Westinghouse we-6?

Hello all I'm looking at westing house we-6( or at least thats what the tag says)This is a wet cooler right so Excuse My ignorance does that mean its water filled? can you operate them without water? But Im not sure of 2 areas, the area above the cap catcher has a round Item and a Open hole, What the heck is this supposed to be covered with? and Im looking at the pics on this site and the cavalier thats like the we6 and It looks like It has parts of both, Im confused Hopefully someone will shead light on this. What do you think Its worth No cord to test it any thoughts???


Edit forgot to say It has the Mechanics inside and the Compressor etc below, tho Its missing the cap catcher :-(

I myself just purchased this same machine and I do know that YES it was filled with water and it was circulated throught the machine to keep the water chilled and your chrome plate that covers the bottle opener it suppose to have a piece of stainless inserted into it to cover the machines internals, that is of course unless it is a Cavalier
FE-6 and therefore it should have a piece of glass. Either way that should be an easy part to replace no matter what you choose to use. I am replying because although my machine appears to be 99.5% complete I am lacking that item your machine has that says "ice cold" which is on top of the coil that the cold water circulates. I am curious what is it? Is it a cover that snaps into place, is it metal, plastic? It appears to be the only piece my machine is missing. And to go along with your question as to "will it still cool with out being filled with water" I myself would also like to know this answer, mainly for the fact that I don't feel extremely safe having a soda cooler with 15 gallons of water inside of it sitting in my house. I have read that some people have converted their "wet" machines to "dry" machines but I am not sure as to how they did it.

[globalcompressors]

Okay Guys,

  The machine is a WE6 Westinghouse "wet" box. The round coil inside the box is the evaporator coil. There is a long shaft motor that screws to the top of the coil and will circulate the water, cooling the product inside the box. The Coca Cola"cap",
covering the motor, I'm not familiar with. Maybe one of the other guys can chime in on that. The part of the box lid assembly is supposed to have a glass insert. As far as making it a "dry" box, you will have to re-work the refrigeration system a "forced air" evaporation, similar to an upright machine. No problem though.  Hope this helps!

Eric

Thanks Eric, I appreciate the fast reply. Do you have any places you recommend calling to try to find parts for this machine. This is my first machine so my contact info is rather weak. Also on my model the lid cover has a metal plate inserted where the window goes, from what Ive researched it appears the Westinghouse model lacked the glass window but its nearly identical counterpart, the Cavalier FE-6 did have the window. From what I could see that was the only differences between the FE-6 and the WE-6. Also do many people who restore these "wet" boxes actually use them as an everyday machine or do they usually just restore them and let them sit empty and unplugged? One more question... are these pretty cool looking when their operating.

Thanks everyone- This forum is awesome for a newbie like myself, I appreciate everyones help.
Chris

Han, sorry for the late reply you have it backwards the Westinghouses had/have the glass insert NOT a metal plate( they also have a Bulb inside to light up the water surface), as for the cover I will try and get you come closer pics this weekend/next week, I have the manual also for it I bought it so If ya wanna go halvsies I can let you have it for 7 bucks( I paid 14) It is a wet machine and since that post I have been reading TONSSSSSSSS and this am Not as Ignorant as I was in that origonal post, Mine is Missing the cap catcher so maybe we could swap templates of the Items we need, Cant say yet if mine works havent tried it yet( It has no cord) If it does Great and I will replace all wires and then refinish it etc.( if not Im still gonna try and fix it back to a wet cooler) talk to you soon.

Adam- Im glad you replied back. It sounds like were pretty much in the same boat as far as coolers condition. Mine has the cord cut off as well so I don't know if whether or not my compressor, condensor, fan, or agitator motor that goes inside of the cooler is even functioning. I bought a new cord and when I was getting prepared to wire it up I noticed that the existing cord that goes up to the agitator motor has a serious case of dry rott, so I then proceeded to see what it would take to re-wire the agitator motor except for I can't figure out how to get it open (I think its a pressed or sealed motor)!

 I would appreciate it if you could get me some close up pics of your cooler, preferably the top cover of the agitator that says "ice cold" and I would also like to see where and how the light is wired up. I can't see anywhere on my machine that a light would have been.

As for getting you some close up pics and a dimensional template for the cap catcher, no problem.

Tomorrow hopefully, I plan on taking apart all of the rails and brackets off of my machine, as well as metal braces that hold the coolers rubber molding in and taking them over to get sand blasted and then powdercoated. The local shop here has a powdercoating thats used on snow machine headers and it has the look and appearance of galvanized steel/ aluminum. I chose powdercoating on these parts because its more durable that paint and I think it will weather against rust and erosion better. I will let you know how it looks when I get them finished.

[MoonDawg]

If the cord going to the agitator motor is frayed, cut it off. If you choose water cooling again, the new replacement is a must.
   I have only restored one of these but I wanted it air cooled so I converted it. Sold it to a local guy 8 tears ago and it's still working fine.
Assuming the compressor is cooling the coils, have a sheetmetal shop build a shroud to surround the coils and a "pancake" fanmotor to force air accross the coils and then return.
   It would have been easier to install an existing referigeration unit from an upright machine but the evaporator unit would use up too much space and have an inefficient air flow.                                 Glen

Thanks MoonDawg- after lots of thought and consideration I think I am going to keep it a wet cooler. I've seen seom pics of it on the web and it looks pretty sharp if its done right because apparently my model is suppose to have a glass window on it so one can see inside the machine and watch the water splashing around. Thanks for the tips though-it was much appreciated.
Chris-

[Jim]

Hey Chris,

The glass panel for viewing the circulating water is just a flat piece of 1/8" - 3/16" glass...  This can be purchased at just about any hardware store...  If you have trouble with this, I can cut the glass and ship it to you for whatever the shipping costs are if you send me the exact measurements.  It might be available in one of the manuals too...

[johnieG]

Just reviewing “Who's on line” & saw someone looking at this old post about a WE6 wet-chst & I thought I recognized the machine pictured as originally from the Detroit area, from a game room shop on Woodward in Birmingham, MI called “Free-Play” , I used to hang out there & occasionally repair old soda machines they’d get in, I saw the “guest” who is no longer registered on SMC , who signed off as “Chris” & started wondering if this was one of the partners/owners named Chris & Mike, I know one of them past away quite young & the business was dissolved, used to love hanging out there during the Woodward dream-cruise, The building is still there, but it looks like it’s only used for storage now.

Hmm a ghost from the past perhaps...