I got up early this morning and this was on ebay for $300.00 complete with juice containers and Handi-Drawer. There might be a shelf or two missing. It doesn't work but I think I can fix that. The interior looks great, the exterior needs paint. The only problem is my usual shipping company, TSC Moving, has changed their service map and I need to find another company to ship this - any suggestions? I prefer a moving company that will blanket wrap, not willing to pay for having a crate built.

Interior. Wonder how that one door frame panel at the top of the freezer ended up being green?

Interior 2

This was posted in another thread by Mike (Dishwashercrazy) a few months ago.   I recently sold a washer which was so be shipped back to the Boston area.   I suggested Home Direct USA and that's who the buyer used.

It sounds like they take really good care of the item and at a good price!

Kevin

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Thanks to a tip from Paul (turquoisedude), I have been working with a company called "Home Direct USA".

The website is www.homedirectusa.com

I prefer to operate by phone. Their direct dial phone number is: (720) 535-4139. I have been working with a wonderfully helpful order taker named: Berton. If you decide to use this company, please ask for him, and tell him that Mike Haller from Peoria Illinois as a reference.

To date, I have placed four (4) orders with him to move Electric Sink/Dishwashers from around the country (Tonawanda, NY - Buffalo area; Pasadena, CA; Greenville, NC; Riverside, NJ), plus a fifth order to move the Hotpoint Portable from Merrill, MI ---- All to West Peoria. The cost has only been $287 to transport each machine. A local shipper picks up the unit, and wraps/prepares it to be moved to its destination. The load, then is handed off, and eventually arrives at a local shipper on the delivery end, who calls, and arranges a day and time for delivery.

So far, I have been thrilled with the care taken to wrap each sink/dw. AND, I could have never driven to Pasadena for $287!

These prices also include moving an appliance (or whatever) up or down two flights of stairs. Minimal insurance is included in the standard shipping price, or additional insurance can be purchased.

I highly recommend Home Direct USA!

Mike

Thanks for the company referrals.

Charles - I called Pam Transport - they hire by the truck, not for individual items.

Kevin, I'll call Home Direct USA

Gansky1 - I haven't decided about the color. It will be a companion to either the Chambers Imperial which will be black, or to the Roper Town & Country which is white. I'll paint it to match whichever stove I pair it with.

Nice fridge, congrats for finally getting one!

You could try an ad here. I don't know if they would transport it open, or pack it someway, but it's worth a try.

I listed this on Uship and accepted a bid of $396 plus Uship's $20 service fee from MikAly Expedite, a small family shipper with a good feedback rating.

I was searching the archives and came across a thread (#4523) from 1-8-2006. A person (brneyedgrl80) who is no longer a member posted scans of a Foodarama brochure. Did anyone save these scans? I'd like to get a copy if possible. The pictures are not showing up in the archive.

If anybody has any scans of 1955/56 Foodarama literature I would be interested in obtaining copies. Please let me know if you can help.

I e-mailed the seller and asked a few more questions about the fridge. He sent me several more pictures. There are two racks missing from the fridge side and one from the freezer. The butter and cheese trays are missing too. He plugged the fridge in while he was taking pictures and both sides started to cool, so hopefully it is in full working condition.

The seller put all of the pictures and text in a MS Word document - does anyone know how to copy the pictures from a Word document? I tried to right click and copy but it didn't work.

I have located another Foodarama that might be available for parts. The exterior is surface rust (no more paint) and it quit working awhile back plus it is missing a few interior parts such as a fridge shelf, the Handi-Drawer, a fridge door rack, and the compressor cover panel. The interior also has rust, especially by the banana storage/compressor area. The owners want to sell the entire fridge but it is too far away from me. They said they would sell parts if no one buys it. If that happens, I will buy the racks that I need, the cheese and butter trays if they have them (they didn't say), and possibly the two juice containers - yes, those are present. I told them that if they decide to scrap it, I'll take any parts they can remove and mail, just to save them.

My shipper is supposed to pick up my Foodarama on the 27th and have it here within a week, maybe only a day or two.

I'm excited, the shipper said he will deliver the Foodarama tomorrow.

The shipper was delayed a little but delivered the fridge this morning at 9am. The interior is very clean but the juice containers are not present. I have sent a note to the seller to see if he forgot to give them to the shipper. The shipper said that they were not given to them separately and they never opened the fridge, even when picking it up. They showed surprise at how clean the interior was when I opened the doors for them so I believe that they never opened it. The interior plastic is both green and blue making me think that someone replaced some parts in the past (there is not any fading) so maybe there was a restoration attempt at one time, but then again the parts unit I posted above (which I don't think has ever had any work done to it) also has both green and blue inside.

Update: It is chilly outside - 40 F - but the freezer quickly dropped below 0 F.

Here is the breakfast bar, sans juice pitchers :(  The egg holders hold 18 eggs.

