A word of warning regarding drilling into a refrigerator: some use the discharge line from the compressor to go around the door jam instead of an electric mullion heater to keep frost from building up around the door frame. I'm not sure, but I think the line is fed from the bottom. I'm not sure exactly where the piping feed and return is, but I've seen a lot of residential and small commercial units that get drilled into by custodians to install padlocks and ruin a perfectly good box where I used to work. Tin knockers called me and said they did this and heard a hissing sound. I told them throw the thing into the dumpster. You ruined it! (I did fix a couple with success, but they were for OUR office, etc.!)
NEW Beer Fridge (Ran Into A MAJOR Problem)
- Thread starter max
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Paraphrasing Maxwell Smart: "The old boat in a basement problem!"
Some time ago I owned a house built in 1940. It had a gargantuan cast iron boiler in the basement. Somewhere along the line, a previous owner had finished the basement. Walls were put in to make a workshop, den, laundry room and bathroom. In the middle of it all was the boiler room. No thought to ever getting the thing out was evident. This thing was bigger than the doorways and wider than the stairway. Even if it could be taken upstairs, like your refrigerator it wasn't going out the back door. I suspect the house itself was originally built around it. Only way I could see to extract it would be to break it up and take out the pieces. Cast iron, fire brick and covered with painted asbestos. Ugh. When I sold the house, it was still running fine. Thankfully. Replacement will someday be a major undertaking.
Nah...won't be 'nuff. NFPA rules allow 50 lbs of powder..supposed to cut the plug off and put a lock on...so 50 lbs of powder...5 gals of beer if ya keep the plug. had a friend that did 'em both...Beer did him in
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DWalt
Member
My childhood home had a huge coal furnace in the basement, and no way could it ever have been removed intact. When I went off to college, my father lost his chief furnace tender, so he decided to install a new fuel oil furnace, with tanks located in the old coal bin. How the coal furnace was removed from the basement, I have no idea. It must have been dismantled and removed in pieces.
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That's where my father in law got that! he refurbished the old things and had a stationary steam license Plumber/heating guy
The lake property we had inherited through the family had been family since the 30's. Along the way the grandfather had a hand in raising the house and installing a basement in order to provide coal heating, then added a full bathroom with cast iron tub. The coal chute was there when we got the place, it had been converted to oil, then flame retention oil, all through the Canadian government assistance. We got the place and I started in on our generations improvements and noticed that when they took the old claw and ball tub out they just cut a hole in the interior and exterior walls and removed it, the cut marks were still on the tongue and groove paneling. The previous uncle had converted the place to forced air gas, the coal chute was a major security risk, so I removed it and sealed the hole. The way you remove cast iron coat furnaces is by busting them up with a large hammer, I can tell you all about that. Our oil tanks were always outside so at least I didn't have to fool with that mess, the basement suddenly became huge and a big difference. We even had a hole in the floor in the kitchen where the ice box used to be kept, they collected the ice from the lake during the winter and stored it in large sawdust insulated box in the old crawl space under the house before the basement was installed. I never saw the place in its early beginnings but it was the first "house" on the lake and built around 1917, we put ten years into renovation and love, burned out on the long drive back and forth, 911 border issues, the border crossing hassles from the American side and sold out ten years ago. I miss the place but it was for the best. New owners built a multi million dollar house on the property, its been erased.
OP
The handyman came by yesterday to remove the trim on the doorway. He first measured and then moved the fridge through the door by himself with no problems.
I will mention this to the delivery employees on Friday when they return to take the old fridge away.
I will mention this to the delivery employees on Friday when they return to take the old fridge away.
Whew !
Alk8944
US Veteran
Major Problem
"the old one won't fit through the door on the room where it sits"
Did you try turning it sideways and removing the door(s)! How could it not fit through the doorway, was the house built around the refrigerator, or did you finish the room while it was there?
"the old one won't fit through the door on the room where it sits"
Did you try turning it sideways and removing the door(s)! How could it not fit through the doorway, was the house built around the refrigerator, or did you finish the room while it was there?
We had a lake house when I was a kid. The tub was cast iron and weighed more than we could lift. To remove it dad drilled a series of holes and we proceeded to break it into small pieces which I carried out of the house for disposal.
My wife bought me a small college dorm type refrigerator for my beer in the basement, well once her wine cooler got full guess what now dominates that fridge. I can hardly squeeze in a half rack anymore.
My wife bought me a small college dorm type refrigerator for my beer in the basement, well once her wine cooler got full guess what now dominates that fridge. I can hardly squeeze in a half rack anymore.
Abbynormal
Member
My Aunt and Uncle bought a Frigidaire refrigerator in 1945 when he returned from Germany. I remember that fridge being the Beer fridge in about 62' or so. I remember it lasted until at least 1990.
45 years is a damn good run for a refrigerator.
45 years is a damn good run for a refrigerator.
we purchased a lake home 20 years ago, there was an old fridge in the front porch. Every year I unplug it in the late fall, clean it up, dry it out etc.
Spring time I say a prayer and plug it in, hope its good for another 20!!!
Spring time I say a prayer and plug it in, hope its good for another 20!!!
Mine is the pint sized ones that my kids no longer needed after college. Sits on a shelf and works perfect.
A summer home 'fridge can last a L-O-N-G time. One guy I know had an old "ice box" refrigerator at his summer camp that had the compressor mounted on top, exposed. According to some web searching, those type refrigerators were from the '20s and '30s!
Just a moment...
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OP
I didn't do anything. The 2 men who delivered the new fridge measured the door and said the old one would not fit. They did not attempt it, they just said no.
We thought we had finished the room after the old fridge was installed. Now we are not so sure.
We thought we had finished the room after the old fridge was installed. Now we are not so sure.
Another bit of caution: some of the early refrigerators used SO2 instead of the newer R12 for refrigerant, among other types of refrigerant. (I think that is sulphur dioxide; not positive.) If it leaks you will know it, as it smells God awful, and I'm not sure but I think some of that old stuff is poisonous. Although there are literally only ounces of gas in them, you really don't want to breath that. It's kinda like a used car that had a dead body in it. There was an old one in one of our schools that our truck drivers blew a hole in the piping. It's a smell you'll never forget.
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