Almost had one of these in my grasp yesterday. I'm guessing it was an early '50s model (had a separate freezer). Had to leave the estate sale I was at early and when I returned it had been sold.

Does anyone know of a source of info (technical and other) on these? I've wanted a Philco refrigerator for a while now. Figure it would compliment the collection nicely, plus give us something else to accent the kitchen when my wife redoes it in the '40s/'50s theme she's wanting.

Was it a V-handle job?

Nope, not a V-handle. Those are cool, though.

There are some vintage appliance sites but when I've tried finding info on things it seemed hard to get much out of some of those guys. I had a pile of NOS parts from the 50s/60s that I was selling for a friend, including some Philco parts. I was surprised how hard it was to even give some of that stuff away. There is a guy in the appliance repair business in the DC/Baltimore area with a real interest in vintage repair. If I dug around enough I might have his contact info; he ended up getting some of the nicer things I had. Really, I don't think much tech info would be needed. Those things generally run forever. Last year the local electric co-op ran a contest to find the oldest refrigerator still in use amongst its members. The winner (who got a new model as a prize) had a 60 year old Philco in her kitchen. The idea was to highlight how older units waste electric. The irony, I think, is that those manual defrost models from the 50s really aren't energy hogs.

You hit the nail on the head, Brian. Some of the older models use even less power than a new unit, especially if the gaskets haven't dry-rotted.

I always thought a Crosley Shelvador with a built in radio would be pretty cool.



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