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The home refrigerator is barely a century old

When the article was written, it turned 110: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOMELRE

I somewhat follow the vintage refrigeration community (owning a mid-30s Frigidaire myself) and still believe this is the only one of them known to be in existence today: https://www.coolingpost.com/features/ashrae-displays-first-e...

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metalman 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Here is a bit of refrigeration trivia gathered from my own interest in the subject and a penchant for collecting and reading old engineering books, so from the early days of shipping food , in refrigerated cargo ships, determining the ideal cooling temperature for each food type, was one thing, but another, facinating component, is that most food is exothermic, and this property is called "the heat of evolution", and varys with each food type, and is large enough that 50 tons of food will produce enough heat as it ripens to overwhelm an insuficient cooling system, so they had charts detailing the heat output of all the shipped foods, and recomendations on the design of the cooling plants, with some so specialised as to work with one food only....banana boats.... Got a 70 year old "admiral" fridge, the wiring insulation just crumbled, and it will get a new thermostat(hidden) and wire, everything else is in battered original, working condition

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MisterTea 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> (owning a mid-30s Frigidaire myself)

Growing up in my fathers shop we had a 30's Frigidaire as well. One summer day it was outside getting defrosted and washed when an employee decides to be helpful and chip the ice with a screwdriver. Yes, he punctured the coils. What a scene, I was there and saw the pop, my grandfather sees it through the door and comes flying out screaming, then my father comes out and it turns into a scene (guy wasn't fired but got an ear full.) My grandfather silver soldered the aluminum coil but the few technicians they called didn't want to or know how to charge it. So it went to the scrap guy. I was just a kid but if I were older I would have pushed to get it fixed.

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pazimzadeh 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Any discussion of the history of refrigeration needs to mention the yakhchāl (~2400 years old)

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

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yccs27 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Home refrigeration is quite a bit older than electric refrigerators though. Iceboxes, kept cool by chunks of ice, were also called refrigerators and started being produced for home use in the 1840s.

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AStonesThrow 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Interestingly, my Mom's parents owned both an icebox and a quite modern electric refrigerator (1980s).

The icebox was kept in a carpeted room and it was used for dry storage. We never put ice in it. And it was definitely called "the icebox". But also, Grandma referred to the refrigerator as "the icebox" as well, and we always knew what she meant, because she'd typically say "put that milk in the icebox" or whatever to refrigerate the stuff.

Grandma had the best kitchen with the most fascinating appliances and gadgets. She had a flour sifter, an eggbeater or two, an actual breadbox (have you ever heard the question, "is it bigger than a breadbox?"). Our other grandparents were the first ones on the block to purchase a microwave oven. They hoisted it on top of the refrigerator and we could barely reach into it! My cousin said not to look into the microwave while it was cooking because it'd cook our eyeballs!

	▲	khedoros1 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		I have some parallels. My father's parents had a late-40s or early-50s refrigerator in the kitchen well into the late-90s. It had an actual levered latch to hold it shut, and a small freezer section up in the top. Especially as a child, I had to just about body-slam the door to get it to latch. That was the "icebox". They also had a more-modern fridge and chest freezer in the basement. Honestly, I don't remember how they differentiated them, vocabulary-wise. There was an actual Radar Range microwave, although I don't know the vintage. Old enough for a mechanical timer and a bell to ring when it was done. Grandma was a home baker (especially cookies at Christmas), so she certainly had all the classic equipment, hand and electric egg-beaters, flour sifters, breadbox...yep.

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otabdeveloper4 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

We stored meat in cold conditions back in the paleolithic. All you need really is to know how to dig a hole.

	▲	samirillian 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		The question is what changes to the mode of production were brought by the technological advance. I think fatty tuna sushi became popular due to early refrigeration

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_joel 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

That's a pretty cool hobby...