Some of you fine folks may have seen this in the videos I'm sharing on YouTube. For those who haven't, I present the Frigidaire M52. This was the first metal-clad cabinet refrigerator sold by Frigidaire. The condensing unit was also the first air-cooled style they produced. (Earlier models required a water hookup and drain connection for cooling water.)

It was owned by a fellow collector and historian who retired from the HVAC-R industry. He lives near Dayton, OH where Frigidaire was located.

As you can see from the trailer picture; I got quite a haul of really neat antique and vintage parts.

The compressor was locked up solid. I was afraid of bending or breaking the shaft trying to get it to rotate. Many of these are stuck because of the corrosive nature of SO2. In this case, it wasn't that. The unit was not expected to have any refrigerant in it; however it had a LOT of SO2 remaining. Due to a clogged valve, it did not evacuate overnight and I got a nasty surprise when trying to dismantle the unit. There was enough SO2 in the receiver to frost the receiver all the way across when it boiled off!

It looked like someone had packed the seal area with red epoxy putty, as well. What a mess..

There was absolutely zero oil in the compressor. As if it was washed dry inside.

I had to use a hydraulic press to remove the shaft from the unit. It was that stuck!

After pressing the shaft out of the compressor, it was time to clean up the parts and reassemble it.

In the haul of parts, there was a box of gaskets but none for this compressor model. Had to cut and make gaskets.

The seal journal on the shaft was corroded as you might expect. That was turned down and polished to a mirror finish.

All joints on the unit were checked with soap water with 125 PSI nitrogen in the unit. The shaft seal was filled with oil to check for leaks, since I didn't want to put water in that area.

Reply #2; Thanks Melvin! I do get a sense of satisfaction keeping these alive. :)

The motor is a Century repulsion-start induction motor. It is the exact same model which would have come on the M52, however it was not "the motor" from this unit. I got two motors in the parts haul. One was supposed to be good, the other one not. This one may have been missing a spring. I did have what was necessary to repair it!

I also cleaned up the control. It is copper plated steel. Never seen that before.

The condensing unit looks good all back in one piece again!

I have been documenting it with videos. At the suggestion of my friends who watch my videos, I made the videos longer and gave a lot more detail than before. It may be boring to those of us who have done this sort of repair many times; however there are plenty of guys who haven't done this and they find it beneficial to have all the details.

The link to the next video is at the end of each video. There are at this point six parts.

Video part 1:

Sincerely,

David

Thanks guys, for the positive comments!  It means a lot to me. Makes it worth the time to make the videos.

So; today I got the evaporator cleaned out. Also partially finished the float valve modification.

The most surprising thing was the lack of oil in the evaporator. The compressor was completely dry. The receiver was "shockingly dry" and dusty inside. I was expecting the oil to all be trapped in the evaporator - but there was barely any! Seems that over the decades (or through one bad service) the oil was all lost. That was what caused the compressor seizure.

The evaporator wasn't bad, requiring only some degreaser and pressure washer blasting. The float I added the density compensation spring mounts, but didn't have the spring on hand. Also, there was one fitting stripped out which I will have to buy tomorrow.

 Here is some video footage of the evaporator service...

Thank you guys so much for the comments! I really appreciate it.

Here is the video from today's work. The evaporator and condenser are both ready for action again! Now to get the cabinet back from the painter.

So today I went to Birmingham, AL and visited the paint shop where the M52 cabinet is located. The exterior cladding has been dent repaired and has its primer on. They are still working on the paint stripping of the interior and the compressor door louvers.  

The main reason I went there today was to install a magnetic reed switch for a potential cabinet light installation. This is a modification which I've done on several other fridges. The door has a hidden neodymium magnet in the edge trim (breaker strip). There is a hidden magnetic reed switch in the cabinet breaker strip. When the door closes, the magnet lines up with the reed switch and changes state. That makes the light work with the door opening and closing.  

In the WM-5 and W-8 projects, I was able to hide the magnet at the lower edge of the door. Since you won't see it unless you bend down and look up, it was a non-issue that it's not painted over.  The M52, on the other hand, has structural differences in the cabinet which make the bottom of the door unusable for a switch location. For that reason, the top of the door had to be used. Since this is a highly visible area, I needed to have the magnet placed in the door, and then skimmed with Bondo and then the area painted over. They're working on the cabinet feverishly, so today was my chance.

Also I made some repairs and painted the evaporator cover. It needed a couple soldering repairs then got a coat of appliance epoxy paint.

The nickel-plated brass trim ring around the evaporator ice cube tray openings also got a hit with Brasso. 

Sincerely,

David

Thanks Ralph. The lighting idea worked well on my WM-5 model and a W-8 I did for another collector. The difference with those two is they have a place to conceal the light so that it shines back in the cabinet from the front inner surface. The WM-5 has an upper angled surface inside and above the door. The W-8 has the door post in the front between the doors. With this one; the M52 has no such area. I have a couple possibilities to conceal a light in the evaporator cover, shining out of existing openings. I don't want to cut any holes - that's my first and foremost important point. Will probably have to get the cabinet back and begin reassembly to see how the light will work best.  Attached are pictures of the WM-5 light install.

