The GE Monitor Top Refrigerator-- Part 3: To the Basketball and R-12 Freon

In the early 1930s, GE began making an altered version version of the typical Monitor Top known as the Globe Top.  These units featured a round basketball-like  top that hosed a completely enclosed mechanical assembly. The plan was  to offer the housekeeper an easier-to-clean refrigerator.

In late 1936, the new Monitor Top  was unveiled.  Known as the "Flat Top,"  this new model featured a smaller  compressor with a condenser fan motor all mounted in the bottom of the cabinet.

After World War II, General Electric discontinued the use of sulfur dioxide and methal formate and began using R-12 freon, a refrigerant which was widely accepted and used in most every refrigerator manufactured until 1993.

--DaCootFridge

The GE Monitor Top Refrigerator-- Part 2: The First Affordable Refrigerators

With a price tag of $300, these models were considered  the first affordable refrigeration units for the average family.  Many utility companies offered  the GE Monitor Top refrigerator to their customers for as little as $10 a month, simply added to their monthly utility bills.  (But, you have to remember, $300 or $10 was a real lot of money back then.)

Although a few minor  features were added along the way, such as enclosed condenser coils and slide out shelves, the basic design  of the Monitor Top remained the same  from 1927 to 1936.  All of these models were cooled with one of two refrigerants at the time:  sulfur dioxide or methyl formate.

The most popular model of the Monitor Top was the standard  single door unit, offering the customer  5 to 7 cubic feet of food storage.  In addition, GE produced an even larger two-door unit as well as a three-door one.

--Cooter

The GE Monitor Top Refrigerator-- Part 1: It Is Not an Ironclad

Recently I posted about this refrigerator in my Running the Blockade:  Civil War Navy blog as I had come across the name "Monitor Refrigerator" in an article and, hey, the Monitor was a Civil War shop that really turned naval architecture on its ear.

It had the name because the compressor at the top of it resembled the gun turret of the USS Monitor.  When I found a picture of it, I had to agree with the name.

So, here is some more information about this particular kind of refrigerator.

From the Antique  Appliances.com site.

The GE  Monitor top refrigerator is perhaps the most recognizable of vintage refrigerators.  Built on the principal of a French industrialist concept for a hermetically sealed refrigeration system, the first models available  to the general public, for residential use, were introduced in 1927.  

General Electric committed $18 million to the manufacturing of these units and another million to advertise them to the public.

--CootFrig