Here is a view of the Foodarama not often seen: The back.

Compressor. The drain fitting is broken, but the evaporation tray is present.

Wiring diagram.

The condenser unit - behind the front panel under the freezer, even with the banana bin in the door.

McMaster-Carr has the door gasket material for $1.00/foot - much cheaper than some of the appliance restoration shops who want $5-$7 per foot. It is grey and comes in preset lengths so I bought two 20' lengths - both doors will use about 14.5' each (the freezer door is narrower but has an extra cross piece of gasket above the banana bin, so the lengths for both doors are nearly the same).

A few years ago I bought a similar door gasket for my '55 Frigidaire. It was light blue and cost me $90.00 for a 14' length. The place I bought it from is out of blue now, so I think the grey from McMaster-Carr will work just fine and I bought twice as much for half the price.

Might have a bit of a problem here. The fridge is in the garage and it is 46 F out there. I have the fridge and freezer compartments set on the warmest settings but the freezer is now -20 F and the fridge is 20F.

Is this a thermostat issue or is it simply because I have it running out in a cold environment?

It might be the enviroment. See  what it does when the outside temp improves.  Nice Kelvy, BTW!

Yeah, I figured that might be a problem. I ran it for about three hours, its unplugged now. We have been warm all season until the other day. The temp was in the 70s and then a couple of fronts blew through, now it will be cool to cold for the indefinite future.

Just tinkering around today, I did some cleaning (goo under crisper drawers) and swapped the fruit basket brackets - someone put them on backwards. I used my ohmmeter to check both thermostats. When turned off I get infinity on both and when all the way on I get 0 ohms, so they appear to be good. Now, since I know little about electronics, I have a question : both thermostats have a temperature sensor (thermocouple?) that go into their respective compartments. If the ohm test is good, does that mean the temp sensors are good too? If not, how does one test them?

Continuing with my suedodiagnostics, I plugged the fridge back in with both thermostats turned off. The compressor started to run and the freezer quickly dropped in temperature. Now I'm thinking there could be a wiring issue. The back panel has been removed in the past and only a few screws are holding it on now. The power cord has been replaced with a grounded cord. Unfortunately, the wiring diagram on the back is not color coded so I can't tell what wire goes where, I'll probably have to remove some insulation and try to trace the wires down.

There is a "heater" in the wiring diagram. This is a manual defrost freezer, where would the heater be located?

Oops, wasn't paying attention to the prompts and deleted instead of edited.

"By the way, that is one HUGE compressor and condenser! How does that thing keep those parts cool? Is it with a fan?"

I was wondering the same thing. There is a fan. It is hidden by the bulk of the condenser and compressor (which has fittings and is removable like a car compressor). I had to reach a hand behind the condenser and feel for it (with the power unplugged, of course). Also, I don't see a heater in the fridge compartment and the manual makes it sound like defrosting is passive when the compressor is not running. The manual also tells how to defrost the fridge compartment in the rare case it is needed: turn the t-stat to "warmest"

edit - I was able to use a flashlight and see just a little of the fan. I plugged the fridge in but the fan did not turn on, so it is either not working or has a thermal switch. Neither the fan nor a switch shows in the wiring diagram. The wires to the compressor hook to a capacitor at the front - to get to it for service it looks like the compressor assembly has to be removed. There are shutoff valves on the freon lines so that the freon and oil in the compressor can be saved, but the system would still have to be evacuated when hooked back up to get moisture out of the lines throughout the fridge.

Hi Hydralique, I was updating my post above as you typed your post. I'm reaching the conclusion that I will need to check the relay and, as noted above, I may have to remove the compressor assembly to gain access. My boss' son runs an A/C business that also works on appliances. I'll get him to take this project over since he has the freon recovery equipment and the know-how.

Not a bad idea.

I've been talking with a guy on the Chambers forum who has two Foodaramas. He pointed out that there is enough slack to slide the compressor chassis out the back without undoing the refrigerant lines. The chassis is held on by 4 bolts. The date code on the compressor is April 1955. According to the tag on the front of the condenser, this unit holds 1 lb of freon, I would have guessed more.

Here is a closeup of the relay that mounts to the compressor. As soon as I verify with my friend that it is wired correctly, I'll check the connections leading to the thermostats and make sure a wire was not crossed. Since the fan wires are connected to the same terminals as the power wires, I'm assuming that the fan motor is out since it doesn't turn on with the compressor - the wires go directly to the fan, not to a thermal switch.

That condenser fan needs to be running when the compressor runs, I'm betting that the fan itself is bad. They used a similar style of fan for years in GE 'fridges for sure, along with others. 3 bolts on the back hold it to the mount.

I guessed as much. I'll pull the fan and see about either rewiring it or finding a replacement. As soon as the wiring is situated and the fridge is running as it is supposed to, I'm going to start disassembly and get ready to paint it, weather permitting. Gotta stop now and move everything back into the garage - rain coming.