Eugene; I'm fascinated by most old mechanical things. I love bringing life back to bygone technology. This is just a hobby for me. The WM-5 and the M52 are permanent parts of my collection.

I do sometimes work on other peoples' antiques although this is an exception and not the rule. If I were to restore one to sell, it would be one that someone has already expressed interest in buying. That would be one way I would restore and then sell one.

As for the hermetic unit fridges I have collected, most of those I would sell to the right person for the right price - although I don't consider them actively marketed as for sale. I have more fridges than I need. They are in safe location and get run periodically - but I would be happy to see a few go to other enthusiasts who would use them and appreciate them.

Sincerely,

David

Ken, it's ironic you posted this today!  I got the cabinet back just now in fact.  Picked it up and dropped off the GE Combination wall-mount fridge at the paint shop.

The white looks amazing. 

I got the shelf supports, and new evaporator mount studs in place. Will get insulation tomorrow and try to get the cabinet back together. 

Sincerely,

David

This thing looks so good with the white paint as opposed to the nicotine-stain yellow it had. I put the evaporator in, and adjusted the hardware so it sits level and the evaporator shroud looks good. Also figured out how to hide a light in there so it is effective; without becoming a focal point you see as soon as the door is open.

Unfortunately, the package of gasket I got was about 3 inches too short! Major OCD trigger.

The magnetic reed switch for the cabinet light is in place, with the neodymium magnet hidden in the top edge of the door.

Soon the condensing unit will go in!

Thanks!  It is looking great. Now I've got to assemble the mechanical parts without scratching things LOL!

So some more progress on the Frigidaire M52 from 1926. Finally got the condensing unit reunited with the cabinet!

I was able to repair the liquid line (the smaller one) but the return line was just too gnarly. Had to make a new one.

So, today I got the M52 charged with refrigerant, but ran into a slight technical difficulty. It seems my oil return wick idea works too well and it is flooding refrigerant back to the compressor. This limits the minimum temperature it can attain, and causes the unit to run constantly.  Will have to adjust that.....

But it is running, so that's a plus. :) 

Thanks for the comments!

Ken; yes it's fascinating to see how different it is from anything we have today. The paint shop owner said people were asking about "the filing cabinet" or "the electrical panel" he had in for paint. They were fascinated when told it was a fridge LOL!

I'm sure there were many icebox hold-outs. There are people who resist major shifts in the way we carry our lives. There are those without electricity. There are those who couldn't afford to upgrade. Lots of iceboxes were around for years I'm sure. :)  When looking for these fridges, you need to remember where the were sold. They were sold in areas with early electrification; such as near big cities. They were also mainly sold in affluent areas. Those folks lived in exciting times, for sure.

There's always the argument of "modern reliability" versus "historical correctness" when we talk bout these. There are a few major, professional restoration shops who sell this sort of unit, for a premium, with modern condensing units. This is not the reason I'm in the hobby. As you said, I want to know how it ran and sounded when it was sold to its original owner.

They mix up the concepts of "reliable" with "durable." A modern unit may be reliable, but it wears out and then is not feasible to rebuild. In other words, it goes 5 years without any breakdowns but when it's done it's done. The durable old units do require maintenance, but they can be fixed over and over and just keep on performing. Aside from the time spent, and the "shop supplies" used; the only parts replaced on this Frigidaire were wiring, belt, shaft seal and door gasket. Everything else was cleaned and re-used. I did change the insulation not because it was bad but because I didn't want to have to fight with the hard cork panels going back together.

Stan, the shop is a Sherwin-Williams distributor. It was an acrylic enamel base / clear. I'm not a painter so, unfortunately, I don't know more about it that that. :)

So yesterday evening I got the flooding back issue fixed. I thought I had posted about it here, but apparently I must have hit "preview" and not "Post" so it didn't go. Forgive any brevity in my message as I am trying to re-type it with little time to spend this morning.

The flooded evaporator needs to have a tiny amount of liquid reach the return line to the compressor. This is how it carries oil back to the compressor. In the case of mine, it was carrying back a large volume of refrigerant, and making frost appear on the line going back to the compressor. This is bad for many reasons. I tried an experimental oil wick design on this, to hopefully make the float adjustment less critical. Apparently I had used too many wicks, and it was building up a suction and drawing refrigerant through the wicks.  After removing half of the wicks, it seems to be working correctly now.

I used the service valves to "pump down" the refrigerant into the receiver, so that none was lost and I didn't have to use the recover machine.

Here is a video with much more info!

Hi Eugene.  I haven't thought about powder coating for the large panels. I assume it would be possible but don't know anyone who does that. Nothing against powder coating, but I might send the parts off to be porcelain coated if I were to do something like that.

I'm not sure what was on the evaporator from the factory. This unit had an SO2 leak over the years which stripped off the coating in places, leaving a patchy look. May have been tinned actually. It would be pretty easy to nickel plate it, since the whole thing is copper and brass. I tried my hand at nickel plating and it was interesting. The bad side of it was that everything in my shop rusted from the fumes. Apparently nickel acetate is Bad Mojo in spite of the fact it is created from more or less harmless materials.

So today I got the light wiring completed, door gasket missing corner fixed, and the evaporator cover in place. It's looking like it's about ready to be called complete!  Still need to address the shelves issue and also give it a running-in test.