Does anyone know about refrigeration?

My house was built in 1949 and one of my ongoing endeavors is to keep it era-correct in regard to furnishings and decor.

One problem with that goal is in the kitchen. Specifically the refrigerator. In my opinion, modern refrigerators just do not look right in a mid-century home. Now, I know there is at least one company that makes a vintage looking refrigerator (Bigchill) but their models are very expensive...But old refrigerators are pretty cheap because they are inefficient and not everyone likes the look, so my question is:

Is it at all feasible to install modern refrigeration components into an antique refrigerator?

A refrigerator is just a box for holding cold air. Most all of the important stuff sits on the back or underneath it. I'd imagine you can just change that E36 M3 out if you know what you're doing.

In reply to Grizz:

That was my sense of things as well, but I have no experience with this stuff.

I mostly stick to heaters and AC, but the basic setup means that it should fit, and you should be alright so long as you don't kink any lines or anything.

Notice the shoulds there. I'd say try it with junker garage freezers first to see how it works.

I have a feeling most of the losses in those old refrigerators is the box itself, not the compressor. R12, like most things that were banned for killing us or the planet, works very, very good.

I'm not 100% on this, as I'm not a refrigerator guy. My dad is an appliance guy, and I remember him saying that when a compressor starts wearing out in an old machine, it starts pumping it's oil through with the freon, so even a replacement compressor never lasts as long as the original. I imagine if you ran all new lines through the thing you could do it, but that would be a super pain, and you're soldering better be pretty solid; freon can leak through some TINY openings. Also, the new mechanical bits would have to be acompanied by the correct electronics, sensors, etc... seems like a lot of effort. You would also have to hope the thing doesn't have condensation that slowly built up in the insulation, and you wouldn't want to put the new stuff's defrost heater too close to something that could melt- all stuff I would've hoped the engineers figured out on newer ones, but maybe not when it comes to new stuff in an old box. I totally agree the old school look rocks. I say go for it.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: I have a feeling most of the losses in those old refrigerators is the box itself, not the compressor.

I heard the opposite. The old ones were designed for houses when A/C wasn't as common, so they are insulated up the wazoo. We keep a 50's fridge in a shed all summer and it keeps drinks ice cold. No clue on the power usage, but if it had to struggle, it probobly would've died long ago.

Grizz wrote: A refrigerator is just a box for holding cold air. Most all of the important stuff sits on the back or underneath it. I'd imagine you can just change that E36 M3 out if you know what you're doing.

I would agree with this. Mainly the compressor. My landlord sells appliances (fridges, washers, dryers, not cars) and when he sells one, sometimes the buyer will have him take away the old. Well, that's how I got mine for $75.00. Now its not as old as you are looking for, but I'm sure contacting an appliance dealer, you may find one. The house I'm thinking about putting an offer in on has an old fridge that matches the build, and I agree that a new fridge wouldn't look as good.

Gut a newer refrigerator, install parts in old refrigerator. As long as the cubic feet are close and the coils stay the same it should work like a charm. The problem is going to be doing it without breaking the lines. I've been thinking about doing this with the cooler in the shop.

Being a commercial unit that's designed to be open 20 times an hour, the system is way over sized for what I use it for. I figured I could install a smaller system out of a refrigerator and use a whole lot less electricity.

GRM: We even swap fridge motors.

LS1 powered fridge.

So my father in law has an 40's crosley refrigerator in the garage and the thing only eat 15-20$ a month in electricity according to a gadget that the power company supplied to test it.

Buy a old one and the 1-2K over the cost of a new one you save will pay for the power and it will last forever.

I know there are modern compressor units available for vintage soda machine. I believe the site was www.vintagesodamachines.com or something obvious like that. I looked a couple years ago, and it would have been ~$1500 to restore an old Pepsi machine I have, and I think the compressor was ~$500 or so.

That didn't seem bad, since that's about a median price for a new fridge.