Thread: My Old Beer Fridge

Originally Posted by cafe latte

So not electric?
Chris

I have done a bit of a search and looks like I could be partly wrong.

There was the old silent knight which was a kero/gas fridge, which is not electric. I always assumed they got their name from being silent, due to no compressor.

However, there appears to also be an electric compressor model also, which was called a silent Knight.

Here is a bit from wiki.

The Hallstroms moved to Dee Why, New South Wales, by which time Hallstrom had become interested in the young industry of refrigeration. He set about inventing in his Dee Why backyard, and in 1923 produced his first product, the Icy Ball absorption refrigerator (another kerosene-powered refrigerator, also called the Icy Ball, was later manufactured in the United States in 1927 or 1928 by Powel Crosley Jr.). Hallstrom's Icy Ball was a kerosene-powered chest model, which he designed for use in the Australian outback, where the low-tech Coolgardie safe was in widespread use. He initially went to the outback to sell these units himself.[1]
Hallstrom expanded his product line with the development of the popular Silent Knight upright refrigerator. These were gas-powered and also electric models, and were produced in a factory in Willoughby, New South Wales under the business name of Hallstroms Pty Ltd. During World War II the factory manufactured munitions, as well as refrigerators for the use of the United States Army. By the mid-1940s, the factory was producing around 1,200 refrigerators weekly, which were exported as well as sold locally. The "Hallstrom Silent Knight" was a fairly priced, locally produced product at a time (post-war era) when imported refrigerators were very expensive. Their resulting popularity made Hallstrom a millionaire.[


The full story if you want to read it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Hallstrom

The 'silent' also referred to the new electric sealed units operating on R12.

Some of the earlier electric domestic cabinets ran on methyl chloride or sulfer something,maybe dioxide.They were belt driven,and very noisy.

A bit of trivia,Kelvinater also made many car parts,particularly for Holdens.The four blade fan on the Kelvinater open drive compresser units was identical to the one used on many Holdens of the same vintage.Many bumpers were also made by kelvinater.

The Kelvinater open drive commercial refrigeration units were the best available.Today any parts from them are worth their weight in gold,particularly flywheels,crankshafts,etc.

Originally Posted by scarry

The Kelvinater open drive commercial refrigeration units were the best available.Today any parts from them are worth their weight in gold,particularly flywheels,crankshafts,etc.

I've got flywheels, valve plates, reeds, gasket sets, seals and was going to turf them !

I'd never heard of Lindberg-Foster until last week.

An old Jazz drummer I know was telling me he worked for them back in Melbourne in the late 40's assembling the cabinets.

Originally Posted by scarry

Some of the earlier electric domestic cabinets ran on methyl chloride or sulfer something,maybe dioxide.

Yep, SO2, sulphur dioxide.

Well before my time, but I inherited a bottle back in the early nineties.

The old 1927 or 1930 GE monitor top dad had that only died about eight or so years ago ran on Methyl Formate.
That was a beer fridge.

There was also a DEFENDER fridge,

when new it was cutting edge stuff but they kept making them so long that the design was considered boxy and out of date, and I believed they also leaked ....

reminds me of something....

Originally Posted by rick130

I've got flywheels, valve plates, reeds, gasket sets, seals and was going to turf them !

Few yrs back the compresser rebuilding guys around here had given up looking for parts,as they couldn't source them anywhere.