1950s Chest Freezer Refurbish

This might be OT--is there an alt.refurbish.old appliances?

We have a cool old freezer, a GE Hotpoint 20 that came with our house. I love it! It still works great, and I like old stuff. It matches the 1949 fridge in the same utility room, enamel and chrome, very cool. (Also ... both have run nonstop for the ten years we have had this house, whereas the new, plastic and crap side-by-side we bought five years ago lasted three years.)

Thing is, condensation has made the top of it rust. The former owner obviously did some repainting or something at some point, but it has rusted through again. I have it defrosted and cleaned, opened up and drying out now.

If you were going to refinish the top of this thing, how would you do it? I want to really seal the rust the best I can, then paint white like the rest of the thing.

Thank you in advance for any help.

Reply to
cybercat
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There is no "seal." You remove the lid, remove the seal/handle/hardware etc, take it to a body shop, and have them media blast it and refinish it like a car body.

You *could* brush a coat of POR-15 on it which is one of only a few products available that will actually seal rust, but then when you try to wetsand it to prep for paint, you'll discover that it's also hard as nails and doesn't sand well.

Good luck with your project, I agree with you, 40s/50s stuff is cool and worth saving. I only wish the previous owners of my house had felt the same way... (the old kitchen cabinets in the laundry room are much more to my liking than the ones in the kitchen...)

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

I'd sand it and use appliance paint if I wanted to make it look good. Or have a pro do it and it will look factory new..

OTOH, I'd scrap it out and save a bundle of money on my electric bill. The newspaper had an article about old appliances. One family cut their bill in half by getting rid of an old freezer and replacing it with a new, albeit smaller one. A few years ago I got rid of an old 12 cu ft refrigerator in the basement and replaced it with a new 18 cu. ft. frost free. Electric bill went down $10 a month. Paid for itself in just over 3 years.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Worth saving for appearance, NOT worth savings for the cost of operation. Most older appliances cost many times to operate compared to the new stuff.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Wow cool stuff. I would love to see pictures before or after.

We love old cool stuff.... our phone has a dial on it our coffee pot is from the early 50's and we camp in trailers from the 30's through the 50's which can have cool old appliances in them that often times work just fine.

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cm

Reply to
CM

I have recently been measuring the power consumed by a 1969 and a 2008 fridge freezer of nearly equal size, about 14 c ft for each unit. I used two of those power measuring meters that are available these days.

The 1969 unit uses about 10% more power than the newer unit.

This isn't saving a lot of money since the new unit's power consumption is approximately equal to a 40W bulb running continuously. (Btw this is typical a power consumption of modern refrigerators.)

At 18 c Kw/Hr a mere 4 W saving per hour isn't ever going to amount to much money.

Refrigerators/freezers typically use less than a 60W bulb running continuously.

At 18 cents/KwHr this costs $ (60/1000) X 24 X365 X 0.18 pa

= $94.60 pa

Here in Australia refrigerators and freezers typically cost $900 or so new. Even if your new refrigerator/freezer used zero power compared to the old rerfigerator at $94.60 pa it would take about 10 years to pay for the new refrigerator.

In practice, as measured on my actual 1969/2008 units and with a mere

10% _measured_ difference in efficiency, it would be more like 100 years payback time.

Fix your 1950's unit and enjoy!

I'd suggest power savings with new units would be minimal.

Otoh convincing folk to buy new units means a lot of $$$$$ to manufacturers.

Ross

Reply to
RMD

You need new units... "Kw/Hr" and "watts per hour" are meaningless units.

Learn the difference between power and energy.

Nick

Reply to
nicksanspam

"cybercat" We have a cool old freezer, a GE Hotpoint 20 that came with our house. I

Great units. We ended up giving one away to the local 'soup kitchen' as we also had a newer one bought when we were living in Japan.

It is fixable. How much depends on what you want to spend and if it's in a highly visible location.

Ours was in the garage so it wasnt critical to have it 'perfect' but the finished job turned out near enough to that for use inside had we wanted to.

