and it was our main frige till 1967. It was still working as always but the newer bigger units finally won out and took over the daily chores. The 1950 model was now in the garage and like yours was now always full of beverages. It seemed up to that challenge and continued working without fail for another 15 years. The thing I remember most was a regular routine of defrosting the ice box. Many different methods were used, placing a pot of boiling water in the ice box to eventually hair dryers, to if the fridge was empty anyway just unplugging it with large pans inside to catch drippings while going out for a long shopping trip and bringing new stuff home to fill it up again. I was happy to have lived with that GE for over 33 years. So I hope this story gives you a nudge to keep yours. The memories are priceless compared to kwh costs. Fun Fact that fridge never gave up, and never had service, and might still be running somewhere today. Not sure what the scam or plan was but an offer went out to all homeowners to turn in the old fridges and get a $10.oo check. This did not move my folks to get rid of it, but it did cause some horse trading. The old GE went to the nieghbors son who was now moving into his 1st apartment and that left room for my folks to get an old fridge from the nieghbors who was going to collect the $10.oo but just let my folks have it as the new beverage fridge in the garage with much more room now for beer and such.
Unless I missed it, it would've been nice to see how much power they used per volume, that would've made any inefficiencies much more clear between the models, because as you said, the fridges varied widely in size.
I'd imagine as you used a greater amount of that higher capacity it's efficiency would go down as it needs to work harder. So the comparisons aren't exactly 1:1 Basically, my point is, I'm not sure power/volume is an accurate representation. Interesting though, yes.
@@BlackSmokeDMax He's cooling the same amount of stuff inside though. And the reason why we need to see the efficiency per volume is exactly BECAUSE it's not a 1:1 comparison to begin with. As it stands, the measurements he reports don't really tell us that much.
@@Razumen I agree this testing is good, i was saying that relating this exact test to the interior space and thinking you can use simple division/multiplication to relate the efficiency of these tests up to different volumes of stuff inside of the larger capacity units wouldn't quite be the same. Now they may turn out to be the same or similar, just that you can't tell that without better testing. But yeah, as long as everything stays exactly the same inside, this test is perfectly fine.
My grandmother passed in 2002 and she still had her mid-1940's Westinghouse(?) plugged in and working out in the garage in addition to a much newer model in the kitchen. I believe the vintage fridge was either 5 or 6 cf as it was smaller than the 1950 model in your video. After Grandma passed, I was asked to move into the old farmhouse to help with the remodeling and was essentially destined to inherit the place. But before I could get moved from WV to central GA, my father in his 'infinite wisdom' hauled that old, still-working great fridge to the landfill! I gave him considerable grief over it for years as it would have been the perfect beer and pop fridge....
I really liked that test! I don't quite agree with your math on a kWh per cubic foot consumption: if you want to compare that, you should increase the load (i.e. the number of cans and bottles) for the larger refrigerators. Also, you know the fridge that has a pretty tired gasket? I'd love to see its consumption with a brand new gasket 🙂
I have an early 90s fridge my parents gave me. It was in terrible condition. After fixing all the air ducting underneath and deep cleaning the coils it runs like a champ. Better than the new one in the kitchen.
I had 90s simple fridge with all ' forced air ' from a central freezer box in the back. No refrigerant coils inside just ducting blowing first to the freezer then down to the rest. It is quite an amazing unit and will freeze things in the freezer super fast. BUT in a very humid summer you have to be careful if too much frost accumulates in the ducting the air won't flow and it goes downhill fast. The only remedy is to shut it down for like a whole day to clear all the ice out. Then it's good to go again. About as simple as it gets.
Have done this exact test! NOTE that on one of the fridge, the FAN for Condenser was worn out and not blowing properly, THAT alone caused power usage to DOUBLE. SO FOR THESE test be SURE all components are working as originally made
One major thing I learned in a refrigeration class was that when they don't get enough ventilation to dissipate heat they don't just have to run longer but the refrigerant pressure goes way up causing it to be HARDER to pump which takes a lot more power. Not only that but makes them beat themselves to death. Even if the air is hot, you have to keep it moving. I think of that whenever I see units crammed into a small hole in a kitchen. In my apartment we alway keep a tiny fan running moving the air around the fridge in summer.
Also, inspect all of your appliances regularly! I once had a fridge die a week after it was given to me because the condenser fan failed and I assumed it just didn't have one.
Honestly this is convincing me to give an old 50s fridge a look next time i see one at an estate sale. Having an extra fridge for drinks in the summer would be great, but I always wondered if i was being silly about the idea of getting an old 50s fridge for the job. I'll look into it!
One of the major causes of failure for the seal on to of the fridge door I was surprised you didn't mention is that is where people constantly grab the door at. This means it not only gets dirty quickly, but they also get twisted and bent out of ideal shape and often get ripped and damaged. Case in point, you resting your arms on top of the door, heh.
40 years in the business THEE major reasons a seal fails is people allow thier children to go in and out of the fridge and spill stickey juice, which glues it to the cabinet causing it to tear ,2nd most common reason is the doors were removed to get it in the house and not shimmed properly when put back together, next would be drawers dragged across the seal from not opening the door all the way, touching the seal while opening does little to nothing unless you have stickey goo on your hands
I have a 1948 general motors Frigidaire in my kitchen. Looks brand new and works great. I got it from an old couple that received it as a wedding gift back in 1948. They were moving to the retirement home and I was lucky enough to have this given to me. I don't care how inefficient it may be it ain't going anywhere lol. Having a deep freeze is an absolute must. That little freezer compartment is useless
It's also worth considering ambient temperature. If a fridge/freezer is in a colder area (such as a basement and/or garage) it will consume proportionally less energy. Our early 70s Whirlpool upright freezer seems to use about half of what the online sources said it should, and that might even have been before I cleaned the condenser coils. But what surprised me the most was you mentioning using a hairdryer to reset the door gasket. A tutorial on this would be super helpful.
I had a simple fridge I got out of the trash and used it for many years. In summer I always kept it ventilated with small fan. When I went out for the day in summer I had to close the place up good ( bad neighborhood ) and the kitchen would be about 100 degrees but because I put a fan to keep the hot air MOVING, inside the fridge it was frosty cold. Refrigerators are set up different. I had a freezer unit in my garage that had refrigerant coils throughout, on the shelves themselves. Then I had simple house unit that was all centered around a ' cold box ' with forced air blowing cold air ail throughout the unit, starting in the freezer compartment. If you put a tray of ice cubes in the freezer mostly by itself it would freeze them so fast they would sent tall shards of ice off the top of the cubes sticking up in the air about an inch. The old fridge is a ' cold box ' in the middle with no forced air. Similar to having a block of ice in an insulated box with the center of the block getting a little colder than freezing.
Had an old pantry cabinet in my kitchen with outside vents through the North wall. So I put my fridge in there and added some trim to the door frame to seal it. It only ran normally from May to September, the rest of the year it turned on once or twice a day or not at all.
@@Tore_Lund sounds like the way all of them should be hooked up. I once had a xrazy idea of hooking up a small window air conditioner near the center of my house and using ducting to blow ventilating air through the back side. Kind of like those ' in the room ' air conditioners where you put hoses through a window. A refrigerator set up that way would probably use about 1/4 the power.
@@Tore_Lund Just remember that in conventional fridge/freezer combos the freezer temperature is unregulated and depends on balanced thermals. Be sure to adjust the freezer temp knob as needed throughout the year if you don't want it thawing in the cold.
My wife and I bought a brand new whirlpool fridge when we moved into our one and only home in 1983. It is still working and I’ve only had to do 3 minor repairs myself. As my beautiful wife is no longer with me I just can’t see replacing it as long as it doesn’t die. The only thing I can say about it is that the compressor relay is very loud when it kicks in and out.
Here in the Philippines, local repairmen can fix them compressors or, if totally broken, swap it with a part from a scrapyard. Ours is a GE fridge from 80s, and 3 years ago it was noisy. It would roar in the middle of the night and the shit out of someone. We had it repaired as well refilled the frion gas. EDIT: It still works. A little inefficient than the newer ones, but that's mainly because it doesn't have an adjustable temperature. But consumption wise they're roughly the same
I love ❤️ your Grandma’s vintage 50’s GE fridge and now that it’s just my husband and I, I could totally use the smaller capacity. Defrosting the freezer is super easy too. I just might look for one to go with my Chambers 1950’s Model C gas range! Thanks for taking your time to teach me. I’ve learned so much about appliances from you 😊.
This was an awesome video, thank you for posting the original owners manual. The optional butter conditioner and special fridge wax GE retailers sold were especially interesting. When my grandma passed away I got to keep all the paperwork from every vehicle my grandparents bought. Especially cool to me having worked in automotive for the last 12 years. I find your videos of deconstructing various appliances quite interesting. However since this one has such sentimental value to you, I would find a video restoring it even more fascinating. If I were you I’d turn it into a showpiece on your sales floor, laminate the manual & stick it to the front with a magnet for customers to look at. Then fill it full of soda & water for your customers. Maybe sell the soda for a profit to cover the electric it would consume 😂
Very useful video. I have two of the refrigerators you tested. Your grandmothers that I paid $17.00 for at a garage sale in 1980 which is still going strong and the giant GE 28 CF that my wife and I installed literally last week. Keep up the good work.
My parents had a Sears cold spot fridge for 30 years, still worked great but they were selling the house so they up graded. They hated the new one! When I was a teen, started a cake decorating business. Inherited an old kelvinator fridge from my neighbor was well as an old Sears stove. Both worked like champs! Set up shop in my basement, my dad helped me tap into a gas line for the stove. Made many cakes and batches of sauce jams on that stove. Wish I still had both!
i think that's also another category that should be looked at. older appliances may be smaller, but they were made to last. modern appliances are made intentionally with a specific life span.
That’s a fantastic video! Informative and educational, while being really well presented. I’m from Brazil, and most of the appliances you talk here aren’t even sold here, while some of those sold here are insanely expensive. Yet, the foundational topics you talk about in your videos in your channel can be thoroughly used in my purchase decisions here. Thank you.
Yeah for grandma's refrigerator! I have a 1986 GE refrigerator. Never had a problem or needed a repair man. A year ago I used some silicone to repair a piece of separated gasket. Only cost me a little time. I'm keeping this thing till it dies. Maybe it will last as long as your grandmother 's . Nice video. 👍
DON'T DESTROY THE OLD 50s fridge! As long as it's still running well that is. There should still be a lot of 50s & 60s fridges turning up in junkyards or even as haul-aways from new fridge deliveries, tear apart one of those instead! Or, just use images + the excellent schematic diagrams that all appliances had (up until when, maybe 1990 or 2000?).
Even though he will take a couple panels off to see how it's constructed, he mentioned he's going to keep it because it's a reminder of his grandmother. Count on him, he fixes appliances for a living.
My wife and I had that Whirlpool fridge in our old condo. I liked that fridge. It was just a basic, no frills, box that makes and keeps food cold. Plus we got it on sale for $500. I'd recommend that over any of the fancy fridges any day. It even has a spot to install an ice maker in the freezer and the ice maker is only another hundo or so.
@@boondocker7964 My Whirlpool is 43 years old. I will keep it as long as I can as well as this one has been such a dream to own. Don't need high capacity or techie garbage. Just work and work properly. That's all.
I agree. All fridges should have a minimum of 15 to 20 years life. We have an 18-19 year old fridge that is making the vegetables go soft and uneatable. Don’t want to upgrade until a kitchen renovation but we may have to get an interim one. Great video. 👍
i am a bit confused how does the fridge do that, the only way it can possibly do that is if it is letting oxygen into the fridge, that is how vegetables go bad. as fridges are supposed to be air tight for that purpose.
Hell yes. My dad had a 20 cubic foot chest freezer he bought in the late 70's that lasted until 2019. He was so proud of how long he had it. I replaced it with a frost free 16.7 cu. ft upright and after one month, the electricity bill went down $25 a month! That's a savings of $300 per year and you don't have to defrost it once a year and everything is easy to get to. Even freed up space in the garage.
@@thetacokawaii5708 For the minor extra electricity it uses, it is well worth it not to have to defrost once or twice a year. A lot of people that have manual defrost freezers don't defrost them enough or at all, so they become inefficient. I also like uprights because you can see everything and you don't leave things in the bottom of the freezer, causing them to go bad.
