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Hi Everyone
This is my first Post Question. I have attached a photo of my ident. tag from my cooler.
I have had this a number of years and have not pinned down the date. Is the (38) in the upper right hand corner of the tag, the date of the cooler?
In case anyone ask's:
 This is a Wet cooler from what I have learned from reading all your post, and has the stainless liner in it. No compressor or agitator was with this cooler when I purchased it.
 Thanks

Sell the motorcycle...use funds for an upright. THAT will get you more room! LOL.

Actually, there is a lot more room then what you see. I have had many a party on this patio. My wife disagrees with you; she says sell both.  :smile:

I wish I could help you out....but I say keep BOTH and if the wife give you troubles....trade her in for another bike...lol
j/k....I think the cooler looks nice....wish I has one like that.

I don't know if that's the year, but it's a nice looking cooler. I'd like to have one like that too. The cap catcher doesn't look right to me. Too long?

check the inside liner/tank along the top edge... usually embossed there.. that will be the date and who made it....
example if there is a T-38 then it is a cooler made in 1938...

Pretty sure the cap catcher is correct, it has 4 mounting post. One on each side of the bottle opener and two more at the bottom just above the opening. It looks as if there may have been a front panel on this model at one time. The only thing embossed in the inside of tub is W-NRB.

I think I stumped you guys, thought I would have the answer by now  :laugh:

Vendo is the only mfg I am aware of that put the year of manufacturing in as part of the serial number.
so it is difficult to  give a concrete answer.

Then she is a tuffie. I thought I read somewhere you could get an idea of the date from the Logo, but can't find where I read it now. My Logo has the broken fish tail.

I was told the Drink being set closer to the Coca Cola, the breaks in the L and having an open front typically identifies it as being an earlier model.   :Oo:

Yep, that's what I remember, funny, I can remember that!, but not where I read it. Its depressing getting old  :down:

Thanks

Yeah same here, I like to call it my Sometimers....because Sometimers I remember and Sometimers I don't... :biggrin: :laugh: :biggrin: :down:

I'm going to use that, I Love it!  :laugh: :smile:

My doctor told me the top two signs of getting old:
1) You start to forget things and
2) 

Well, I forget what #2 was.

This change happened around 1940. At least this is what Steve Ebner told me when I was researching my Tome CC cooler.

That sounds about right, I was estimating about 1940-41 for this Wh Master I am currently restoring.

Thanks  :biggrin: Now that's a Bumper!!

Halehouse mentioned in an earlier post, that he thought the Cap catcher was to long. I have an answer from John in NC. He says the Cap catcher in front is correct. This was done to hide the drain valve. Thought I would post for others trying to ident. their machines.
Some of the machines use the short version, but even they hang below the opening to cover the drain valve. I know most of you know this, but maybe another newbie like myself would not.  :smile:

I would say since your cooler came with 4 mounting pegs you have the correct cap catcher, diffrent but correct. All the smaller cap catcher coolers I have seen have only 2 mounting pegs. I have also noticed slight variations on the pre-WW2 Westinghouse, for instance the number of cross members and locations of the cross members and wire hole.

Makes sense. That's what I was picturing initially...the small catcher.

There are three rails on the bottom of mine, not counting the two outside rails. They are flat. I notice on some other Chest the rails have a hump in the center. Do you know if these are always the later models?

The humps were stamped into the rails to help stiffen them & keep them from warping under load, they also provided a nice raised "rub-rail" so the empty cases didn't gouge the paint of the rails.

I would guess and say the models you see that have the hump are models that did not have a compressor, those humps would help the bottle crate slide in and out. The flat cross members would typically point to a compressor being mounted….just a guess. I also re-read your post about the 38 in the top corner of the data plate. You just might be correct, I looked at mine and it has a 41, that’s about the year I estimated it to be. :oh:

That makes sense; the cases would slide better.
I asked two other chest owners to look at their Identification tags and one had a number in the corner that seemed to correspond to the year. The other one was blank, but I’m convinced it indicates the year, until convinced otherwise.  :smile:

This magazine has an article with a section about identifying the age of coolers. Janet (Fun-Tronics) submitted the piece to the magazine.

http://www.antiquebackroads.com/AntiqueBackroadsSpring2012.pdf

Awesome!!!  Thank you   :biggrin:

Great Article, but I'm still confused  :darn: After looking at Janets's codes I can see Mine is a Westinghouse, but the last three letters throw me. W= Westinghouse, N= ?, B=8, R=1 SEE PHOTO

Is it a pre or post WW-II chest?

I would think so the lids are a butterfly type.  The post war cooler hinge front to back?  I noticed that when doing the WD-10.  Its a post war box, with pre war lids?

How do you know they are pre war lids?
I know in some Collectable there are transition items made. EXAMPLE: Daisy produced a BB gun in 1957, but some of their stock were used on 1958's.
Does anyone know if this happened?
My Lids are blank, no embossed letters on underside

Pre Cool lids open like yours, from side to side like a butterfly.  Post war lids open from front to back. 

