A friend of mine let me know about this poor old fridge listed on ebay.  It's a 1931-32 model.  The unit was rebuilt in 1942.  It's not running at the moment.  At first look, there are many dirty contacts.  I am crossing my fingers since I don't need and scrap metal in my living room.

Ralph, 

You had the type A or C control.  I like those best.  That's what I have in the kitchen.  It makes a satisfying klunk when it starts.

Kenny and Delaney,

Yes, it was a beast.  The cabinet is about 350 with doors.  We removed the doors to reduce weight and reduce chance or porcelain damage.  The unit weighs 260 uncrated, probably 300 crated.  I will be one sad person if it won't run.  It was rebuilt in 1942, so it's "new" for that series!

I got lucky with this one.  The owners wanted it to go to a good home.  It was most likely the original electric refrigerator for that 1910 home.  There's no set value of these things, but the porcelain cabinets and the larger models are more rare.  This was likely a $1000 refrigerator in about 1930.  The larger units tend to have had a higher failure rate.  I have guessed that the larger models were also less likely to find a second home.  They're an absolute bear to move.  If someone offered one in 1950, I would think many would have said no.  They would have been dated and still terrible to move.

I think Jon has a CK30, which is the largest single door model they made in the mid 1930's.  CK's are almost bullet-proof.  This is a DR, the oldest type.  They're full of quirks.  This one had the tall control that Ralph mentioned.  It must have lost that during the 1942 rebuild.

What I found last night was numerous dirty contacts.  The control has metal tabs that sit on these copper spring terminals.  I also found a couple loose screws to these copper terminals.  I can't tell yet if the compressor is locked up.  I did measure the motor leads and that checked out.  I am interested to see how well these newer evaporators work. 

I am borrowing an ultrasonic cleaner to clean up all the little parts.  I haven't decided how much I should disassemble the control.  I might forget how it goes back together.

It's delayed until I stop getting sidetracked with other projects.  I did go ahead and buy a new stove.  This is in much better shape than the one I have. 

Ralph,

Yes, I have another MC 1000, but it needs more work.  I happened to see this other one on ebay and accidentally won it.  It was in use at a house that's being renovated now.  It's coming straight into the kitchen and getting installed.  I haven't had a stove in almost two years.

Here's the slightly older MT in the kitchen with the round evaporators.  I have some of the freezing blocks that make the bottom of the opening flat.  It's a 5 lb block of porcelain covered iron.

I did finally get it running.  There's a slight grounding issue between the three compressor leads and the frame.  On about the 15th try to start it, it broke free and ran fine.  I still need to clean all the contacts and put the control back on it.  I doubt it will stall again.  I just think that it's been unused for a very long time and wasn't happy to be woken up.

Last night I finally had both the cleaning solutions for the ultrasonic cleaner and the new basket.  I have no patience so I partly disassembled the control and gave it a bath.  I also had a couple similar controls, so I used the best parts in this one.  I wired it up at about 3 am.  I was pleasantly surprised when my lights didn't go out when I turned it on.  I just ordered gasket materials.  I can't properly run the unit as an air conditioner for the house. 

Considering that this was in the basement of a mansion, I would suspect it hadn't been used for the past fifty years.  Now I have to make a proper place for another 650 lb fridge.  It's not going in my basement or the garage.

This little monitor top was on the third floor of a large old house.  I think it survived because it was too much work to remove.  I'll try to test it tomorrow.  It was cheap, I couldn't say no.

Kenny, I need more space

The little one runs fine.  I don't think it had been run since I was born, but it did.

I had the hinge screws and the latch strike from another cabinet that had been scrapped.  After cleaning the contacts, it runs fine.  Cooling was very slow, it was getting better.  I left it running.  Hopefully, it and my house are fine when I return home.  The door gasket is almost completely gone, so I taped the door shut.

I am not sure what year the foot pads began being produced  I have a pile of them.  I was trying to figure out how to protect the floor then noticed the box of foot pads.