I think Grandma's old fridge would be a perfect beer/soda vault out in the garage or a man cave. I'd be crazy enough to use it as a main fridge in the kitchen, but I'm weird and like vintage/retro stuff like that.
Weird? How? It looks much more elegant and fancy than most budget modern fridge. just buy the cheapest samsung fridge on walmart they got that ugly flower pattern combined with unflattering purple color
Bamn, i found the exact thing i described, this i dunno if it available on your region now this is weird product for your mancave! SAMSUNG 192 Liters 2 Star Direct Cool Single Door Refrigerator with Anti-Bacteria Gasket (RR19A2Y2B6R/NL, Mystic Overlay Red)
@@zloungeact oh, you haven’t met south east asian mid-upper class housewives then.. you’ll be surprised... ... in your electricy bill, not because of 2 fridge made huge different in your bill. Rather the price of the single high 4 door end fridge drawing more power than cheaper ones
Our fridge is 31 years old. It's a Kenmore made by GE. The only issues were a loose wiring connector and a few blockages of the freezer drain over the years. All problems we repaired ourselves. My grandmother had a fridge last 20 some years before getting replaced by this one. Sadly, she died in 1992, when the fridge was only around a year old. I remember her saying this one wouldn't last as long as her old one.
yep my mom has an old kenmore and it has never had an issue, she has an old kenmore washer and dryer from 1980, and the only thing that went wrong with it, the drum in the dryer needed to be cleaned out. other then that perfect working order.
I have a friend that lost her home to Hurricane Katrina. She put brand new GE appliances in her next home. All of the crapped out on her after five years or so. From that point on she only buys old appliances that are still running and she loves them. She even drove several states away to get her refrigerator. You can’t give her anything “new”, especially if it’s “smart” and high tech. I’m planning a new retirement home for myself now and I’m giving a lot of thought of buying newer but simple “non-smart” appliances vs used but near bulletproof older appliances. I miss the days when appliances lasted multiple decades. Side note I’m still using a GE dryer I got from my late father. He purchased it around 1975. It’s not pretty to look at, but I’ve only had to replace the drive belt in it. 🤔
I do have to admit that I purchased a used Whirlpool dishwasher for $150 about 10 years ago, after looking at all the reviews and concluding that they were all garbage. It is about to get replaced. It wasn't the best machine but it was a long-living machine.
Most things nowadays are built to sell and make money instead of built to last like before. Things are now engineered to only last a relative short amount of time before major components crap out. I bought a house from the 60s with original kitchen appliances other than the fridge the owners bought new back in the day. I decided to just keep using them and they are still running strong to this very day. They just look absolutely ancient.
I had a simple two door fridge I got out of the trash. Rental people left it still good. I used it for years and always kept it ventilated. Then my brother gave me a bigger, newer unit so I put that in and gave the other to a poor guy down the street. Then within about 6 months the newer one took a dump and then I had to buy one.
We've got a GE gas dryer that came with our house in '88. It's probably from the early '70s as well. I've replaced the igniter coil and door switch in all that time. Still going strong. My wife hates the gold color. Sorry dear...
In 1949 my grandmother bought a Frigidaire refrigerator and it was the only one she ever had. I had it in the 1990's for a beer fridge in the garage and still worked fine. Moved and took it with me and dad got it back and it's still working now. Looks just like the GE you are standing in front of at the intro.
Ben: You did a really nice job comparing the refrigerators. Your focus on how to determine when to replace an aging one, was also excellent. Future videos could go into more detailed analysis on how to make that decision. I checked out the scan of your Grandma’s 1950 manual. It was so cool! Thank you for sharing that. Most of all, and the real reason I am writing to you, is that I could tell how much you loved them, and treasure your inheritance. If you take a 1950’s fridge apart, don’t use theirs! It is too precious! Find another one similar, that doesn’t have so much meaning to you. The manual, and your memories of their porch, remind me of a simpler time- a post-war age in the USA, that are fond memories for me, too. Thank you for sharing that personal aspect of your life, that made your excellent technical show that much more compelling. G-d Bless. I hope to meet you someday. Daniel Leeman- Bath, Maine
Interesting video. A few suggestions though, adding in a final Watts per C/F of space would be handy. If it was mentioned I missed it, but taking a thermometer to the water you pull out each day to see if each unit is running close to the same temp. As you said in the video, it did take a lot longer for the older fridge to cool down and one of the newer ones was running too cold so it's not necessarily an accurate test. Overall I did appreciate the sentiment in that upgrading may or may not be advantageous due to the unreasonably short lifespan of modern electronics.
@UCFPDZ3wA1axtWZj0WmOXMhg Guy. You're in so far over your head, you might as well just give up now because I don't know if you'll ever get there after misunderstanding this badly. But let's try. Not THE metric system. THAT metric. As in, that method of measuring performance. I am suggesting that the measurement we should have been presented with most often was energy used per cubic foot of space being cooled.
@@mikaelolsson4903 Fair enough, but either one would have been better than just giving flat readings and talking about the context of different size equipment, but not incorporating it into the data. I was just going off of an easy to pull number from the product page. At least surface area tends to increase as internal volume increases so it would be slightly more apples-to-apples to use volume. Shit, put both 'per volume' and 'per internal surface area' up there. That too would be interesting to compare to illustrate your point.
What an awesome video. To answer your question on interest in a video 'analysis' of your Grandma's fridge. Yes, this would be super helpful. This would be a great compliment to the videos you have done comparing older vs newer washing machine construction. Many consumers have questions around WHY does my new fridge not last as long as Grandma's did. Was it the quality of the components? The gauge of the steel? The way compressors were made? Efficiency is crucial for so many reasons and yet, how sustainable is it to dump more 7 year old appliances into a landfill? So again, THANK YOU for making videos such as this. And please consider showing us where modern fridges cut corners in ways that the GE back from 1950 did not.
You didn't mention one important point of old fridges - thick layer of frost/ice can double power consumption. Testing refrigerators for 6 days is not bad but result for old one will be different after month or 3 months (or even more). You can defrost it more often but defrosting cost money and your time and if you use fridge often during day it will build up very quickly.
@@gaswe9236 You have to turn it back on and have it cool down afterwards again which consumes a lot of power compared to a new fridge being able to continuously run without needing to be defrosted.
My grandma got a side by side door like a modern fridge, back in the 80s. She kept using it until 2012 when she died at 69. She loved her fridge and never wanted to update cause it looked modern, worked perfectly and had a beautiful very light salmon colour.
I just bought a place and the fridge it came with was an 11 year old Maytag. It stopped working in lieu of getting utilities switched over. The wife said to dump it and just get a new one. Instead of spending 1700 on the fridge we wanted, I simply did some research and bought a $200 board and now we have a perfectly good fridge. I say it's always worth the time and money to fix your fridge. That shits expensive!
I fixed ours as well. It just needed a new dethaw circuit. It would freeze up and then no longer be cold.. just a big chunk of ice. Thats was a few years back.. still working great. Most things can be fixed by watching a few UA-cam videos 🤷🏼♂️
Great video. I personally keep everything until it falls apart and no longer works. Maybe that is good or bad I don’t know. I just maintain things. I also have a smaller fridge. Mine is 23 years old and seems to be going fine.
i am the same way maintain things and run it till it Dies but I still would not buy Newer Appliance First off they are over Price and if your Very Lucky you might get 2-5 years from a Newer Appliance so where in the World is the cost savings
MY TEST: 1) 1998 Maytag (R134a, side-by-side) uses 3.5kwh/day, 2) 1995 Amana (R134a, bottom freezer) uses 2.4kwh/day. Note that they where made DRASTIACALLY better than current models. 27 years old and 24 years old and operate perfectly fine.
Very informative video! Just a quibble but I'm sure you mean kWhr (kiloWattHour), not just kW. kWhr is a unit of energy used in a time period. It's the quantity used on your electric bill. kW is is the work that's being drawn from the grid at any given instant.
The oldest refrigerator I ever worked on was a Ford Philco, circa 1950s. It was sometime in the 1990s and all I did was replace the door gasket. The oldest Maytag washer I ever worked on was made in 1962. It was sometime in the 1990s and it was the machine's first service call ever. It needed a water valve. They don't make them like that anymore!
My last fridge here in Ireland lasted about 15 years. I think a key thing to highlight is to buy a fridge the size you need. Bigger isn't necessarily better here. If you buy a smaller modern fridge you'll use way less power. My fridge holds 210 litres in the fridge part and 70 litres in the freezer part which is more than enough.
It depends on the use one makes of it... For example a family might want to buy large packs of frozen items (vegetables, ready meals), or maybe some people like to cook large quantities of a food and then freeze it in portions (I often do that as it's very practical). On the contrary, some people don't use any frozen food, so of course they don't need a big freezer
Price, cost to run, and durability are most important for me. Today's models are destined for a landfill soon, which is total BS. Great food for thought here, and I appreciate your analysis and efforts. PLEASE don't strip down the 1950s model! It's a keeper and perfect for drinks or overflow. The real test would be to see how many years it lasts. Seventy years is amazing, but the 7-10 years expected now is bogus.
That 1950 fridge was $400 according to the ad. That'd be $5000 today. Would you pay $5000 for 8 cuft of capacity and a freezer that can hold a few water bottles?
@@pancake8133 As a product engineer I would pay 5-10k for a quality fridge, would most people? No. And that’s basically why appliances are built on the cheap. So many people complain about how badly new stuff is made, but refuse to spend more for a well built appliance. liebherr sub-zero and Dacor make some of highest quality fridges/freezers possible.
Exactly durability is more important to me. When I bought my house it came with a side by side GE, it was 22 years old when the compressor went out. I replaced it with a Maytag big mistake, had it 10 years and in those 10 years replaced the compressor under warranty and the fan under warranty. Replaced it with a GE with French doors. The door space is useless because of the water and ice being on the door.
@@Dirty_Bear22 Cost of living skyrocketing while wages are abysmal doesn't help. Some people can barely afford to pay rent/mortgage every month ontop of all the other life expenses. So many people without medical coverage too, notably in the US, the only first world country without universal healthcare. These companies don't need to have trillion dollar market caps while over half the world is suffering. Products can, and should, be made better at similar cost.
@@pancake8133 Given new fridges burn out relatively quickly or rust and leak relatively quickly and that old 1950s fridge and many others are still clocking away then its not a bad deal especially when you never want one to die and spoil your food. Also people doing the "it would cost such price today" argument shows how little you the comparison matters. This was a common fridge size and even then it was new item coming out as fridges were still using ice blocks and they always cost so much more than later models years later. Look at how long it took for home use 3D printers to go from thousands to hundreds and get from larger to smaller or more refined detail. Material also matters which that whole thing is rather thick steel in mostly all of it where the new is far less amount of metals and plastic.
Nothing is built to last anymore, sadly. My great aunt, who's in her mid 90's, was using her General Electric stove up until two years ago. The stove was bought new (along with the house she resides in) in 1952, and it lasted until 2020. 68 years old, that stove was. Now she's got a glass cook-top "thing" that may or may not last 10 years before something catastrophically fails.
@@ursulasmith6402 Yeah, my Aunt's is the old style glass cooktop (electric coil under glass). Induction is nice as there's really no wasted energy or heat, as only the pot/pan is directly heated.
Please make sure you use the correct units. You were measuring kilowatt hours (kWh), which indicate total energy over a period of time. Kilowatts (kW) indicate the amount of energy being drawn at a given moment. That's why, for example, electric car battery capacity is measured in kWh, whereas electric motors are in kW.
@@granthb Um, I think you meant to put this in the main comment thread. At no point did I mention Kilowatt/hours, or kilowatts regarding my Aunt's old stove.
Your Grandmother’s refrigerator was what I grew up with. I hated it when my mom told me to defrost that little freezer. It felt much bigger when I was 10! Thanks for that memory 😊
Interesting comparison! A note regarding how the consumption was expressed for example at 9:10: a kW is a unit of power, not of total energy consumed. You probably meant to say "kWh", which would be a unit of energy.
Great comparison video. I was surprised how relatively inefficient the 1999 model was and your Energy Comparison Chart was very helpful. I have a 1999 Kenmore refrigerator, so very relevant.