It was bought used and had rust spots. Don used a medium grade sand paper then a fine one to finish it off. Then he primed it with a regular store metal primer and used spray paint. That was some 9 years ago and when we gave it away 3 months ago, no sign of rust returning.

Since he hand sanded it, he took it in small slots of time, say 10-15 mins a day. We were not in a rush. I think he took perhaps 2 hours total sanding time over 2-3 weeks. In the interum, we were using it just fine.

He primed it with stuff you just paint on. Came time to spray, we just turned it off (not sure of sucking any of the spray in and it doesnt take long) then plugged it back in when done with the spray.

Sure, you can take the door off or the whoile unit to have it powder coated or done by a car-chop, but if you do not need that much perfection, it's easy to do at home.

Reply to
cshenk

was that a test over a week or a few minutes?

newer appliances have much better insulation so overall energy consumption is less.

its not just a matter of running current............

Reply to
hallerb

Get a Kill A Watt meter and find out what it costs to run, those old units were energy hogs, You might get a 2 yr payback on a new unit.

Reply to
ransley

"ransley" wrote

Extremely doubtful. Yes newer ones are more efficient but not that radically so when new units of that size are 700$ and up. She's much better off just banking the food savings money until it eventually needs more freon (which she wont be able to get for the older unit nor is it cost effective to try to adapt them). She's probably getting 40$ a year electric more for it vice a newer model. I know. I had one like it. It will take 17 YEARS to pay off at that rate.

Reply to
cshenk

New units are up to 75% more efficient, it could cost 20+ a month to run what she has now or save 400 in 2 years by getting a new unit. Im sure you never tested them.

Reply to
ransley

"ransley" wrote

No I never 'tested'. I didnt need to as I have live experience . *I had one*. You'll note the only other person to reply who has had one said the same. You are acting like the new ones run for free. They dont. The difference in cost per month is a few dollars. Can be 3 or 4 depending on how expensive electric is where you are.

Perhaps you missed that it's a difference per cost that matters here. Want to argue with a 12 year electrical bill history showing? I *know* what I am talking about. She should save the unit as long as possible and not create more landfill.

Reply to
cshenk

My experience differs from your. Put that hunk of metal in the recycle bin and save tons of fuel with a new one. Payback can easily be two to four years. Not to mention features of a newer model.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

There are more important things than money, Edwin. If I wanted to trash this old beauty, I would have said so. I will restore it, and keep it for another

30 years.
Reply to
cybercat

"cshenk" wrote

I will, but not for that reason. I am keeping it because I love the look and feel of it, and it works great! Our electric bill is low for people who use so many electronics, too. The best reason to keep it: it, and the 1949 GE refrigerator next to it has run without a hitch for ten years, after running in the same spots from at least 1969 to 1998 when we bought this house. The owner left me all the documentation for all of the appliances that came with the house. These are in the utility in the finished basement. While the 1970s fridge in the kitchen died along with the 1980s dishwasher and the 1980s hood fan over the stove, these beauties have hummed along smoothly for all these years. And, again, when we replaced the kitchen fridge with a new Whirlpook with all the bells and whistles, it broke after 3 years. I was so pissed at paying over a grand for a bunch of plastic, I won't have it fixed. I am the cook in the house, and if I want to go downstairs to get my stuff, I guess I can.

Reply to
cybercat

Did I say I was interested in saving money? I'd rather pay more just so that I can handle enameled steep and chrome and glass rather than plastic.

Reply to
cybercat

Neat! I will take pictures, thanks for the idea!

Reply to
cybercat

Nate Nagel" wrote

Nate, I really like this idea. I will look into it. Transporting it to the body shop might be a problem--it is huge, just the top, even, and heavy. We are one of the few families in this city without a sport utility vehicle, though few people here need them. Thanks.

Reply to
cybercat

body shops transport large body panels etc all the time. take a photo in, if theres oney to be made they may transport it.

can you get the door off?

Reply to
hallerb

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