Prestcold dead and burried?

[Inalex]

Sorry chaps, didn't know where else to post this.
Does anyone know what happened to prestcold. Does anyone still have rights to their designs or are they now public property?

Cheers for any answers,

InAlex

[taz24]

Prestcold was bought out by O Gorman in the mid eighties who were bought out by a company who was bought by Hussmann and who was then bought by Ingosol Rand. The compressor manufactureing side went bust I belive in the late eighties but Copeland used the same bodies. So from the mid eighties you could get prestcold type compressors from Copeland and then with the development of the discuss comp Copeland seemed to move away from prestcold type designe.

Cheers taz.

[Inalex]

Thank you for that Taz, exactly the info I wanted. They did get passed around a bit and I lost track part way through.

[old gas bottle]

i started work there when i was 15,[35 years ago], can even remember the open type compressors, prescold was part of british leyland and maybe even austin or morris,some of the first fidges had car door handles on, it was in the early days part of the pressed steel company,oxford england,while i was there sterne amalgimated with them also,another great name in refrigeration,not sure who manufactured whoes under licence but there damn good units,i still have some brand new boxed prescolds that i,am keeping for old times sake.check that copeland do not own the name before doing anything with it.

[Argus]

.

I worked for Prestcold in the 1970s, having started working with Gardner’s in Bristol..

It was taken over by British Leyland in the time of Michael Edwardes, one of the shrewdest men ever to have taken the British Government and the tax-payer’s money to the cleaners.

Prestcold became one of the few subsidiaries of a nationalised failure (BL, that is) that ever showed a profit. So, it was sold off to O’gorman’s - a lame duck if ever there was one.

I swore from that sorry experience that I would never work for another nationalised company again - and I never have.



.

[rbartlett]

.

I worked for Prestcold in the 1970s, having started working with Gardner’s in Bristol..

It was taken over by British Leyland in the time of Michael Edwardes, one of the shrewdest men ever to have taken the British Government and the tax-payer’s money to the cleaners.

Prestcold became one of the few subsidiaries of a nationalised failure (BL, that is) that ever showed a profit. So, it was sold off to O’gorman’s - a lame duck if ever there was one.

I swore from that sorry experience that I would never work for another nationalised company again - and I never have.



.

I knew a few of the old ex Prescold boys when I lived back in Cheltenham. Like most of the British manufacturers -Halls etc - the did a good aprenticeship and a lot of good fridgemen as a result..
I'm going to ask my mate if he can remember some of their names


Cheers

Richard

[Stevek]

I also started at Prestcold in Ashton-u-lyne back in 69, they provided a good number of young lads with an apprentiship (not the fully indentured kind) but you were supposed to be one until you turned 21 at least, sadly they did not move with the times and fizzled out, like most young lads jumped ship once I had been on the road on my own a couple of years.

[monkey spanners]

I saw an old S body prest steel (prestcold) unit on a farm recently, running an old fullwood 400g milk tank as an ice builder, still running despite the farmer trying to run it on 2ph due to a burnt out 3ph mcb.
He also had an open drive frigidaire 2 cylinder unit (still on R12) that was used up until march, that still runs. He thinks his father bought it in the 50's, can't see some of the stuff we fit today lasting so long
Anyone remember the yorkamatic units, last one i saw was at pmh in swindon, all gone now, starting to feel old now

Cheers John

[taz24]

I remember the distinctive green Sherpa's and Marina's they had.

taz.

[old gas bottle]

he he,before that it was J4,s with side sliding doors to fall out of, the gear stick used to come away in your hand too, morris 1000 vans aswell and all in black and white !!,as you guys have said,good old fashioned skills training,"oh the good old days"---not all "eh". how did you guys get on having a **** in the front of the moggy 1000,s, i nearly got raped by the gearstick !!!

[Andy W]

I have fond memories of Prestcold, my dad was a Prestcold trained apprentice in the 50's at the Stoke depot and stayed there most of his time apart from a brief spell working for Walls ice cream. My dad left Prestcold in 1967 and started his own business which he ran until about 1996 when ill health forced him to retire. When I left school in 1978 I worked for my dad for 2 years prior to moving on to a bigger company to further my development. While working for my dad, when Stoke closed the depot we purchased a Sherpa van from them as well as a load of spares, I was virtually bought up with Prestcold, even today I still enjoy working on them. I am currently carrying out routine maintenance at a factory that consists solely of Prestcold R750's, 9 of them to be precise.

Any one remember the Frigidaire ABP 555 dynapacks, now that is another blast from the past.

[LRAC]

Although i am too young to remember Prestcold as a company one of my close friends was employed by prestcold and spoke highly of their training programs and the quality of engineers employed. Along with two other prestcold employees they started The Leicester refrigeration Company which had complete control on Leicestershire and the surrounding area, as you can imagine all the equipment installed was prestcold stuff. Sadly the gentlemen concerned Mr. Malcolm Barnacle passed away this year but evidence of his skill and good design still exist in our area from a highly respected Prestcold and Leicester Refrigeration Company.