Other factors that may be considered to switch to a more recent fridge model are: 1-the old fridge may be noisy, 2- the old fridge may have an ice maker that needs manual defrosting every 4 weeks, 3-Difficult access to the water filter can, 5-current fridge doesn’t fit in kitchen of a new house, etc... But thanks for your videos. They are so informative and awsome.
I remember our old hotel refrigerator for the hotel kitchen, the hotel was build in the late of 30 ties, but the refrigerator could be from the 50-ties ish, it was wide as a 6 feet closet, it had two doors and inside it had wooden framing, still worked till the late nineties.
something to also keep in mind is the size of space that you actually use in your fridge. as we know that "a bigger fridge" is more energy friendly for its storage space compared to two smaller fridges with same storage volume overall, however if you would only fill & use half of that storage of your big fridge then perhaps getting a smaller fridge would be more efficient, even if your big fridge is better then two fridges it is worse if you only use one of those two smaller fridges of space in a large fridge. just my thoughts, any comment on this?
I also conducted the test between 2 fridges, whatever the brand they were from a supermarket but the cooling system was made by Danfoss, a pump maker. One fridge was from late 2000, the other one from 2009, same volume. The new one needed around 15% less power. Anyway, my point is: with a standard white fridge, let's use it until it dies and buy a new one. With a big huge expensive inox fridge, try to fix it. With very old fridges, use them as a cabinet.
I agree. 15% less electricity is good, but a new refrigerator is quite an expensive item and it would take a lot of years to be economically convenient by that saving. Probably by the time you reach the point where you're saving money, it's time to change it again because it'going to break down soon
Great video!!! My GE fancy stainless steel fridge that I bought 23 years ago (1999) worked without issue until 3 years ago. I now have a fridge from the 70's (freezer on the left fridge on the right) I am unable to afford a new one so this was gifted to me. It has increased my hydro or electric bill by $10. a month which I had researched and planned for. The prohibitive cost of a new fridge starting at $2000 averaging approx $2600. is an insane price for something made and designed to FAIL within three years, so for now, I will stick with my 1970's fridge, built when coorporations cared!!!. Thank you for all this great info and the experiment.
My '97 Whirlpool 27 cu ft I purchased new is still working ok. I guess I will just run it til it dies. Never an issue with the through door ice maker or water dispenser either. Garage freezer was a garage sale special I picked up 20 years ago.... I think it is from the late 70s or really early 80s as well and still works great.
Ice/water tends to work way better on side by sides because there's no thermal conflict on the ice (although water can sometimes present a problem due to poor insullation). The bad issues came about when every company decided to put ice in the warmer refrigerator cabinet, then channel freezer air into the fridge exclusively for that. It causes a lot of issues that tend to migrate into other problems, in my opinion.
Those 70s-80s side by sides are extremely easy to work on and customize too. Before I sold it, I had one that had a new 410a compressor lines and evap, I put ambient lighting in the crisper and a wine ice chest cooler on the bottom rack. I made well over a thousand dollars on it and I wish I didn't have to sell it.
The older appliances still run, because they were manufactured by people who took pride in their work and stood behind their product. From the head of the company, to the lowest position. Nowadays we have executive chair sitters and Chinese slave labor. But you can buy an extended warranty, if that is worth anything.
My parents had a Norge refrigerator that was bought around 1955. It went into storage from 63 to 68 and was then used from 68 until the 1990s. It still worked fine but many of the plastic parts were cracking and breaking. The one that replaced it was much louder.
I also have a Norge from the 50's. They were manufactured in Minneapolis. Also have an Amana, (freezer on the bottom) 1978, that is still in use. Likewise I also have two Maytag washers. One from the 20's, which does not get used, and one from 65 that is used for work clothes and really big items. Works better than the new ones do.
My grandparents had a 1949 version of that GE fridge in their camp here in Maine. They bought it when my dad was born two years after they got married, used that fridge in their first home and then it ended up at the camp they built it in 1962. That fridge was identical to yours except it have the chrome GE label instead of the white one you have. That compressor was the quietest most relaxing thing I can remember and it, along with the sounds of loons and bullfrogs at night was part of the sounds of camp. A gentle thump when it shut off is mostly what you heard. Sorry about your grandparents. I know the feeling and I was sad to lose the greatest people who grew up in the "greatest generation". Thanks for sharing! Charles Phoenix would be proud! (I know) DO NOT CUT IT OPEN PLEASE!!!!
Only needing a third of the power, while being less noisy and providing a bunch more space was a pretty convincing argument for me to get rid of my old fridge.
@@heyhoe168 The compressor isn't the only part that influences energy efficiency. While it is deciding in how much energy is required to cool down, keeping that temperature depends on the isolation of the fridge. Modern fridges will also use an inverter to drive the compressor. That is simply missing from the old ones.
@@graealex yep, modular fridge would basically allow upgrade case separately, better repairability and second-hand market. For the inverter, it is a part of electric scheme of compressor, if I got you right, so it should come with compressor module.
@@heyhoe168 That's realistically not how appliances can be built, they'd all cost three times as much. In particular I have no problem, seeing as my big new fridge cost €450. That wouldn't be a lot of labor and parts, and with it being all new, I know all parts will have long life ahead of them.
I bought a big black Amana fridge with an Ice Maker in the early 1990’s. I believe it was $800 . The salesman told me, that Amana main business was commercial refrigeration, and that they started to sell home refrigerators. So, I thought, it must be good. And good it was. Well, still is ! This fridge outlasted my first marriage 😅, it outlasted the store I bought it from. They went out business, maybe for selling Amanas? 😂. I have it in the Garage now for over 10 years! In hot and cold weather, and still going strong! I believe this Fridge will outlast my second marriage 😂 and eventually outlast me 😢. I’ve been thinking for years to replace it for a new fridge, because of energy savings, but after watching this video, and almost 30 years of faithful service, I say no. 😊
Love my 1997 Amana refrigerator which is still in my kitchen serving me well. Sadly it outlasted my wife of 52 years. And also Circuit City Stores where I worked at and bought it from. Oh yeah my wife of 52 years was both our 2nd marriage.
Honestly, I am confident that ANYTHING I buy is nickel and dimed to death and if my wife and I can get more than 5 years out of ANY appliance or car we feel like we won. We don't have kids, so, I can't imagine how much more we'd spend if we had to run the car, washer and dryer much more than we do, or just how many more times the refrigerator door is opened and partially closed. The thought sends shivers down my back faster than the freezers in this review!
@@xiaofengxiaofengxiaofengxi4651well he's clearly unlucky. Consider that it's expensive to buy new or nearly new cars, appliances, etc. Lots of people are stuck in a cycle of bad purchases bc they can't afford a better one.
@@mikeymullins5305 no, he's clearly buying the wrong product. Who said anything about buying nearly new? I literally just said you get 25 years out of a Toyota easy without any mechanical problems. Buy a 2001 Corolla with 200k miles on it and you are likely to get it to 300k+ if it has had regular oil changes. Also likely to have no mechanical issues at all. I have never had a mechanical issue on any of my cars. Ever. Yet my cars have been worth between £200-2300. Because all I buy is Toyota and Honda.
In 1990s I was helping at community center in my neighborhood. One day we used my truck to go get an old 50s fridge ( forget what brand ) that was real cool, perfect condition, had a lot of fancy gadgets somebody donated to use in the kitchen. Then after a time I found out they got a different one and scrapped the old timer. I was so bummed, I wished I knew they did that I would have taken it home. It was fine, the ladies just wanted a ' newer ' one.
This is where I am with my washer and dryer. I’ve had them for 13 years and they were hand me down sets when I got them. I’d like a new set with larger capacity and possibly more efficient but it’s difficult for me to justify that since the ones I have still work.
Thanks for this great video! I appreciate how long it took to run these tests , collect the data and make the video itself. Your Grandma would be so proud! I was offered a free 2015 unit if I would just haul it away. It was much more sleek and modern looking compared to my 1987 Gibson….but the Gibson has NEVER needed a repair. Sure the freezer is tiny but we have a big chest freezer in the basement, also made the same year and too has never needed a repair. I’ll stick with the old models. Sure, I’ll pay a little more for electricity, but cost of unit spread over years of use ( with zero repair bills) is looking very sweet to me. We donated the “fancy” fridge to the local food shelf. I hope it gives them years of good use. When my upscale relatives come to visit and they learn they have to go down to the basement for their ice cubes and pull them from the silicone cube trays, the look of shock and horror on their faces is also worth the a little higher electricity bill each month! 😅
Great video. You provided a well balanced comparison that even included the mention of long term reliability. I'll take the 1950's and just deal with the small size. It will more than likely still be working for decades. Imagine the environmental impact of the 5(or more) refrigerators that had to be built and ended up in he trash heap while this one continued to work. Same with cars. I drive a 20 year old Toyota and and read that EV batteries are projected to last 10 years and wonder what the environmental impact of having make two build 2 EV's is compared to one quality internal combustion engine.
battery does not equal engine though i have no doubt the industry will go for selling a new car instead of switching a faulty component, given how much they love planned obsolescence... also neither of those options are good - we need to massively reduce reliance on cars, rather than just replace the type of car... mass transit is just that much more efficient cars are the equivalent of having a minifridge for every item you want to store cooled... and trains and busses are an actual fridge we really should only be replacing things when they really need replacing (for example when they are broken or no longer suited for the function they need to fill)... and stuff should last as long as possible, rather than just long enough for the producer to sell you the next one also sidenote on ICEs - we basically have reached the limit for optimization for those, because the industry has fought tooth and nail to prevent a switch or expansion into electric when it made sense and as a result, those are much less well developed, while ICEs got optimized to hell and back... we can expect significant efficiency increases in the future if electric engines become a major focus (which is likely, given that militaries are looking into using electric engines for tanks) further sidenote - i ride a 5 year old bicycle and ride in decades old trains... gonna be hard to beat that environmental impact with any kind of car
I'd be interested in seeing how much more efficient new fridges are if they didn't have sill heaters and weren't self defrosting, like the older 1950's one is.. or perhaps testing a compact dorm style fridge vs the old 50's ones.
Defrost cycles can use 50% of the energy the fridge demands... Heating the coils to make the frost melt, then recooling the fridge. An "all fridge" has no defrost. A chest freezer without defrost cycle is far more efficient than any stand up freezer. I'm buying all new appliances for a new construction house and will have a separate 'all fridge" and chest freezer. More capacity and less energy than a single fridge-freezer.
It would be interesting to see if the 50s refrigerator could be made more efficient simply by replacing or augmenting the insulation. Especially if you could keep the external look.
My parents 1946 Philco refrigerator still runs like a top. My brother got it rewired with a new relay and door gasket (can’t believe he found a replacement door gasket). Had the body shop paint it antique blue. They don’t build them like they used to , I guess if they did the manufactures would probably go out of business. Built-in obsolescence is the name of the game today, sad😢.
I love that you mentioned the auto body shop. A friend converted a mid-50's fridge to hold a keg with a big tap installed on the door. He delivered it in his pick-up to a local auto body shop and they applied a beautiful metallic burgundy paint and 3 coats of clear coat and it looks amazing.
When I had my first house I had an old Frigidaire with the crown. Real simple. It was all grungy and needed a door seal but I liked it and stripped it down and repainted it, made some weatherstripping work for a seal. Worked good for number of years and even though I had to manually defrost it, it was like a game. Then compressor finally decided it didn't want to turn anymore and I had to let it go. Then shortly after I had refrigeration class and wished I still had it we could have made it a class project putting a new compressor in it. That would have been sweet, i would probably still have it.
@@michaelszczys8316 Yeah, I've got a fridge from 2000 that lasted so long, I've only had to replace the compressor, control board and the Fan in the vent that links the freezer at the bottom to the fridge area above it. That's pretty much it up to this day. The newer fridges are not being built like they use to be.... I'd hate to see the future of fridges if it continues down this path.
My parents bought their first refrigerator an admiral after I was born in 1951 July they lived in a small village and a door to door salesman sold them the refrigerator on a payment per month plan. they still had it before they moved in 1970 I don’t remember when they replaced it 😮though. Thank you for inspiring my time travelling trip to my childhood 😂❤🎉❤
I wonder if you could swap out the refrigerant in the old 1950 fridge, for a newer one that would function properly in its compressor, and if that would make any difference.
It's beyond disbelief that 10 years would be acceptable as the life span of major appliance.
It is. Hopefully a few mfgs. watch this video and get the hint.
