Kelvinator fe51

Greetings from Canada!

Hi there! I was wondering if anyone could tell me how much my Kelvinator FE51 coke chest is worth. It's in pretty good shape physically, (no dents) but the back grill is missing as well as the cap catch box. It's a Canadian machine and there is a picture of it on this website. I'm not sure if I want to sell it. I guess that depends on what it's worth. I doubt if it works, though. It's in the basement of my restaurant and I couldn't drag it over to a plug.  I do like it because it has an art deco look.

I also have a Coke fountainhead with the slogan "A sign of good taste" and I pegged it by the slogan to 1957.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[BryanH]

How's it going Eh!  

A picture is worth a thousand words.  Can you post a couple pics so we can get a good idea of the condition. We don't see many Kelvinators.

Where in Canada are you.  We have a couple other Canadians on the board (in the Toronto area if I remember correctly) and a few others like myself that are now in the States.

Hi, Bryan H!

I'm in Toronto, soon to be moving to beautiful Niagara Falls, which is why I'm trying to decide whether to sell this cooler or not. I want to start a restaurant there in a year or so. I can always use the cooler there as decoration and later get it refinished professionally. If I used it as refridgeration in the restaurant, I would have the insides removed, keep them, and have a quieter refridgeration unit installed in it. I realise that this would affect the value. My electrician said that the old coolers make a lot of noise. He said he might be able to get it going, but it would cost. I can't afford to do that right now. I really want to leave Toronto because I hate it here so that's what I'm focused on financially.

I don't have pics as yet, but I'll work on it. The chrome detailing isn't rusty or anything. I cleaned it and it's nice and shiny. It's in pretty good shape. It definitely needs a paint job, though. The previous owner painted around it and spilled water based primer on it which came off easily enough but there's also some oil based paint dripped on the back of it that needs to be taken off. The top lid on the right has a few dings in the corner. I know it's rare because I've been looking for a picture of it on the web for 3 years and this is the first time I've seen one.

If it's worth a lot of $$$ I'll sell it on Ebay and if it's not, I'll keep it. Same for the fountainhead, although that I can definitely use in the restaurant.

Where are you located? Just curious....

Oops! Just reread your post and realised you're not in Canada anymore. I was just curious as to which province you were posting from.

Too early in the morning and not enough coffee, LOL!

[MoonDawg]

Those Kelvinators look so cool when they are restored, they make a great conversation piece for any restraunt. Every new buisness needs something a little different, this could bring you in a lot more money than E-bay could ever  pay you.
      (changing to a modren compressor will not hurt the value)

You have a point, Glen. I was thinking of serving pop (or is it, soda in the US?) in bottles only with those bendable straws. Not sure if there's a supplier for that in Niagara though. I really like that cooler and anything retro.  My current restaurant is filled with vintage music albums and comic books and I serve retro style food.

I'll just need a little more info before I decide. It's in my basement, it's really heavy and it's going to be a real trial getting it out of there as the stairs at the restaurant are quite narrow.

I'll post pics soon...

Thanks!