chest refrigerator

Ok, my old RCA Whirlpool refrigerator finally bit the dust (yes RCA used to own Whirlpool appliances). I had been considering replacing it for long time as it does use quite bit electric when I put meter on it. But I procrastinate a lot and it was still chugging away until it didnt. its one from 1960s, robust, but also one of earliest to come with self defrost. Self defrost not efficient.

Ok converting chest freezer to a refrigerator had been on my radar for long time. Its super efficient and about only way to get a refrigerator that isnt self defrost anymore.

Sears is history in my area, thats where I used to buy new appliances. So looking at lowes and home depot. The world has changed. They stock cheapo crappo noname freezers/fridges and high end with all bells and whistles possible freezers/fridges. No Mr. Inbetween where sweet spot is. Reading online best bang for buck seemed to be GE 10.6 cf chest freezer. So I order one online from Lowes that I will pickup since I dont think delivery people would be happy trying to get to my house. Anyway it takes full 3 weeks. Even after they say its there online, I call and its not there. They have no idea where it is other than last seen on one of their trucks in neighboring state. Ok, not way to run a buisiness folks!

It finally arrives, the guy in charge of orders goes and sees it with his own eyes, and I have images in my head of it having fallen off a forklift or something and thats why all mystery. But no, its fine, even unboxed, it had one super tiny scratch and not worth complaining.

Ok getting old fridge out by myself NOT FUN. Those old refrigerators were HEAVY. I plug freezer in and let it be a freezer for a while. Put some bottled water in it and it freezes it solid quick. Ok, tired of the month without a refrigerator so time to change out the thermostat for one that will maintain refrigerator temps inside rather than freezer temps. I had bought analog conversion kit sometime back for like $35 when I was thinking of doing this before. Its analog, put it in replacing original freezer thermostat. And unfortunately its physically larger than the factory thermostat, so wont fit in the little plastic box GE engineers put around the original thermostat. I just leave off back of box and use couple bent washers to tighten front of box to the freezer body. Stick a thermometer inside and set dial to right in middle of its range. I guessed pretty accurately, holds around 38F. Been using it few weeks now, and other than some condensation, its done fine. Keep an old towel around and wipe off any condensation you see anytime you open lid, so it doesnt drip down into bottom. Super quiet as freezer or refrigerator.

Looking on ebay you really dont need a $35 kit, you can get a universal refrigerator thermostat cheap as $4 shipped price on slow boat from china. Seriously. Just be sure its actual refrigerator thermostat and not a freezer thermostat. Some of these sellers seem little confused on the difference. If most of reviews for it are happy ones for that model number thermostat, then probably ok. The kit just adds few bits and pieces and instruction sheet. In other words they are selling a kit they have at most $5 invested in for $35. You can also buy electronic thermostats where you just set freezer thermostat to maximum and then plug freezer cord into the electronic thermostat mounted on wall Set temp on electronic one and voila. They cost more though. And my experience analog controls on appliances always seem less trouble longterm.

I am curious how my electric bill will change if any. This coming bill will include the old refrigerator running constantly in its death throes and then three weeks without a refrigerator. So for any accurate info, bill after that be interesting one.

Got my electric bill today. I used 163kwh electric compared to 271kwh on last September bill. Now this isnt most useful since it includes whatever days the old fridge ran constantly plus 3 week where I didnt have a refrigerator. But it at least shows old refrigerator was using at least 108kwh of electric. Well close, sure last year was slightly different in use of other things like fans.

However you figure it, I was literally paying serious rent on that old clunker via electric bill, from its inefficiency. I found website showing typical payback but they assumed minimum of 18cf refrigerator with bells and whistles. My old RCA Whirlpool was like 12cf though it was self defrost, one of early self defrost models, so not particularly efficient. Well obviously.

Next electric bill with whole month using the chest refrigerator more interesting.

Update. This does save heck of lot electric. Only real downside is that in humid weather you get condensation which drips down to bottom of freezer so have to keep old towel around to wipe it out any chance you get. In winter with heat, air is lot drier so no condensation.

Oh, the cats have finally discovered what a nice bed the top of the freezer makes, so you have to move them off to open it......