Thanks Slapshot42,  :smile:
Hope to solve the mistery of the "NBR" in the Tub code next. This thread has been a real learning tool. N=? and the BR=81, can't be 1881 or 1981. Who knows, may figure it out some day  :laugh:

Dang! I thought I had it with that "secret code"!

halehous, it most likely will solve a lot of the mystery, just not all of it  :darn:
I sent Janet an Email at Funtronics, hope she has an answer  :down:

Sorry to say, Janet at Fun-Tronics, LLC, said  "I can't find anything that shows they ever used the N in the code"  :down:
But, it was great! of her to try and help de-code the Tub Letters.  :smile:

It could be a generic "Service" replacement code, we use a simular type of coding on our warranty work for my employer to help designate between original production vs repair/replacement parts, I've seen the "N" code on a lot of machines with stainless steel liners, possibly use with wet chests?

That could be,  :hopefull: I will keep that in my notes as a possiable, Thanks

The code also confirms (at least on my machine) what we had suspected was the year of manufacture printed on the top right of the data plate.
So somewhere between 1939-1940 they changed the broken tail on the Cola to the solid tail. I am guessing about the same time they also changed the location of the Drink by moving it  up higher over the coke cola. 

Blind1968
I must have the Sometimers Disease you mentioned in an earlier Post. What was the number in the corner of your Tag? Also, you mentioned two wire holes. What were the two locations?

Ha.. sounds like yo got it bad like me  :biggrin:...The number on my tag was 41 the code in the tank was W-DIR = 3/1941 Just one wire hole on mine and it was just a little off center and to the left.
 

I thought you could date the cooler by the way the drink sits in the logo but the cooler strapped to the back of that van has the drink above the logo and looks to have the solid tail.Which is it?

Up to 1940 the bottom of the cooler was open and after 1940 the bottom was enclosed so, this makes it after 1940.
This is Blind1968's cooler your talking about and he date's it 1941.
So, thats correct and it has the DRINK further above the Coca Cola and the tail is solid with the enclosed bottom.

Mine is a 1938 and has the open bottom and the DRINK close to the Coca Cola and the broken tail and that fits.

I understand the confusion: There is one on Ebay right now and it is dated correct for 1941, the DRINK higher above the Logo and solid tail, but the bottom is open  :oh:

290752296422 - 1941 Westinghouse Coca Cola Ice Chest RARE
His Tub code is Tn-41-3 so this is (Tennessee – March-1941) I think, bottom open or not it is correct 1941

Looks correct to me, but what do I know, I'm a Newbie  :smile:

I would say If the tub Code is Tn-41-3  then its not a Westinghouse, its a 1941 Cavalier. I don't know when or if they ever closed the front of the Pre-WW2 Cavalier coolers like they did on the Westinghouse in 1940.  I would like to think they did but dont know for sure. :Oo:

Well, My daddy said " You learn something new every day" Well, I just did.
I didn't even think about the Cavalier  :jawdrop:

If it was an open front and it didn't have the raised drink & solid coke tail I would go out on a limb and say they had a late 30's Westinghouse cooler that the tub had been replaced at some point with a 1941 cavalier tub. Could it be possible that because it is a nonelectric model they kept them open on the front...we may never know.   :oh:

I concur, we may never know. I think my cooler had a cover over the front originally. I have seen them in photos with the cover like this one. I have also seen them louvered. :oh:

      To complicate matters more, the cooler in the photo above was labeled and marketed by the Tenessee furniture manufacturing company

Now theres a curveball ... :biggrin:  I think I actually like the other type with the expanded metal better.

I still think mine is a Westinghouse because it does not have the TN type base, but I won't stake my life on it.  :laugh:
Blind1968, what do you think of the size on Lid decal: 5"x 4" or 4 3/4" x 3 3/4" ?
I am open to suggetions

I like the larger size better as long as it does not cover the embossing. If it is too close I might drop it back down 1/4. I will print one out and see where sits on my lid tonight. I will let you know how it turns out. 

http://soda-machines.com/discussions/index.php/topic,15924.0.html

I like that label, I've never seen it in the "wild" it must have fallen off fairly easily in the day I suppose...

JohnieG, I think you are correct, I have seen photo's of two coolers with the label, both about gone. My cooler was a wet cooler to begin with, so it would not have been on it. I turned it in to an Ice cooler. I use my cooler during the summer for family picnics and added it for conversation. My father in-law took one look at the indtructions and went into a long talk on the old Ice Box and how they would put a card in the window for the ice man so he would know how much ice to bring. Now, I'm old, but not old enough to remember that! :smile:

I have the embossing on the inside of the two lids I just got so I think I may have to either shrink it down or relocate it somewhere else. When I get to that point I will play around with it. I still have to finish getting my lids sanded down and painted, finding a little more rust than I like.  :glare:

Blind68
When ever I have seen this sticker, it was by the handles.
 To All, has anyone else seen these instructions any place else?