How dare them not make appliances that will still work when I'm elderly
MY TEST: 1) 1998 Maytag (R134a, side-by-side) uses 3.5kwh/day, 2) 1995 Amana (R134a, bottom freezer) uses 2.4kwh/day. Note that they where made DRASTIACALLY better than current models. 27 years old and 24 years old and operate perfectly fine.
I call it DISGUSTING and totally UNACCEPTABLE. They should last at least 20. These damn corporations are robbing us blind and they got HUGE tax cuts that don't expire. Considering that most buy major appliances on credit cards, it is no wonder that most Americans are up to their eyeballs in debt. This is CRIMINAL in my opinion. I would rather pay a few hundred more and get something that will last than this GARBAGE that last 4 freaking years. I am not rich and I can't afford to buy all new stuff every 4 or 5 years.
My appliances are going on 24 years and I have no intention of replacing them. I’ve made minor repairs and when I go for parts, the guys tell me NEVER get rid of them and they are from “The Golden Age of Appliances.” 😊
My grandma kept her original refrigerator from 1951 in her garage to store drinks, or when she made a ton of food (Thanksgiving casseroles that had been assembled, but not cooked) or when she had lots of leftovers (also Thanksgiving). My dad finally convinced her to sell the thing in the late 90s when she downsized to assisted living. No joke - her power bill dropped 20% after they took the fridge out!
Im sure it did drop 20%
But the thing was built to last forever
These new appliances are made to last 10 years at most and always have premature issies that need to be repaired
@@chachisuave3470 Exactly, there are better tricks to keep your appliances more efficient (a full fridge doesn't loose heat as fast as an empty fridge) but built-in obsolescence is a harder mountain to get around.
I had a fridge in the garage but a closed up garage just gets way too hot for the unit to operate efficiently.
if you want a fridge that consumes way less power you should buy a chest freezer, as the cold air tends to go down and since it's staying that way the machine will still be efficient even when the sealing components degrade, and it wont lose cool when you open it
@@McBike770 Are you sure about that or is it just something you heard?
Ben, please don’t hack up Gran’s old refrigerator. It’s a classic work of art!
Id never hack it up, but we may be able to take a few pieces off to dig into it to look at certain parts
@@bensappliancesandjunk That’ll work.
I have one in our shop still going ! 🎉 makes me mad that the industry is engineering failure in everything we buy today !
@@plumbum6558 ed
@@bensappliancesandjunk sure, replace gaskets, hoses etc., so it's good for another 70 years!
When I was in university, in one apartment I rented, there was a 1932 GE Monitor top fridge. It had a footpedal on the left leg which would release the door if your hands were not free. The condenser coils were exposed completely and fairly warm. The actual freezer part was minute compared to today's fridges. BUT it did work well - it was 1969- 1970 when I was there so it was already 36 years old. I was fairly conscientious about defrosting it - which didn't take much time. One thing about having to defrost a fridge is that the insides would get wiped out every few weeks or so with baking soda and water. So the interior was usually much cleaner than most fridges are today. Considering the technology available at that time (sulfur dioxide was the refrigerant in the 1932 one) it was relatively efficient. I kept the condenser coils vacuumed and as clean as I could which helped with heat exchange. And of course the freezer section of it was quite small so keeping ice-cream around wasn't an option. But it made ice cubes in four hours, kept frozen veggies well as well as any meats I'd put into it. We have to have perspective about the topic of refrigeration. An electric refrigerator was a huge leap forward - my grandmother had to go shopping daily for fresh veggies and meats and she had an ice-box which had it's costs - a half block of ice cost $.10 in the winter months. The ice-men would jack up the price during the summer months to $.25 per half block. A block might last two and a half days. If you multiply that out for inflation today, you'd be spending about $15.00 a week to keep food only cool. So an electric refrigeration "machine" as they were originally called was a real step forward.
That footpedal sounds very useful. Would love to find a fridge that does that today. I used to be into old cars and it’s amazing the cool functions some of these older cars had that really would be nice to have today but have been fazed out of car manufacturing
I have a 1933 GE monitor top with Methal Formate. 90 years old.. it runs like a champ. It runs less and cycles less than my 18cu ft modern refrig in the basement. granted a size difference, BUT like yours, other than the refrigerant, it is remarkably efficient and cold!
Thanks for the story, I especially liked the pricing details! I am but a lad of just 51, so those days escaped me ;)
Born in 1959 here. Interesting story. I'm glad I asked my parents and grandparents the questions that I did but I wished I had asked a whole lot more.
I have fond memories of going to the ice house and getting a treat (a big chip of ice on a hot summer day). We had the ice box downstairs as it leaked, at our family cabin. And had another newer model up in the cabin kitchen. Things used to be made to last and were so much better made.
I didn't know I wanted to watch a 25 minute video on refrigerators this evening. I'm happy this popped up in my recommended. Great video!
As a teenager I worked with the appliance repairmen in my father's business. One job was the replacement of the door gasket in a late 1920's GE refrigerator that had the coil and compressor on top. I was astounded that we could still get new replacement parts for it, more so than the obvious fact that it was still working. Another appliance was a 1910 electric hot water heater that was rust free and still working. The electric coils were on the outside of the tank and coils insulated by wood slats! Amazing! The owners of the ancient hot water heater wanted something more efficient. Over 110 years old, and still working fine.
The technician and I replaced the rubber tub in an ancient Bendix clothes washer. Again, I was astounded that we were able to source OEM parts for it. Upon carefully examining the replacement tub was new.
Yea I could see keeping an old fridge but not a hot water heater. Even an all electric hot water heater from 10 years ago is much less efficient than one today and further compound the fact that heat pump water heaters are about 3-4x as efficient as the best electric coil hot water heater it's really a no brainer not to get rid of the old one. I just bought a house with a tiny little 30 gallon all electric water heater that is 15 years old. According to the energy star label it uses around 4700kw a year. A 50 gallon rheem hybrid uses about 900kw a year. It's been replaced haha.
@@AustinMichael but that heat pump water heater will fail before it’s 10 years old and it won’t be worth fixing and you’ll spend more than what you would expect for electricity running older water heater. The heat pump water heaters all run above the critical temperature of the refrigerant it using none of them will last.
@@AustinMichael What nonsense are you talking about? Electric heaters are all almost 100% effective, old ones, new ones... It is a piece of metal that is resisting the current and creates heat energy. You are not gonna save anything by installing a new electric heater over your century old one. Heat pump is something completely different and it is enormously expensive, can only be installed if you have the property fit for it and does not last that long
@@petrmaly9087 You forgot to factor in insulation standards changing.
@@ron9381 You can say the same thing about most air conditioners, last time I checked they typically last more than a decade. It really isn't that hard to design a machine to last even one with moving parts like a heat pump, all you need is something to incentivize reliability like a decent warranty.
Fun video. I'm 81 and we had a GE frig like your grandma's. It still was going strong when I moved out around 1959. I remember GE was a great company back then. That's sure not the case now. Of course, that's pretty much the case with all appliance manufacturers now
Yeah yeah.
Don’t make them like they used to.
Back in my day we built them tough.
If I had a dollar for every time.
I remember when…
God Bless you
GE appliances is not even owned by GE anymore or an American company. It's owned by a Chinese company now and the quality has plummeted from a low end ok product to absolute trash.
My folks are a little older than you, and they didn't need to replace their late 1960s Zenith television because it broke, but because it really became obsolete with different adapters (HDMI etc.) and much larger screens. The TV still works.
Same with their GE washer/dryer from around the same era (replace for features not because it broke).
My mom also still has her Kirby vacuum from the early 1970s, but also has a newer model for upstairs so she doesn't have to tote the heavy old Kirby.
@@ophrasbankaccount7716 What's your point? He's right.
Another thing this test show really well is, if you want to save electricity, don't buy a fridge that is larger than you actually need.
As someone who loves old technology (I have a 30 year old truck) I definitely wanna see that old fridge stay in one piece or at least stay in use. That machine probably has a good number more years left in them
Yup. Simple good sturdy designs are the way to go. To you can't find that much anymore.
@@johnrobinson8323 fire up a '79 chevy Silverado when you are gathering firewood in the wildlands. There's something special about those bench seats and mechanical / not computer run systems.
Definitely agree
I hope somebody got it and it wasn't scrapped.
Yeah, but that old fridge probably uses 3-4 times as much electricity to keep running compared to a newer model.
One reason the staff refrigerator did so well is because it was so full. The fuller a refrigerator is the less warm air that can enter when you open the door. This requires less energy to cool.
Hmmm. I always thought the rule of thumb was, a little less packed in the refrigerator so the fan could circulate the cold air better to keep the food fresh longer. And, a packed freezer is better as the frozen food allows the freezer to work less. Maybe this thought process was meant for older models?
@@lindacbenson4400 There's a difference between being full and packed. Air circulates around a full fridge. It may not circulate well when packed. And the strategy is identical for both the freezer and fridge. The only difference is the temperature and the fact the freezer does more work to room temperature air. When the door is opened cold air pours onto the floor and warmer air enters and the mechanism needs to work to cool the air. The longer the door is opened, the more often it is opened and (key to this discussion) the more air that leaves means more work, i.e. the higher cost, is required.
Thanks. That makes perfect sense.
Good job .As a semi retired Maytag man I have seen many changes over the years. One thing the mover and shakers don't take into account are the costs of recycling on those 5 to ten year old units... What happens with the plastics, glass and foam insulation not to mention the melting down the metal for other use ? Is that what is called "saving the earth". I could go on and on but I won't . Some of us remember the days of appliances lasting 20 to 30 years and getting the first service call after 15 years use...No more lonely Maytag Men.
One of the videos I didn't use at the ending montage was the FANTASTIC Maytag ad from 1990 (I got the first second of it, but really didnt figure a place to put it otherwise). The whole ad was people shoping at a futuristic Maytag store for a "New Maytag" because their old one finally died after many, many decades. The ad was trying to sell people on the warranty of the 1990 Side by Side. Just an amazing ad, but too long for me to use sadly.
@@bensappliancesandjunk I went to work at a Third generation Maytag sales and service shop in 1988. We wore the Maytag light blue pants and shirt with the Maytag patch ( like the one on your cap ). Red Carpet Service... There was an element of pride in Maytag . Hard to believe Maytag started out making farm equipment.
Yea but “r600” is gonna save the world
MY TEST: 1) 1998 Maytag (R134a, side-by-side) uses 3.5kwh/day, 2) 1995 Amana (R134a, bottom freezer) uses 2.4kwh/day. Note that they where made DRASTIACALLY better than current models. 27 years old and 24 years old and operate perfectly fine.
Speed Queen seems to have taken the place of the old Maytags. My mom had a Maytag washer that was over 30 years old. She had it until she passed on. Those old Maytags made in the 50s- 60s- and 70s were lifetime appliances. You bought them and they lasted a lifetime. Maybe they needed a minor repair in between but they didn't totally crap out in 5 years. If there is still a lonely Maytag repairman around he is working for Speed Queen. Maytag is owned by Whirlpool now.
We had an Amana fridge that gave every indication that it would never die. It was big, painted white and it was incredibly quiet. After 24 years I finally had a service guy come to give it a checkup. There was nothing wrong with it at all. Couple of years later it was decided to get a new stainless fridge because that's what was hip and would help us sell our house. The new fridge is a piece of crap. It's much smaller and it's so noisy it wakes me up at night. I hate it. God how I wish I had my Amana back again.
Some appliances have actually useful improvements but in my limited knowledge, freezers and fridges are the same tech as they were 50 years ago. That being the case, a unit with loose manufacturing standards or shipping damage is going to be worse regardless of age. So if you get one that works, keep it.
@@gorkyd7912 I didn’t want to lose it but our realtor said it looked dated so the better half said out it goes. That fridge was made by Amana when they made things in Amana. I hope it was sold secondhand instead of being scrapped-somebody would be getting a very high quality appliance.
What's stopping you you have money go out and get you one!!!!
My 1995 Amana is still running. It uses around 2.5kWh a day, and for some reason runs every 50 minutes whether I open the door or not. But the point is - It works even at 27 years old, and is still fairly efficient. I'm still disgusted that manufacturers plan on people replacing appliances every 7 years. Mine are all from 1995 and still running. Could they be more efficient? Yes, but is it worth it?
@@douglasskaalrud6865 so you have no balls and let your wife take the role as your husband.
