Vintage Appliances

[FStephenMasek]

And your job hinges on people wanting asbestoes removed because they believe it's dangerous

Any good consultant does not recommend removal unless there is a need to do so. Did you notice that I indicated that there should be no reason to avoid an old stove?

You might want to read up on the deaths from asbestos. Since WWII is often mentioned on this site, what about the workers in places such as San Diego who died from asbestos exposure while building ships, and their wives who died from asbestos exposure just from washing their work clothes?

Unfortunately, people will still be dying from it 30 years from now, due to all of the rennovation and demolition work which is performed illegally. The simple steps needed to limit exposures, especially keeping it wet and wearing a good respirator, are only common amongst contractors hired to remove asbestos.

You might also want to read Magic Mineral To Killer Dust, a real classic indicating that the dangers were known 100 years ago!

[jayem]

This is a little to vintage for the Golden Age, maybe now considered a dated antique. In my first house, we had an old pipe coal stove. Yes, I first learned how to cook on that! This wasn't too long ago, either, about late 80s, early 90s. The house I was born in was built in 1883, and my mom loved the stove too much to pitch it. Plus, it was in wonderful working condition. We had a newer oven in the basement, but often food would come out better in the old stove.

Among some odd things we found when we moved in, there was a practically brand new wringer washer in storage, a rusted crank mixer, and a coal shute. We also had a metal pole with a loop on the top in our front yard which was used to tie horses up.

[dhermann1]

The major objection I would have to a vintage fridge would be the freezer. The old ones have those tiny freezers that fill with ice quickly, especially in summer. If you haven't had the pleasure of defrosting a freezer chest of that sort, it's no fun. You have to take all the perishable stuff out, often throw it away, and wait for big chunks of ice to melt and break up. A major pain in the butt. Plus you can't keep modern frozen foods in them because the temperature never gets to that deep 0 temp required for long term storage. I wish it were otherwise. I suppose one could adapt, but not me.
Now, there's nothing wrong with having an entirely separate freezer. We had that in the house we rented in 1955 and it worked fine. But that's another large appliance to deal with.

[LizzieMaine]

I defrost mine with a hand-held hair dryer -- the whole job takes about an hour, and gives me a chance to give everything a good cleaning. I do it twice a year, and when my niece was younger I used to have her come up and help me -- she got to play with the ice chunks! (Somehow now that she's a teenager she doesnt find it quite so entertaining...)

[Johnny B]

I stick a pan under mine, unplug it and put handtowels soaked in boiling water on the ice for 5 minutes, then take a knife and pry the ice off. It usually comes off in solid sheets. Takes 20 minutes, plus cleanup

[Flivver]

The first time my college roommate and I tried to defrost our vintage Kelvinator we flooded our dorm room! (it was thickly caked with ice)

Later we discovered the ice pick and hair dryer routine. That worked just fine.

[Sweet Leilani]

Got the 1940 Hotpoint back from the refrigeration guy this past weekend! It runs like a champ, and much less freqeuntly than our "new" fridge in the kitchen. It will be interesting to see how much electricity it actually uses, but I can't think it will be too much. We're keeping it around 37 right now, and have it stocked with all the necessities:

[FStephenMasek]

I am looking at this fridge, it needs a new seal. Does anyone know if they are easy to replace?

Waht make and model is that? The shelves are an excellent idea!

[Miss 1929]

We got a 1930 Wedgewood gas stove and just hooked it up and away we went. The thermostat seems to be fine, when I set it at corn muffins temp, I get corn muffins as expected!
It took haunting Craigslist every day for a week, but it was extremely cheap and came with the 4 jadeite shakers... all for $100.00! Not bad.
Love my stove...

[Flivver]

Waht make and model is that? The shelves are an excellent idea!

I'll bet it's a General Electric from the late 1950s.

My parents replaced their Kelvinator with a swivel-shelf GE very much like this one in 1958.

That chrome foot bar across the bottom was used to open the door.