Britain’s oldest working fridge

Britain’s oldest working fridge was unveiled today which is still faultlessly keeping food fresh after 56 YEARS.

Proud Edmund Garrod has used the General Electric Company DE.30 fridge every day since it was delivered to his home when he was a child on June 26 1954.

This waist-high cream-coloured unit cost £69, equivalent to around £1,415 today, and was purchased by his parents with inheritance money because the milk kept going sour.

Although it needed a replacement thermostat just weeks after it was bought – the English-built fridge has worked faultlessly ever since.

Amazingly the former laboratory technician, now in his late 50s, has even kept hold of the original receipt, guarantee and instruction booklet.

The ultra-reliable unit came with a 12 month guarantee and featured three shelves, a temperature control knob and defrosting tray.

The family paid a deposit of £21, six schillings and eight D, and then repaid the expensive purchase at £4 a month until July 2 1955.

Edmund, of High Wycombe, Bucks., said yesterday: ”I’m one of these people who feels if something is working then keep it until it breaks.

”It did need a new thermostat in the first few weeks but apart from that has worked perfectly since and never had a problem with it.

”I suppose things were built better in thos days. It was built extremely well and lasted the test of time.

”It is like having an old friend. It’s been here since I was a child. It’s only ever been switched off once in a while so it could be defrosted.

”My mother Beatrice gave us a choice between getting a television set and a fridge with money that our grandmother had left her.

”We plumped for the fridge as we were fed up with the milk going sour. It cost £69 which was a large amount of money in those days.

”It has a couple of disadvantages as it isn’t very economic and doesn’t have the bottle compartments.”

Edmunds has now traded the appliance for a state-of-the-art Whirlpool fridge freezer yesterday after winning a contest to find Britain’s oldest fridge.

He added: ”Although my old fridge has obvious sentimental value it was silly to hold onto it when I could own a much more effective and environmentally friendly one that could save me a considerable sum of money every year.”

The new fridge, worth £563, should save Edmund more than £60 a year on his electricity bill and significantly reduce his household carbon emissions

Edmund has never owned a freezer and recently threw away a 28-year-old Sony television set after the screen stopped working.

He also owns a 70-year-old electric iron and 80-year-old General Electric Company clock.

Edmund won the Time to Change oldest fridge competition run by the Association of Manufacturers of Domestic Appliance’s (AMDEA) after reading about in an Energy

His old fridge beat the previous record of a mere 30 years and was yesterday taken away to be recycled

Chief Executive of AMDEA, Douglas Herbison said: ”Although we are impressed with the preservation of these museum pieces, we want everyone to be aware that old fridges guzzle away tremendous amounts of energy and money.”