We have a 70 year old kitchen range/stove that works fine. I remember growing up when my mom got rid of a 25 year-old range/stove to buy a new one. Well that new one didn’t last 10 years without breaking down. I use that as a cautionary tale and a reminder to not replace the 70 year old appliance I have.
I got my Grandma's 1974 GE Americana Double oven range in 1998 when she passed. She never used the bottom oven except on Thanksgiving for a turkey. The upper oven did all the work. We did the same. In 2016 I finally replaced the upper oven gasket, and clock timer assy. Other than that nothing has been replaced on it. Wife and I are getting rid of the induction frigidaire stove that came with the house we have now and redoing the kitchen to accomodate the Americana, along with a 70's GE Side by side, and a GE Dishwasher from 70's. Currently we have frigidaire stuff that constantly breaks down and is less than 5 years old. Went looking at newer stuff and to say I was not impressed was a massive understatement. I can still replace parts, so the old stuff stays. My grandkids call me a tech Neanderthal as my stereo setup is all tube (no solid state) FISHER gear from the early 60's. And I drive a 1964 Corvair Spyder, and a 69 C10 with a inline 6 and a 3 on the tree. No power anything. If god wanted me to have power windows, and automatic transmissions, he wouldn't have given me arms, Just stubs.😁😁
I wouldn't want your Gramma's fridge all "cut up" but it would be super cool to see it be rebuilt/refurbished to make it more efficient/modern
I had exactly the same fridge he shows here. In 2020 we finally cleared it out in preparation for upgrades, etc.
I found a place here in Los Angeles (turns out, literally right down the street from me) that cleans, repairs and restores these old refrigerators. They repair or replace the compressor, replace the wiring and insulation, repair parts and finally, they repaint the cabinet, so the whole thing looks fresh and new.
It won't be a modern machine, but it will work well and will have a whole new Life with a new family who loves it.
I'm really glad I made the call to that shop.
That reminds me, I gotta check out his youtube channel and see if he's made any videos about that fridge.
Happy thought.
Yep
It is already pretty efficient, and how would you modernize it? Put it in the garage for pop or beer.
Power consumption is not the only thing to consider. Given the prices of new refrigerators, it would take a very long time to recoup the replacement cost, and the less-reliable new appliance may need more service calls. I'm keeping my old fridge as long as it continues to work.
Hi, Ben!
At the very beginning of your video, you stated you just purchased a new one.
Which brand / model did YOU purchase?!?
Looking forward to hearing your response, thank you!
The cost of energy is likely to be higher than the cost of the new fridge.
@@tjeulink Never
@@wholeNwon look it up hun, LCA optimal fridge replacement energy cost
or you can calculate fridge replacment with energystar.
@@tjeulink And allow how much for the very expensive repairs that will likely be needed during the new fridge's (short?) lifespan?
Was just randomly reccomended this video and it definitely satisfied my random curiosities. Great info, easy to watch and listen, short and to the point and I love the wholesome touch at the end with your grandma. Keep doing your thing Ben!
short answer NO why cause those old ones last forever new ones last for like 5 years 10years tops and die now days🤣🤣🤣
@@raven4k998 yes mainly, but he talks about electricity usage, cost and size which also plays an equally important role.
@@1coldshot493 what you are talking about I was talking about how new ones break after a few years of use while the old ones keep on chugging alone forever power is irrelevant to that one mind you, I guess that's what modern fridge makers use to say their fridge is more energy efficient cause if it dies it cannot use power, so I guess in the long run the old ones use more power that way I guess
@@raven4k998 I understand what you're talking about. Relax. Never denied it or went against it..... The end of his video talks about how a model that pulls slightly more power than another is actually beneficial (TO HIM) as it holds more capacity to the amount of power it pulls. Which plays an equally important role in a decision instead of "What pulls the least amount of power".
@@1coldshot493 easy fix rip the compressor out of the old fridge from 1950's and put it in the 2020 fridge and you greatly increase the 2020 fridges life expenctancy
My father's "beer" fridge in the garage is a 1940 or 1941 Frigidaire by General Motors that still works. It was inherited from a late aunt in the latter 1980s and still works great. It could probably use a new door seal. I believe I have documentation somewhere as I entered it in a APwagner old refrigerator contest in 2007 or so... it came in like 3rd place... beat out by some 1930's models with compressor on top.
I was given a 1942 Frigidaire to make a smoker out of because of the all metal interior. Before I started that project the shop Beer Fridge died so out of curiosity I plugged the old fridge in and it's still chilling my refreshments today! Had to go find another Smoker fridge project donor.
@Motorheadmike Very interested. Can these still be sourced through Frigidaire or can you can point me to speciality vendor? I'll try to get exact model info. Thanks!
@@audreyappliance You can buy the gaskets through case parts . You just have to look at your gasket profile and measure your gasket precisely and they will build one for you
@@ron9381 Thank you!!! Invaluable info
Up until the early 1980's, my grandmother had a 1930's refrigerator with the round compressor housing on top. It came with them when they moved from a duplex to their then new 1952 rancher in the suburbs.
My parents moved into a place a couple years ago which has some of the original first owners appliances. The washer, dryer, and fridge are decent mid-late 2000s electric units, but the Westinghouse electric range and the retired old Hotpoint fridge found in the garage were from the 40s. I pulled it apart, added a new power cord, and it fired right up and works. Love the (quiet) sound of the compressor.
"A fridge is kind of like a kid. They quit working, but you kinda hate to throw them out, so they just end up sitting out on the porch, full of beer" -Red Green
That show was hilarious.
No chainsaw/duct-tape here. My 1951 is SILENT, & I've seen a parts list somewhere.
I have a 1949 Frigidaire in my garage that works perfectly.
Except my Grandmother's old Westinghouse Refrigerator that still works up to this day. While my 10 year old Kenmore fridge stopped working and the repair is not worth it so I dismantled my fridge, parted it out I took a lot of copper, bronzer and aluminum and assorted metals as well. Sold the materials to make some money out of it. Sold it to the metal recycling center and got some money, then I add whatever is the cost of the new fridge at the home Depot and got a new one
@@craftsmantrucker6867 Sadly, I'm surprised & almost proud that U got 10 yrs service. I've seen brand new ones fail.
My parents had a 1953 Hotpoint refrigerator that survived a house fire and ran another 45 years.
We got a new side by side in the seventies that also lasted about 40 years.
Each time we got a new fridge, we moved the old one into the basement as a drinks fridge and simply as additional fridge space until they finally gave out.
Did the same with an upright freezer, adding a chest freezer later.
Having extra freezer space was always worth keeping the old appliances when the folks bought new for the kitchen.
My folks would buy a side of beef at a time and we had plenty of storage for it.
I love your grandma's GE.
I sell appliances for a living. Keep creating these relevant videos. They are jam packed with helpful information. I use the knowledge gained from your site to assist customers with their buying or repair questions...thanks!
OK then, which brand of refrigerator is the most reliable that you have seen from your sales job? I’m considering replacing a working 6 1/2 year old Whirlpool refrigerator. Black Friday sales are in effect!
Short answer is they are all garbage that needs replacing in 5 years. Sad but true. I am in the same situation as you are. I am a very handy guy, I can fix literally everything. I can repair refrigerators with ease. But the cost of parts, the lack of availability of the needed parts and amount of cheap plastic components that break upon disassembly is astounding! America just need a built better brand made here in the USA.
This guy is very intelligent & informative & one thing I want to point out is keep the condenser coil clean . That right there will make your refrigerator or freezer last longer & help keep the electric bill down . & work better .
Wow, a blast from the past. I grew up with this GE frige. My folks got theirs in 1950 and it was our main frige till 1967. It was still working as always but the newer bigger units finally won out and took over the daily chores. The 1950 model was now in the garage and like yours was now always full of beverages. It seemed up to that challenge and continued working without fail for another 15 years. The thing I remember most was a regular routine of defrosting the ice box. Many different methods were used, placing a pot of boiling water in the ice box to eventually hair dryers, to if the fridge was empty anyway just unplugging it with large pans inside to catch drippings while going out for a long shopping trip and bringing new stuff home to fill it up again.
I was happy to have lived with that GE for over 33 years. So I hope this story gives you a nudge to keep yours. The memories are priceless compared to kwh costs.
Fun Fact that fridge never gave up, and never had service, and might still be running somewhere today. Not sure what the scam or plan was but an offer went out to all homeowners to turn in the old fridges and get a $10.oo check. This did not move my folks to get rid of it, but it did cause some horse trading. The old GE went to the nieghbors son who was now moving into his 1st apartment and that left room for my folks to get an old fridge from the nieghbors who was going to collect the $10.oo but just let my folks have it as the new beverage fridge in the garage with much more room now for beer and such.
Unless I missed it, it would've been nice to see how much power they used per volume, that would've made any inefficiencies much more clear between the models, because as you said, the fridges varied widely in size.
11:47 you can see it mid test.
Hi!
I'd imagine as you used a greater amount of that higher capacity it's efficiency would go down as it needs to work harder. So the comparisons aren't exactly 1:1
Basically, my point is, I'm not sure power/volume is an accurate representation. Interesting though, yes.
@@BlackSmokeDMax He's cooling the same amount of stuff inside though. And the reason why we need to see the efficiency per volume is exactly BECAUSE it's not a 1:1 comparison to begin with. As it stands, the measurements he reports don't really tell us that much.
@@Razumen I agree this testing is good, i was saying that relating this exact test to the interior space and thinking you can use simple division/multiplication to relate the efficiency of these tests up to different volumes of stuff inside of the larger capacity units wouldn't quite be the same. Now they may turn out to be the same or similar, just that you can't tell that without better testing. But yeah, as long as everything stays exactly the same inside, this test is perfectly fine.
My grandmother passed in 2002 and she still had her mid-1940's Westinghouse(?) plugged in and working out in the garage in addition to a much newer model in the kitchen. I believe the vintage fridge was either 5 or 6 cf as it was smaller than the 1950 model in your video. After Grandma passed, I was asked to move into the old farmhouse to help with the remodeling and was essentially destined to inherit the place. But before I could get moved from WV to central GA, my father in his 'infinite wisdom' hauled that old, still-working great fridge to the landfill! I gave him considerable grief over it for years as it would have been the perfect beer and pop fridge....
I really liked that test! I don't quite agree with your math on a kWh per cubic foot consumption: if you want to compare that, you should increase the load (i.e. the number of cans and bottles) for the larger refrigerators.
Also, you know the fridge that has a pretty tired gasket? I'd love to see its consumption with a brand new gasket 🙂
I have an early 90s fridge my parents gave me. It was in terrible condition. After fixing all the air ducting underneath and deep cleaning the coils it runs like a champ. Better than the new one in the kitchen.
I had 90s simple fridge with all ' forced air ' from a central freezer box in the back. No refrigerant coils inside just ducting blowing first to the freezer then down to the rest. It is quite an amazing unit and will freeze things in the freezer super fast. BUT in a very humid summer you have to be careful if too much frost accumulates in the ducting the air won't flow and it goes downhill fast.
The only remedy is to shut it down for like a whole day to clear all the ice out.
Then it's good to go again.
About as simple as it gets.
Have done this exact test! NOTE that on one of the fridge, the FAN for Condenser was worn out and not blowing properly, THAT alone caused power usage to DOUBLE. SO FOR THESE test be SURE all components are working as originally made
One major thing I learned in a refrigeration class was that when they don't get enough ventilation to dissipate heat they don't just have to run longer but the refrigerant pressure goes way up causing it to be HARDER to pump which takes a lot more power.
Not only that but makes them beat themselves to death.
Even if the air is hot, you have to keep it moving.
I think of that whenever I see units crammed into a small hole in a kitchen.
In my apartment we alway keep a tiny fan running moving the air around the fridge in summer.
Also, inspect all of your appliances regularly! I once had a fridge die a week after it was given to me because the condenser fan failed and I assumed it just didn't have one.
Honestly this is convincing me to give an old 50s fridge a look next time i see one at an estate sale. Having an extra fridge for drinks in the summer would be great, but I always wondered if i was being silly about the idea of getting an old 50s fridge for the job. I'll look into it!
One of the major causes of failure for the seal on to of the fridge door I was surprised you didn't mention is that is where people constantly grab the door at. This means it not only gets dirty quickly, but they also get twisted and bent out of ideal shape and often get ripped and damaged.