R.I.P Malc

[Electrocoolman]

The link with British leyland was strong....the grey multiblade fan as used on the prestcold condensing units was I believe used originally as the radiator fan on Rover cars....can anyone confirm?

[Argus]

The link with British leyland was strong....the grey multiblade fan as used on the prestcold condensing units was I believe used originally as the radiator fan on Rover cars....can anyone confirm?

I thought it was the other way around.

Lift the bonnet on a Rover and you'd see an E body compressor.

[Darshi]

I saw my first prestcold hermatic compressor on 1959 model Allwayn refrigerators Made in India. I was a fresher to the refrigeration field.
The compressors were realy tough but noisy.
but in those days no one was so oversesative to noise.

[Andy W]

The last E body I saw was an open drive compressor I ripped out and replaced with a Bitzer semi hermetic in 1991. Do any E bodies still exist?

[old gas bottle]

i would love to get my hands on a old belt drive again just for old times sake,think most are dead now,the fan question--the plastic multi blade replaced the 4 metal blade joby because it was crap and just blew a bit of air out of the cowel sides and not over the compressor, the plastic multi blade made hell of a differance,dont think it was of a car though,not with a boss like that + it would: have to be a v8 with all that draft.

[makalu112]

Hi boys,
Would any of you know how to bring life back to my old Prestcold L series ?

Model number l33765.
It was born on 1st Dec 1950 so we dont wanna bury it without a fight!
my fridge man has tried new thermo on the back but it soon stops again, he reckons new compressor/rebuild may be in order - but we are in West Sussex and I cannot find anyone to help - any ideas??? Thanks

[Argus]

Hi boys,
Would any of you know how to bring life back to my old Prestcold L series ?

Model number l33765.
It was born on 1st Dec 1950 so we dont wanna bury it without a fight!

From that era it may have started life with Methyl Chloride as a refrigerant as that was the very early days for CFCs in this country.
The likelihood is that it was either converted to or is now running on R12.
If that is so, current legislation makes it illegal to do any repairs on R12 (or any CFCs) that involve adding or removing the refrigerant, so, if you have to do an invasive repair on the fridge circuit, I’m afraid that it’s dead.

How can you tell as a layman? The data label should tell you the refrigerant, though R12 was originally marketed in this country by ICI as 'Arcton 6' in those days.

.

[old gas bottle]

not sure thats right argus, if your not allowed to retrofit refrigerants or remove old CFC,S so the machine can go for safe disposal,what will happen to it ? is it not the case that you must remove the R12 for safe dispoasal and charge it with a legal blend of your choice, what will happen to all the R12/R22/R502 etc if its not removed ?


anyway,whats the pestcold doing,is it a system or thermostat type fault? has it got a little belt drive compressor or a sealed type ?

[Argus]

not sure thats right argus, if your not allowed to retrofit refrigerants or remove old CFC,S so the machine can go for safe disposal,what will happen to it ? is it not the case that you must remove the R12 for safe dispoasal and charge it with a legal blend of your choice, what will happen to all the R12/R22/R502 etc if its not removed ?


anyway,whats the pestcold doing,is it a system or thermostat type fault? has it got a little belt drive compressor or a sealed type ?

Under the current law for ODS gases (assuming that it contains CFCs), it is illegal to ‘use’ CFCs.
The term ‘use’ in this context is defined in the UK SI as, broadly speaking, the addition or removal of CFCs during service, excluding removal for safe disposal. So, once CFCs are taken out, it cannot legally be put back in.
That’s what the law says.
It's the 'use' of the refrigerant as defined in the SI and the ODS Regulation that is against the law, not running the kit or converting it to something that is allowed.

So, if you have a fridge using CFCs (as many of us have), you can continue to keep it in operation until it needs an invasive repair to the circuit involving the removal of the CFCs.
At this point, with the CFCs removed and legally disposed of, it is quite legal to refill it with an alternative (HFCs, for example – assuming, of course, that it will work, many won’t or will not be economically viable).

Alternatively, a sealed system can be taken to an authorised disposal centre where they will do it for you – for a price. The carcass of the cabinet also has to be reclaimed if it contains blown foam.

Needless to say that the act of removing, or doing anything with any refrigerant in the UK now needs the technician to hold the appropriate qualifications.

What we don’t know is what refrigerant it is, or whether it is a sealed system. They were just beginning to come in during the early ‘50s, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see that this one is an open drive.

Anyway, we hope that it’s just a simple electrical fault.
Perhaps the owner could tell us more as this is quite an historical machine.

.

[Andy W]

The carcase wont contain blown foam it will be a kind of rock wool and very doubtful it will be open drive as the shaft seal would of give up 35 years ago.

I remember changing a stat on a 50's Prestcold in the 70's, the old stat was a huge thing with a thick capillary and huge control knob and I fitted a Ranco Varifix stat in its place.

[old gas bottle]

your right about the insulation andy and probley the compressor too,most of the domestics had a sealed unit,looked like a german ww2 tin hat, but some of the earlier stuff had small belt drives on as the others were not yet developed allthough as i remember ,more on the commercial side, would realy love to see one again,thats why i was hoping this thing had one on.