I've talked with the seller, his daughter apparently has the juice containers and is mailing them to me. I'm betting she saw them in dad's old fridge and thought "Neat, I'm taking these." Dad got onto her and now they are on their way - I hope.

For reference: If anyone acquires a Foodarama and the fan motor by the condenser  isn't working, here is the replacement part number:

A.O. Smith (now Century I think) UB04CWLA2F

The original is a GE motor, part # 5KSP51AL63C

The new fan motor arrived Wednesday and I just installed it. The fan works fine so I remounted the compressor chassis. Now to sort out the wiring....

The seller mailed the juice containers on Wednesday and said that I should have them Monday (tomorrow).

The original shipping weight was 565 lbs - not sure if that included a wooden crate.

Specifications:

The juice pitchers arrived today - Finally!

They are not very big: 6 3/4" X 4 1/2" X 2"

Very nice Foodarama, congratulations. Unfortunately someone else bought the parts Foodarama so I have no spare parts.

OK, I have traced all of the wires with my ohmmeter and found the wiring problems. I'm taking a lunch break before I hook up everything and test the fridge.  The wire to the light switch is red, the wires of the thermostat circuit and returning from the light bulb are black, the heater wires are green. The only white wires are from the compressor and the wall outlet wire. Here is the Foodarama wiring diagram:

Here is how the person who replaced the wall outlet wired it. The original plug was not a three prong plug, the original green (heater) wires were not ground wires as this person assumed:

YAY! The fridge is now functioning properly: When both thermostats are turned off, the compressor shuts down. Now I'll let it run a few hours and see what temperature readings I get.

The first phase of this restoration is complete: make the fridge function properly. The next phase begins: repainting it and replacing the door gaskets.

Edit: It appears to be working correctly. Fridge is holding at about 36 degrees, freezer reads 5 degrees so I turned the t-stat down a little to get it to 0.

I love it when a plan works out.....

Got the quote from my painter today: $600. This includes taking it down to metal, fixing and/or filling dents, sealing, priming, and painting with automotive paint. Plus, they will pick up and deliver.

Sounds reasonable.

It is reasonable for all the work they will have to do. I will have to wait a few months - too many obligations right now. I'll probably bump this thread periodically (like the Flair thread that has been going for a couple of years) to keep the restoration all in one thread; that will make it easier for someone else who restores one to find all the info in one place.

Thanks for posting the vid. I downloaded it for my archives.

I haven't done anything more to the Foodarama, waiting for funds to get it painted (hopefully a decent tax return will allow me to do this soon). I need to get the Roper T&C out to fix the rear legs and get the side panels repaired and re-enameled. Everything else on the stove seems OK except the chrome, which can easily be dealt with at anytime, even after the stove is in the kitchen.

Just won an original Foodarama owner's manual on ebay.

Well, until I can get to the point of painting the fridge, I'm going to use it for home brewing. I plan to start lagering a beer this week.

I'm going to scan the owner's manual that I got off of ebay and post the scans on my server. I'll post a link here when I'm done.

Bump before it falls off the active list! If I get a decent tax return, I'll use that to get the Foodarama painted, so that might happen in the next month or two.

Fingers crossed for you on the tax return. Can't wait to see the final product all nice, shiny, and full of food.

I'm staying with white.

Hi Ken,

I haven't done much but I'm closing a deal on one missing shelf, the cheese and butter trays, and a few spare parts right now - just waiting to hear back from the seller. I had to postpone restoration and plug the Foodarama in for use: my deep freeze broke and I had to move everything to the freezer of the Foodarama.

The deep freeze is now fixed so hopefully I can get startedk on the restoration.

It was in Missouri. Funny that you resurrected this thread yesterday, I was just about to do the same to post about the shelves and trays I found. I'm still missing the top shelf in the fridge compartment that the Handi-Tray slides under (the slides for the Handi-Tray are attached to the underside of the shelf) and the "Pastry" shelf for the freezer side.

For spares I am also getting one crisper drawer, both plastic shelf halves that go above the crispers, and two door shelves - one "Bottles" and one "Snacks." These are all from a regular '56 Kelvinator fridge but the measurements are the same as the fridge side of the Foodarama. Too bad the parts fridge doesn't have a breakfast bar for spare parts :)

David:

Hope you dont mind if I post some Foodarama images.

Not at all, thanks for posting them.

Just brewed a Belgian Witbier tonight, getting the spring beers going. I started a Belgian Saison last week and will probably make an American wheat and a Bohemian pilsner soon.

I'm closing the deal on the spare parts but the seller misunderstood me: he doesn't have the cheese and butter trays. He thought I meant the entire compartments. I'm buying them for spares though.

Alas, no. Been so overwhelmed with work that my other projects have suffered.