Case in point, you resting your arms on top of the door, heh.
40 years in the business THEE major reasons a seal fails is people allow thier children to go in and out of the fridge and spill stickey juice, which glues it to the cabinet causing it to tear ,2nd most common reason is the doors were removed to get it in the house and not shimmed properly when put back together, next would be drawers dragged across the seal from not opening the door all the way, touching the seal while opening does little to nothing unless you have stickey goo on your hands
I have a 1948 general motors Frigidaire in my kitchen. Looks brand new and works great. I got it from an old couple that received it as a wedding gift back in 1948. They were moving to the retirement home and I was lucky enough to have this given to me. I don't care how inefficient it may be it ain't going anywhere lol. Having a deep freeze is an absolute must. That little freezer compartment is useless
It's also worth considering ambient temperature. If a fridge/freezer is in a colder area (such as a basement and/or garage) it will consume proportionally less energy. Our early 70s Whirlpool upright freezer seems to use about half of what the online sources said it should, and that might even have been before I cleaned the condenser coils. But what surprised me the most was you mentioning using a hairdryer to reset the door gasket. A tutorial on this would be super helpful.
I had a simple fridge I got out of the trash and used it for many years. In summer I always kept it ventilated with small fan. When I went out for the day in summer I had to close the place up good ( bad neighborhood ) and the kitchen would be about 100 degrees but because I put a fan to keep the hot air MOVING, inside the fridge it was frosty cold.
Refrigerators are set up different. I had a freezer unit in my garage that had refrigerant coils throughout, on the shelves themselves. Then I had simple house unit that was all centered around a
' cold box ' with forced air blowing cold air ail throughout the unit, starting in the freezer compartment. If you put a tray of ice cubes in the freezer mostly by itself it would freeze them so fast they would sent tall shards of ice off the top of the cubes sticking up in the air about an inch.
The old fridge is a ' cold box ' in the middle with no forced air.
Similar to having a block of ice in an insulated box with the center of the block getting a little colder than freezing.
Yes a video on the hairdryer trick would be much appreciated.
Had an old pantry cabinet in my kitchen with outside vents through the North wall. So I put my fridge in there and added some trim to the door frame to seal it. It only ran normally from May to September, the rest of the year it turned on once or twice a day or not at all.
@@Tore_Lund sounds like the way all of them should be hooked up.
I once had a xrazy idea of hooking up a small window air conditioner near the center of my house and using ducting to blow ventilating air through the back side. Kind of like those ' in the room ' air conditioners where you put hoses through a window.
A refrigerator set up that way would probably use about 1/4 the power.
@@Tore_Lund Just remember that in conventional fridge/freezer combos the freezer temperature is unregulated and depends on balanced thermals. Be sure to adjust the freezer temp knob as needed throughout the year if you don't want it thawing in the cold.
My wife and I bought a brand new whirlpool fridge when we moved into our one and only home in 1983. It is still working and I’ve only had to do 3 minor repairs myself. As my beautiful wife is no longer with me I just can’t see replacing it as long as it doesn’t die. The only thing I can say about it is that the compressor relay is very loud when it kicks in and out.
Here in the Philippines, local repairmen can fix them compressors or, if totally broken, swap it with a part from a scrapyard.
Ours is a GE fridge from 80s, and 3 years ago it was noisy. It would roar in the middle of the night and the shit out of someone. We had it repaired as well refilled the frion gas.
EDIT: It still works. A little inefficient than the newer ones, but that's mainly because it doesn't have an adjustable temperature. But consumption wise they're roughly the same
I love ❤️ your Grandma’s vintage 50’s GE fridge and now that it’s just my husband and I, I could totally use the smaller capacity. Defrosting the freezer is super easy too. I just might look for one to go with my Chambers 1950’s Model C gas range! Thanks for taking your time to teach me. I’ve learned so much about appliances from you 😊.
This was an awesome video, thank you for posting the original owners manual. The optional butter conditioner and special fridge wax GE retailers sold were especially interesting.
When my grandma passed away I got to keep all the paperwork from every vehicle my grandparents bought. Especially cool to me having worked in automotive for the last 12 years.
I find your videos of deconstructing various appliances quite interesting. However since this one has such sentimental value to you, I would find a video restoring it even more fascinating. If I were you I’d turn it into a showpiece on your sales floor, laminate the manual & stick it to the front with a magnet for customers to look at. Then fill it full of soda & water for your customers. Maybe sell the soda for a profit to cover the electric it would consume 😂
Very useful video.
I have two of the refrigerators you tested. Your grandmothers that I paid $17.00 for at a garage sale in 1980 which is still going strong and the giant GE 28 CF that my wife and I installed literally last week.
Keep up the good work.
My parents had a Sears cold spot fridge for 30 years, still worked great but they were selling the house so they up graded. They hated the new one! When I was a teen, started a cake decorating business. Inherited an old kelvinator fridge from my neighbor was well as an old Sears stove. Both worked like champs! Set up shop in my basement, my dad helped me tap into a gas line for the stove. Made many cakes and batches of sauce jams on that stove. Wish I still had both!
I have a restored 1941 Kelvinator absolutely love it. coldest beer in the neighborhood lol
i think that's also another category that should be looked at. older appliances may be smaller, but they were made to last. modern appliances are made intentionally with a specific life span.
That’s a fantastic video! Informative and educational, while being really well presented.
I’m from Brazil, and most of the appliances you talk here aren’t even sold here, while some of those sold here are insanely expensive. Yet, the foundational topics you talk about in your videos in your channel can be thoroughly used in my purchase decisions here. Thank you.
Awww, I am so glad you liked it!
I have a 1940 GE fridge my great grandmother bought new, never broke down, never been serviced, still works great!
Yeah for grandma's refrigerator! I have a 1986 GE refrigerator. Never had a problem or needed a repair man. A year ago I used some silicone to repair a piece of separated gasket. Only cost me a little time. I'm keeping this thing till it dies. Maybe it will last as long as your grandmother 's . Nice video. 👍
DON'T DESTROY THE OLD 50s fridge! As long as it's still running well that is. There should still be a lot of 50s & 60s fridges turning up in junkyards or even as haul-aways from new fridge deliveries, tear apart one of those instead! Or, just use images + the excellent schematic diagrams that all appliances had (up until when, maybe 1990 or 2000?).
Even though he will take a couple panels off to see how it's constructed, he mentioned he's going to keep it because it's a reminder of his grandmother. Count on him, he fixes appliances for a living.
My wife and I had that Whirlpool fridge in our old condo. I liked that fridge. It was just a basic, no frills, box that makes and keeps food cold. Plus we got it on sale for $500. I'd recommend that over any of the fancy fridges any day. It even has a spot to install an ice maker in the freezer and the ice maker is only another hundo or so.
I've got a 39 year old Whirlpool fridge in my house (came with it), going to keep it as long as I can, no problems in the 28 years I've been using it.
@@boondocker7964 My Whirlpool is 43 years old. I will keep it as long as I can as well as this one has been such a dream to own. Don't need high capacity or techie garbage. Just work and work properly. That's all.
@@catzenhouse There it is!
I agree. All fridges should have a minimum of 15 to 20 years life. We have an 18-19 year old fridge that is making the vegetables go soft and uneatable. Don’t want to upgrade until a kitchen renovation but we may have to get an interim one. Great video. 👍
then don't put your vegetables in the fridge... they don't belong there ;-)
craigslist. there are so many units on there that work and are good price.
i am a bit confused how does the fridge do that, the only way it can possibly do that is if it is letting oxygen into the fridge, that is how vegetables go bad. as fridges are supposed to be air tight for that purpose.
@@demonpride1975 too cold = the cells in the vegetables break = they get soft and squishy... simple physics nothing to do with oxygen.
Geez, check the temperature settings; sounds like you're freezing your veggies 😅
Hell yes. My dad had a 20 cubic foot chest freezer he bought in the late 70's that lasted until 2019. He was so proud of how long he had it. I replaced it with a frost free 16.7 cu. ft upright and after one month, the electricity bill went down $25 a month! That's a savings of $300 per year and you don't have to defrost it once a year and everything is easy to get to. Even freed up space in the garage.
Ok so you save enough money to buy a new fridge when planned obsolescence kicks in
@@ureyesrbleeding1 In two years, you'd have enough money to buy a new one. Freezers are actually still pretty simple and last a long time.
@@Dazlidorne why frost free?
@@thetacokawaii5708 For the minor extra electricity it uses, it is well worth it not to have to defrost once or twice a year. A lot of people that have manual defrost freezers don't defrost them enough or at all, so they become inefficient. I also like uprights because you can see everything and you don't leave things in the bottom of the freezer, causing them to go bad.
@@Dazlidorne Chest freezers are more efficient than standing ones because cool air sinks and stays in the freezer when you open it.
I think Grandma's old fridge would be a perfect beer/soda vault out in the garage or a man cave. I'd be crazy enough to use it as a main fridge in the kitchen, but I'm weird and like vintage/retro stuff like that.
Weird? How? It looks much more elegant and fancy than most budget modern fridge. just buy the cheapest samsung fridge on walmart they got that ugly flower pattern combined with unflattering purple color
Bamn, i found the exact thing i described, this i dunno if it available on your region now this is weird product for your mancave!
SAMSUNG 192 Liters 2 Star Direct Cool Single Door Refrigerator with Anti-Bacteria Gasket (RR19A2Y2B6R/NL, Mystic Overlay Red)
No one needs a second fridge. Just refill the main fridge when u get low. Jeez.
@@zloungeact oh, you haven’t met south east asian mid-upper class housewives then.. you’ll be surprised...
... in your electricy bill, not because of 2 fridge made huge different in your bill. Rather the price of the single high 4 door end fridge drawing more power than cheaper ones
My mother’s GE little fig in shop still working and full of water
Our fridge is 31 years old. It's a Kenmore made by GE. The only issues were a loose wiring connector and a few blockages of the freezer drain over the years. All problems we repaired ourselves. My grandmother had a fridge last 20 some years before getting replaced by this one. Sadly, she died in 1992, when the fridge was only around a year old. I remember her saying this one wouldn't last as long as her old one.
yep my mom has an old kenmore and it has never had an issue, she has an old kenmore washer and dryer from 1980, and the only thing that went wrong with it, the drum in the dryer needed to be cleaned out. other then that perfect working order.
@fladave99 Mills CHINA pride.
@@jefferyb304 human rights violation, state surveillance, and state sanctioned genocide "pride"
I have a friend that lost her home to Hurricane Katrina. She put brand new GE appliances in her next home. All of the crapped out on her after five years or so.
From that point on she only buys old appliances that are still running and she loves them. She even drove several states away to get her refrigerator. You can’t give her anything “new”, especially if it’s “smart” and high tech.
I’m planning a new retirement home for myself now and I’m giving a lot of thought of buying newer but simple “non-smart” appliances vs used but near bulletproof older appliances. I miss the days when appliances lasted multiple decades. Side note I’m still using a GE dryer I got from my late father. He purchased it around 1975. It’s not pretty to look at, but I’ve only had to replace the drive belt in it. 🤔
I do have to admit that I purchased a used Whirlpool dishwasher for $150 about 10 years ago, after looking at all the reviews and concluding that they were all garbage. It is about to get replaced. It wasn't the best machine but it was a long-living machine.
Most things nowadays are built to sell and make money instead of built to last like before. Things are now engineered to only last a relative short amount of time before major components crap out. I bought a house from the 60s with original kitchen appliances other than the fridge the owners bought new back in the day. I decided to just keep using them and they are still running strong to this very day. They just look absolutely ancient.
I had a simple two door fridge I got out of the trash. Rental people left it still good. I used it for years and always kept it ventilated.
Then my brother gave me a bigger, newer unit so I put that in and gave the other to a poor guy down the street.
Then within about 6 months the newer one took a dump and then I had to buy one.
We've got a GE gas dryer that came with our house in '88. It's probably from the early '70s as well. I've replaced the igniter coil and door switch in all that time. Still going strong. My wife hates the gold color. Sorry dear...
@@robertweinmann9408 that's what God created white enamel paint for.
This video should receive an award for ‘practical refrigeration advice’; on a personal level, this the dilemma that I am confronting.
