Kelvinator was a home appliance manufacturer that is now a brand name owned by Electrolux. It takes its name from William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, who developed the concept of absolute zero and for whom the Kelvin temperature scale is named. The name was thought appropriate for a company that manufactured ice-boxes and domestic refrigerators.
Kelvinator was founded in 1914, in Detroit, Michigan, United States, by engineer Nathaniel B. Wales who introduced his idea for a practical electric refrigeration unit for the home to Edmund Copeland and Arnold Goss.
Wales, a young inventor, secured financial backing from Arnold Goss, then secretary of the Buick Automobile company, to develop the first household mechanical refrigerators to be marketed under the name "Electro-Automatic Refrigerating Company." After producing a number of experimental models, Wales selected one for manufacturing.
In February 1916, the name of the company was changed to "Kelvinator Company" in honor of British physicist, Lord Kelvin, the discoverer of absolute zero. Kelvinator was among some two dozen home refrigerators introduced to the U.S. market in 1916. In 1918 Kelvinator introduced the first refrigerator with any type of automatic control.
Frustrated by iceboxes, the Grand Rapids Refrigerator Company introduced a porcelain lined "Leonard Cleanable" ice cabinet. Kelvinator began buying Leonard's boxes for its electric refrigerated models. By 1923, the Kelvinator Company held 80 percent of the American market for electric refrigerators.
In 1926, the company acquired Leonard, which had been founded in 1881. Kelvinator concentrated its entire appliance production at the Grand Rapids factory in 1928. That year, George W. Mason assumed control of Kelvinator. Under his leadership the company lowered its costs while increasing market share through 1936.
In 1926, Kelvinator Limited, England, was started in London. From simple merchandising of the products of the American factories it grew until it was producing much of its own equipment for the British market. In 1946, it was considered that the time was ripe for this unit to expand and be self-contained in its manufacture of Kelvinator Equipment, and the London manufacturing activities were moved to Crewe and greatly expanded with a further 19,000 square metres (200,000 sq ft) of floor space. The Crewe factory was shared with Rolls-Royce Motors, but burned down in the 1950s and was replaced by a new facility in Bromborough, Cheshire.
Italian manufacturer Candy bought the operation in 1979 together with the use of the Kelvinator brand name in the UK and produced both Candy and Kelvinator products until it closed around 2000.
World War II
Between 1939 and 1945, the complete manufacturing facilities of the factories' group was turned over to the manufacturing of military supplies.
In England, Kelvinator of London contributed to the field of testing airplane components at ultra-low temperatures, and instruments under high altitude conditions, research that was credited as saving the lives of many Allied aircrews.
The company pledged to introduce the scientific discoveries gained during the war production into its appliances to make them more useful and efficient.
Merger with Nash Motors
On January 4, 1937, the company merged with Nash Motors to form Nash-Kelvinator Corporation as part of a deal that placed George W. Mason at the helm of the combined company. In 1952, it acquired the Altorfer Bros. Company, which made home laundry equipment under the ABC brand name.
Integration into American Motors
Nash-Kelvinator became a division of American Motors (AMC) when Nash merged with Hudson in 1954. Kelvinator introduced the first auto-defrost models. Kelvinator refrigerators included shelves on the inside of their doors and special compartments for frozen juice containers in the freezer. It also pioneered the side-by-side refrigerator freezer in the early 1950s. In the 1960s, Kelvinator refrigerators introduced "picture frame" doors on some models allowing owners to decorate their appliance to match décor of their kitchens.
Under the leadership of Roy D. Chapin Jr., AMC sold off its Kelvinator operations in 1968. (AMC then purchased the Jeep brand from Kaiser Industries in 1970.) Kelvinator joined White Consolidated Industries, a company that had also acquired the rights to Frigidaire (formerly owned by General Motors), Gibson, Tappan, and White-Westinghouse product lines. Electrolux of Sweden acquired White Consolidated Industries in the early 1980s.
In the early 1990s, the name of the Dublin, Ohio based holding company changed to Frigidaire Company.
In 2005, Carrier sold the Kelvinator division to National Refrigeration of Honea Path, South Carolina. The company manufactured Kelvinator bunkers, dipping cabinets, blast chillers, reach-ins, and low- and medium-temperature merchandisers.
Likewise, the Kelvinator brand of refrigerators has continuously been marketed in the Philippines since the 1960s by Concepcion Industries, a local maker of air conditioning equipment and refrigerators, including other notable brands: Carrier and Condura.
The Electrolux company built and marketed Kelvinator Commercial refrigeration products that included "stainless steel door refrigerators and upright freezers, high performance chest freezers, and glass top ice cream display freezers" designed to NSF and American National Standards Institute standards for food service applications.
- Hubbert, Christopher J. (2006). "The Kelvin Home: Cleveland Heights Leads the Way to: 'a New and Better Way of Living'". Cleveland Heights Historical Society. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
- "History of the Refrigerator". History.com. 2006. Archived from the original on 26 March 2008. Retrieved 24 May 2013.