In 1949 my grandmother bought a Frigidaire refrigerator and it was the only one she ever had. I had it in the 1990's for a beer fridge in the garage and still worked fine. Moved and took it with me and dad got it back and it's still working now. Looks just like the GE you are standing in front of at the intro.
I’m not in the market for fridge but enjoy watching toe-to-toe tests.
Also, thanks for the link to the instructions to your gran’s GE* fridge, i dig vintage marketing.
Ben: You did a really nice job comparing the refrigerators. Your focus on how to determine when to replace an aging one, was also excellent. Future videos could go into more detailed analysis on how to make that decision. I checked out the scan of your Grandma’s 1950 manual. It was so cool! Thank you for sharing that. Most of all, and the real reason I am writing to you, is that I could tell how much you loved them, and treasure your inheritance. If you take a 1950’s fridge apart, don’t use theirs! It is too precious! Find another one similar, that doesn’t have so much meaning to you. The manual, and your memories of their porch, remind me of a simpler time- a post-war age in the USA, that are fond memories for me, too. Thank you for sharing that personal aspect of your life, that made your excellent technical show that much more compelling. G-d Bless. I hope to meet you someday. Daniel Leeman- Bath, Maine
Interesting video. A few suggestions though, adding in a final Watts per C/F of space would be handy. If it was mentioned I missed it, but taking a thermometer to the water you pull out each day to see if each unit is running close to the same temp. As you said in the video, it did take a lot longer for the older fridge to cool down and one of the newer ones was running too cold so it's not necessarily an accurate test. Overall I did appreciate the sentiment in that upgrading may or may not be advantageous due to the unreasonably short lifespan of modern electronics.
Appears at 11:50
@@ronindebeatrice still seems like that metric should have been the standard referenced throughout the video. Not just once.
@UCFPDZ3wA1axtWZj0WmOXMhg Guy. You're in so far over your head, you might as well just give up now because I don't know if you'll ever get there after misunderstanding this badly.
But let's try.
Not THE metric system. THAT metric. As in, that method of measuring performance.
I am suggesting that the measurement we should have been presented with most often was energy used per cubic foot of space being cooled.
Unfortunately the metric should be inner surface size, not inner volume. If you think about where heat loss occurs, it'll become obvious.
@@mikaelolsson4903 Fair enough, but either one would have been better than just giving flat readings and talking about the context of different size equipment, but not incorporating it into the data. I was just going off of an easy to pull number from the product page.
At least surface area tends to increase as internal volume increases so it would be slightly more apples-to-apples to use volume. Shit, put both 'per volume' and 'per internal surface area' up there. That too would be interesting to compare to illustrate your point.
What an awesome video. To answer your question on interest in a video 'analysis' of your Grandma's fridge. Yes, this would be super helpful. This would be a great compliment to the videos you have done comparing older vs newer washing machine construction. Many consumers have questions around WHY does my new fridge not last as long as Grandma's did. Was it the quality of the components? The gauge of the steel? The way compressors were made? Efficiency is crucial for so many reasons and yet, how sustainable is it to dump more 7 year old appliances into a landfill? So again, THANK YOU for making videos such as this. And please consider showing us where modern fridges cut corners in ways that the GE back from 1950 did not.
You didn't mention one important point of old fridges - thick layer of frost/ice can double power consumption. Testing refrigerators for 6 days is not bad but result for old one will be different after month or 3 months (or even more). You can defrost it more often but defrosting cost money and your time and if you use fridge often during day it will build up very quickly.
Why does defrosting cost money?
@@gaswe9236 You have to turn it back on and have it cool down afterwards again which consumes a lot of power compared to a new fridge being able to continuously run without needing to be defrosted.
@@Senzorei ah of course right
@@gaswe9236 also, the layer of ice acting as insulation makes the heat transfer slower so the compressor has to work more continously
Nah just boil water and throw it in there
This is Project Farm level testing. Great job. Love the respect you give your venerable old GE. Thanks for sharing.
My grandma got a side by side door like a modern fridge, back in the 80s. She kept using it until 2012 when she died at 69. She loved her fridge and never wanted to update cause it looked modern, worked perfectly and had a beautiful very light salmon colour.
I just bought a place and the fridge it came with was an 11 year old Maytag. It stopped working in lieu of getting utilities switched over. The wife said to dump it and just get a new one. Instead of spending 1700 on the fridge we wanted, I simply did some research and bought a $200 board and now we have a perfectly good fridge. I say it's always worth the time and money to fix your fridge. That shits expensive!
I fixed ours as well. It just needed a new dethaw circuit. It would freeze up and then no longer be cold.. just a big chunk of ice. Thats was a few years back.. still working great. Most things can be fixed by watching a few UA-cam videos 🤷🏼♂️
Great video. I personally keep everything until it falls apart and no longer works. Maybe that is good or bad I don’t know. I just maintain things. I also have a smaller fridge. Mine is 23 years old and seems to be going fine.
i am the same way maintain things and run it till it Dies but I still would not buy Newer Appliance First off they are over Price and if your Very Lucky you might get 2-5 years from a Newer Appliance so where in the World is the cost savings
MY TEST: 1) 1998 Maytag (R134a, side-by-side) uses 3.5kwh/day, 2) 1995 Amana (R134a, bottom freezer) uses 2.4kwh/day. Note that they where made DRASTIACALLY better than current models. 27 years old and 24 years old and operate perfectly fine.
Very informative video! Just a quibble but I'm sure you mean kWhr (kiloWattHour), not just kW.
kWhr is a unit of energy used in a time period. It's the quantity used on your electric bill.
kW is is the work that's being drawn from the grid at any given instant.
Very important point. Your electricity provider charges by kWh, not kW.
"Boxers or briefs? Depends." This was snuck in there so casually I almost missed it. Great stuff.
The oldest refrigerator I ever worked on was a Ford Philco, circa 1950s. It was sometime in the 1990s and all I did was replace the door gasket.
The oldest Maytag washer I ever worked on was made in 1962. It was sometime in the 1990s and it was the machine's first service call ever. It needed a water valve.
They don't make them like that anymore!
My last fridge here in Ireland lasted about 15 years. I think a key thing to highlight is to buy a fridge the size you need. Bigger isn't necessarily better here. If you buy a smaller modern fridge you'll use way less power.
My fridge holds 210 litres in the fridge part and 70 litres in the freezer part which is more than enough.
Indeed, of course for a household with children it makes more sense to have a big fridge than someone who is single and lives alone.
It depends on the use one makes of it... For example a family might want to buy large packs of frozen items (vegetables, ready meals), or maybe some people like to cook large quantities of a food and then freeze it in portions (I often do that as it's very practical).
On the contrary, some people don't use any frozen food, so of course they don't need a big freezer
Price, cost to run, and durability are most important for me. Today's models are destined for a landfill soon, which is total BS. Great food for thought here, and I appreciate your analysis and efforts. PLEASE don't strip down the 1950s model! It's a keeper and perfect for drinks or overflow. The real test would be to see how many years it lasts. Seventy years is amazing, but the 7-10 years expected now is bogus.
That 1950 fridge was $400 according to the ad. That'd be $5000 today. Would you pay $5000 for 8 cuft of capacity and a freezer that can hold a few water bottles?
@@pancake8133 As a product engineer I would pay 5-10k for a quality fridge, would most people? No. And that’s basically why appliances are built on the cheap. So many people complain about how badly new stuff is made, but refuse to spend more for a well built appliance. liebherr sub-zero and Dacor make some of highest quality fridges/freezers possible.
Exactly durability is more important to me. When I bought my house it came with a side by side GE, it was 22 years old when the compressor went out. I replaced it with a Maytag big mistake, had it 10 years and in those 10 years replaced the compressor under warranty and the fan under warranty. Replaced it with a GE with French doors. The door space is useless because of the water and ice being on the door.
@@Dirty_Bear22 Cost of living skyrocketing while wages are abysmal doesn't help.
Some people can barely afford to pay rent/mortgage every month ontop of all the other life expenses. So many people without medical coverage too, notably in the US, the only first world country without universal healthcare.
These companies don't need to have trillion dollar market caps while over half the world is suffering. Products can, and should, be made better at similar cost.
@@pancake8133 Given new fridges burn out relatively quickly or rust and leak relatively quickly and that old 1950s fridge and many others are still clocking away then its not a bad deal especially when you never want one to die and spoil your food. Also people doing the "it would cost such price today" argument shows how little you the comparison matters. This was a common fridge size and even then it was new item coming out as fridges were still using ice blocks and they always cost so much more than later models years later. Look at how long it took for home use 3D printers to go from thousands to hundreds and get from larger to smaller or more refined detail. Material also matters which that whole thing is rather thick steel in mostly all of it where the new is far less amount of metals and plastic.
Nothing is built to last anymore, sadly. My great aunt, who's in her mid 90's, was using her General Electric stove up until two years ago. The stove was bought new (along with the house she resides in) in 1952, and it lasted until 2020. 68 years old, that stove was. Now she's got a glass cook-top "thing" that may or may not last 10 years before something catastrophically fails.
Induction stoves, they are the best.
@@ursulasmith6402 Yeah, my Aunt's is the old style glass cooktop (electric coil under glass). Induction is nice as there's really no wasted energy or heat, as only the pot/pan is directly heated.
Please make sure you use the correct units. You were measuring kilowatt hours (kWh), which indicate total energy over a period of time. Kilowatts (kW) indicate the amount of energy being drawn at a given moment.
That's why, for example, electric car battery capacity is measured in kWh, whereas electric motors are in kW.
@@granthb Um, I think you meant to put this in the main comment thread. At no point did I mention Kilowatt/hours, or kilowatts regarding my Aunt's old stove.
Your vary knowledgeable for such a young man why do you like to partake in a craft that usually is occupied by frustrated old men
Your Grandmother’s refrigerator was what I grew up with. I hated it when my mom told me to defrost that little freezer. It felt much bigger when I was 10! Thanks for that memory 😊
Interesting comparison!
A note regarding how the consumption was expressed for example at 9:10: a kW is a unit of power, not of total energy consumed. You probably meant to say "kWh", which would be a unit of energy.
That power usage surprised me. I love the project farm style scientific experiment.
It surprised me too!
Great comparison video. I was surprised how relatively inefficient the 1999 model was and your Energy Comparison Chart was very helpful. I have a 1999 Kenmore refrigerator, so very relevant.
Loved the sentimental attachment bc of grandma ❤️ we have a chest freezer 48 yrs old still going strong been moved about 10xs as well!
Other factors that may be considered to switch to a more recent fridge model are: 1-the old fridge may be noisy, 2- the old fridge may have an ice maker that needs manual defrosting every 4 weeks, 3-Difficult access to the water filter can, 5-current fridge doesn’t fit in kitchen of a new house, etc... But thanks for your videos. They are so informative and awsome.
I remember our old hotel refrigerator for the hotel kitchen, the hotel was build in the late of 30 ties, but the refrigerator could be from the 50-ties ish, it was wide as a 6 feet closet, it had two doors and inside it had wooden framing, still worked till the late nineties.
something to also keep in mind is the size of space that you actually use in your fridge.
as we know that "a bigger fridge" is more energy friendly for its storage space compared to two smaller fridges with same storage volume overall, however if you would only fill & use half of that storage of your big fridge then perhaps getting a smaller fridge would be more efficient, even if your big fridge is better then two fridges it is worse if you only use one of those two smaller fridges of space in a large fridge.
just my thoughts, any comment on this?
I also conducted the test between 2 fridges, whatever the brand they were from a supermarket but the cooling system was made by Danfoss, a pump maker. One fridge was from late 2000, the other one from 2009, same volume. The new one needed around 15% less power. Anyway, my point is: with a standard white fridge, let's use it until it dies and buy a new one. With a big huge expensive inox fridge, try to fix it. With very old fridges, use them as a cabinet.
I agree. 15% less electricity is good, but a new refrigerator is quite an expensive item and it would take a lot of years to be economically convenient by that saving. Probably by the time you reach the point where you're saving money, it's time to change it again because it'going to break down soon
I can't believe I'm actually enjoying a Refrigerator info video. Am I getting old or is this guy just too good at reviewing things, what is life
Great video!!! My GE fancy stainless steel fridge that I bought 23 years ago (1999) worked without issue until 3 years ago. I now have a fridge from the 70's (freezer on the left fridge on the right) I am unable to afford a new one so this was gifted to me. It has increased my hydro or electric bill by $10. a month which I had researched and planned for. The prohibitive cost of a new fridge starting at $2000 averaging approx $2600. is an insane price for something made and designed to FAIL within three years, so for now, I will stick with my 1970's fridge, built when coorporations cared!!!. Thank you for all this great info and the experiment.
My '97 Whirlpool 27 cu ft I purchased new is still working ok. I guess I will just run it til it dies. Never an issue with the through door ice maker or water dispenser either. Garage freezer was a garage sale special I picked up 20 years ago.... I think it is from the late 70s or really early 80s as well and still works great.
Ice/water tends to work way better on side by sides because there's no thermal conflict on the ice (although water can sometimes present a problem due to poor insullation). The bad issues came about when every company decided to put ice in the warmer refrigerator cabinet, then channel freezer air into the fridge exclusively for that. It causes a lot of issues that tend to migrate into other problems, in my opinion.
Those 70s-80s side by sides are extremely easy to work on and customize too. Before I sold it, I had one that had a new 410a compressor lines and evap, I put ambient lighting in the crisper and a wine ice chest cooler on the bottom rack. I made well over a thousand dollars on it and I wish I didn't have to sell it.
The older appliances still run, because they were manufactured by people who took pride in their work and stood behind their product.
From the head of the company, to the lowest position.
Nowadays we have executive chair sitters and Chinese slave labor.
But you can buy an extended warranty, if that is worth anything.
@@darroniverson3373 agree!
My parents had a Norge refrigerator that was bought around 1955. It went into storage from 63 to 68 and was then used from 68 until the 1990s. It still worked fine but many of the plastic parts were cracking and breaking. The one that replaced it was much louder.
I also have a Norge from the 50's. They were manufactured in Minneapolis.
Also have an Amana, (freezer on the bottom) 1978, that is still in use.
Likewise I also have two Maytag washers. One from the 20's, which does not get used, and one from 65 that is used for work clothes and really big items. Works better than the new ones do.
Your grandparents fridge lasted them a lifetime and is still going. I love those stories.
It's neat that you got your Grandma's refrigerator. Very nostalgic.
My grandparents had a 1949 version of that GE fridge in their camp here in Maine. They bought it when my dad was born two years after they got married, used that fridge in their first home and then it ended up at the camp they built it in 1962. That fridge was identical to yours except it have the chrome GE label instead of the white one you have. That compressor was the quietest most relaxing thing I can remember and it, along with the sounds of loons and bullfrogs at night was part of the sounds of camp. A gentle thump when it shut off is mostly what you heard.
Sorry about your grandparents. I know the feeling and I was sad to lose the greatest people who grew up in the "greatest generation". Thanks for sharing! Charles Phoenix would be proud! (I know)
DO NOT CUT IT OPEN PLEASE!!!!
Beautiful remembrance of your grandmother. She'd be very impressed by your work here. Wish we could all buy the quality of those days. Thank you.
Only needing a third of the power, while being less noisy and providing a bunch more space was a pretty convincing argument for me to get rid of my old fridge.
Imagine they if did replaceable compressor? Would solve noise and power problems for 1/5 of the price. Thanks to capitalism it will never happen.
@@heyhoe168 The compressor isn't the only part that influences energy efficiency. While it is deciding in how much energy is required to cool down, keeping that temperature depends on the isolation of the fridge.
Modern fridges will also use an inverter to drive the compressor. That is simply missing from the old ones.
@@graealex yep, modular fridge would basically allow upgrade case separately, better repairability and second-hand market. For the inverter, it is a part of electric scheme of compressor, if I got you right, so it should come with compressor module.
@@heyhoe168 That's realistically not how appliances can be built, they'd all cost three times as much.
In particular I have no problem, seeing as my big new fridge cost €450. That wouldn't be a lot of labor and parts, and with it being all new, I know all parts will have long life ahead of them.
@@graealex I dont see how couple of fittings would cost you +€900. It is literally $10.
I bought a big black Amana fridge with an Ice Maker in the early 1990’s. I believe it was $800 . The salesman told me, that Amana main business was commercial refrigeration, and that they started to sell home refrigerators. So, I thought, it must be good. And good it was. Well, still is ! This fridge outlasted my first marriage 😅, it outlasted the store I bought it from. They went out business, maybe for selling Amanas? 😂. I have it in the Garage now for over 10 years! In hot and cold weather, and still going strong! I believe this Fridge will outlast my second marriage 😂 and eventually outlast me 😢. I’ve been thinking for years to replace it for a new fridge, because of energy savings, but after watching this video, and almost 30 years of faithful service, I say no. 😊
Love my 1997 Amana refrigerator which is still in my kitchen serving me well. Sadly it outlasted my wife of 52 years. And also Circuit City Stores where I worked at and bought it from. Oh yeah my wife of 52 years was both our 2nd marriage.
Thank you for scanning that manual, its always nice to look through something like that. Like a miniature time capsule.
I am very satisfied with this man's taste in soda.
Honestly, I am confident that ANYTHING I buy is nickel and dimed to death and if my wife and I can get more than 5 years out of ANY appliance or car we feel like we won. We don't have kids, so, I can't imagine how much more we'd spend if we had to run the car, washer and dryer much more than we do, or just how many more times the refrigerator door is opened and partially closed. The thought sends shivers down my back faster than the freezers in this review!
Stop buying bad cars then. If you don't get 25 years out of a Toyota you are unlucky...
@@xiaofengxiaofengxiaofengxi4651well he's clearly unlucky. Consider that it's expensive to buy new or nearly new cars, appliances, etc. Lots of people are stuck in a cycle of bad purchases bc they can't afford a better one.
@@mikeymullins5305 no, he's clearly buying the wrong product. Who said anything about buying nearly new? I literally just said you get 25 years out of a Toyota easy without any mechanical problems. Buy a 2001 Corolla with 200k miles on it and you are likely to get it to 300k+ if it has had regular oil changes. Also likely to have no mechanical issues at all. I have never had a mechanical issue on any of my cars. Ever. Yet my cars have been worth between £200-2300. Because all I buy is Toyota and Honda.
Grandma's fridge has the classic styling that's gonna last forever for sure!
In 1990s I was helping at community center in my neighborhood. One day we used my truck to go get an old 50s fridge ( forget what brand ) that was real cool, perfect condition, had a lot of fancy gadgets somebody donated to use in the kitchen. Then after a time I found out they got a different one and scrapped the old timer. I was so bummed, I wished I knew they did that I would have taken it home. It was fine, the ladies just wanted a ' newer ' one.
This is where I am with my washer and dryer. I’ve had them for 13 years and they were hand me down sets when I got them. I’d like a new set with larger capacity and possibly more efficient but it’s difficult for me to justify that since the ones I have still work.
Thanks for this great video! I appreciate how long it took to run these tests , collect the data and make the video itself. Your Grandma would be so proud! I was offered a free 2015 unit if I would just haul it away. It was much more sleek and modern looking compared to my 1987 Gibson….but the Gibson has NEVER needed a repair. Sure the freezer is tiny but we have a big chest freezer in the basement, also made the same year and too has never needed a repair. I’ll stick with the old models. Sure, I’ll pay a little more for electricity, but cost of unit spread over years of use ( with zero repair bills) is looking very sweet to me. We donated the “fancy” fridge to the local food shelf. I hope it gives them years of good use. When my upscale relatives come to visit and they learn they have to go down to the basement for their ice cubes and pull them from the silicone cube trays, the look of shock and horror on their faces is also worth the a little higher electricity bill each month! 😅
That's awesome that you have that original Refrigerator & Instruction book, thank you for sharing this with us.
Great video. You provided a well balanced comparison that even included the mention of long term reliability. I'll take the 1950's and just deal with the small size. It will more than likely still be working for decades. Imagine the environmental impact of the 5(or more) refrigerators that had to be built and ended up in he trash heap while this one continued to work. Same with cars. I drive a 20 year old Toyota and and read that EV batteries are projected to last 10 years and wonder what the environmental impact of having make two build 2 EV's is compared to one quality internal combustion engine.
battery does not equal engine
though i have no doubt the industry will go for selling a new car instead of switching a faulty component, given how much they love planned obsolescence...
also neither of those options are good - we need to massively reduce reliance on cars, rather than just replace the type of car... mass transit is just that much more efficient
cars are the equivalent of having a minifridge for every item you want to store cooled... and trains and busses are an actual fridge
we really should only be replacing things when they really need replacing (for example when they are broken or no longer suited for the function they need to fill)... and stuff should last as long as possible, rather than just long enough for the producer to sell you the next one
also sidenote on ICEs - we basically have reached the limit for optimization for those, because the industry has fought tooth and nail to prevent a switch or expansion into electric when it made sense and as a result, those are much less well developed, while ICEs got optimized to hell and back... we can expect significant efficiency increases in the future if electric engines become a major focus (which is likely, given that militaries are looking into using electric engines for tanks)
further sidenote - i ride a 5 year old bicycle and ride in decades old trains... gonna be hard to beat that environmental impact with any kind of car
I have my doubts that they will allow you to change a batte @@SharienGaming
@@bonzo1971 yeah thats what i was going for with my second sentence
@@SharienGaming It may require 3rd party aftermarket support like I see for the Prius and Leaf batteries.
Great test. Would have been nice if u did an open test too. Like opening the fridge for 5-10 seconds at least once or twice an hour 5x a day.
I'd be interested in seeing how much more efficient new fridges are if they didn't have sill heaters and weren't self defrosting, like the older 1950's one is.. or perhaps testing a compact dorm style fridge vs the old 50's ones.
Defrost cycles can use 50% of the energy the fridge demands... Heating the coils to make the frost melt, then recooling the fridge.
An "all fridge" has no defrost.
A chest freezer without defrost cycle is far more efficient than any stand up freezer.
I'm buying all new appliances for a new construction house and will have a separate 'all fridge" and chest freezer. More capacity and less energy than a single fridge-freezer.
Scanning and sharing the old 1950 manual defiently earned my like and subscripsion!
Finally, a channel where I can nerd out on home appliances!!!!
It would be interesting to see if the 50s refrigerator could be made more efficient simply by replacing or augmenting the insulation. Especially if you could keep the external look.
Yea this is something i have wanted to do for long!! The look is just so iconic.
We had an old Sears Hotpoint fridge from the 50s that still runs
Nice. I wonder how many KWh it uses
@@bensappliancesandjunk no clue, but I remember it did keep the pop cold.
My parents 1946 Philco refrigerator still runs like a top. My brother got it rewired with a new relay and door gasket (can’t believe he found a replacement door gasket). Had the body shop paint it antique blue. They don’t build them like they used to , I guess if they did the manufactures would probably go out of business. Built-in obsolescence is the name of the game today, sad😢.
I love that you mentioned the auto body shop. A friend converted a mid-50's fridge to hold a keg with a big tap installed on the door. He delivered it in his pick-up to a local auto body shop and they applied a beautiful metallic burgundy paint and 3 coats of clear coat and it looks amazing.
You might be able to use one or two vehicle door seals on it with little modification.
When I had my first house I had an old Frigidaire with the crown. Real simple. It was all grungy and needed a door seal but I liked it and stripped it down and repainted it, made some weatherstripping work for a seal.
Worked good for number of years and even though I had to manually defrost it, it was like a game.
Then compressor finally decided it didn't want to turn anymore and I had to let it go. Then shortly after I had refrigeration class and wished I still had it we could have made it a class project putting a new compressor in it. That would have been sweet, i would probably still have it.
@@michaelszczys8316 Yeah, I've got a fridge from 2000 that lasted so long, I've only had to replace the compressor, control board and the Fan in the vent that links the freezer at the bottom to the fridge area above it. That's pretty much it up to this day.
The newer fridges are not being built like they use to be.... I'd hate to see the future of fridges if it continues down this path.
I have a washer and dryer that I purchased back in 1993. They work way better than any new non-industrial washer and dryer I can purchase.
My parents bought their first refrigerator an admiral after I was born in 1951 July they lived in a small village and a door to door salesman sold them the refrigerator on a payment per month plan. they still had it before they moved in 1970 I don’t remember when they replaced it 😮though. Thank you for inspiring my time travelling trip to my childhood 😂❤🎉❤
I wonder if you could swap out the refrigerant in the old 1950 fridge, for a newer one that would function properly in its compressor, and if that would make any difference.