major appliances small appliances founded 1918 headquarters charlotte n.c. products clothes washers and dryers refrigerators freezers dishwashers ranges room air conditioners dehumidifiers and microwave ovens . website www.frigidaire.com frigidaire is the american consumer and commercial home appliances brand subsidiary of european parent company electrolux . frigidaire was founded as the guardian frigerator company in fort wayne indiana and developed the first self contained refrigerator invented by nathaniel b. wales and alfred mellowes in 1916 . in 1918 william c. durant a founder of general motors personally invested in the company and in 1919 it adopted the name frigidaire . citation needed the brand was so well known in the refrigeration field in the early to mid 1900s that many americans called any refrigerator of whatever brand a frigidaire . the name frigidaire or its antecedent frigerator may be the origin of the widely used english word fridge although more likely simply an abbreviation of refrigerator which is a word known to have been used as early as 1611 . 1 2 3 from 1919 to 1979 the company was owned by general motors . during that period it was first a subsidiary of delco light and was later an independent division based in dayton ohio . frigidaire was sold to the white sewing machine company in 1979 which in 1986 was purchased by electrolux its current parent . while the company was owned by general motors its logo featured the phrase product of general motors and later renamed to home environment division of general motors . the company claims firsts including electric self contained refrigerator september 1918 in detroit 4 home food freezer room air conditioner 30 electric range coordinated colors for home appliances contents 1 automatic washers 2 refrigerators 3 air conditioners 4 manufacturing 5 see also 6 references 7 external links automatic washers edit frigidaire dealer and esso gas station arkansas ca. 1930 1945 during the years that frigidaire was owned by general motors it was very competitive in the automatic clothes washing machine business . frigidaire engineer kenneth sisson also credited with the design of the incrementing timer used on clothes washers and dishwashers for years to come designed the frigidaire automatic washer with the unimatic mechanism in the late 1930s . production of the first frigidaire automatic clothes washers was halted due to world war ii and therefore the machine was not formally introduced until 1947 . the washing action of a frigidaire automatic was unique in that the agitator pulsated up and down a unique departure from the traditional oscillating type . the frigidaire washers were commonly named for their mechanisms which in true general motors fashion underwent frequent changes over the years . the unimatic was in production the longest for any single frigidaire mechanism from 1947 to 1958 . the pulsamatic mechanism unique in that it pulsated 630 times per minute was introduced in 1955 for the lower end models . this became the foundation for the multimatic introduced for the 1959 model year . the multimatic lasted through 1964 as the rollermatic was brought out for the 1965 lineup . the rollermatic was unique in that instead of using an oil filled gearcase metal and urethane rollers transferred the power within the mechanism . this underwent a slight revision in 1970 for the new eighteen pound capacity 1 18 which kept the same basic mechanism but differed in that it was belt driven off of the motor and added a recirculating pump . besides the unique action another notable feature of these older washers was the final high speed spin cycle nicknamed rapidry 1140 revolutions per minute in the unimatic 850 in the multimatic and 1010 in the high end rollermatic models . when frigidaire was acquired by white consolidated industries in 1979 it abandoned the general motors design in favor of the westinghouse produced top loading design as white westinghouse was already among its house brands by this time . refrigerators edit frigidaire fridge at the hallwyl house 1922 frigidaire iceless refrigerator newspaper ad . frigidaire also produces a wide variety of refrigerators and freezers for the consumer market . their model line up includes refrigerator freezer units of several different types . the selection they offer includes traditional top freezer models as well as more modern side by side and french door styles . 5 air conditioners edit in addition to manufacturing room air conditioners frigidaire also provided the factory air conditioning systems for general motors automobiles . in the 1950s and 1960s these units developed a reputation for providing powerful air conditioning systems on virtually all gm cars from the largest cadillacs to the small chevrolet corvair . early air conditioner units used water to cool the condenser . working ac unit manufacturing edit a new cooktop manufacturing facility opened in the frank c. pidgeon industrial park southwest of memphis . the facility is built to leed certification standards . workers will manufacture the company s electrolux icon electrolux and frigidaire product lines including drop in slide in ranges wall ovens specialty free standing ranges and cook tops . the 190 million 750 000 square foot memphis manufacturing plant began production of stoves and ranges in 2013 . the plant s research and development center includes the technology and machinery to simulate a stove s lifetime usage and performance expectations and can test more than 300 products at one time . 6 electrolux frigidaire also operates a manufacturing facility for free standing gas and electric ranges in springfield tennessee . the springfield facility currently employs about 2 900 people . it also operates a large manufacturing facility in northern mexico since 2005 . 7 see also edit frigidaire building a historic structure in portland oregon references edit merriam webster dctionary online etymology dictionary dictionary.com wright state university frigidaire refrigerator styles electrolux newsrooms 26 november 2012 . first electrolux employees move into new memphis manufacturing plant . electrolux . retrieved july 2 2015 . site selection for mexican manufacturing plant external links edit frigidaire v t e electrolux brands divisions and subsidiaries current aeg electrolux electrolux laundry systems eureka frigidaire gibson appliance kelvinator lehel parkinson cowan philco rosenlew simpson tappan white westinghouse zanussi former diamant boart1 husqvarna1 white consolidated industries2 products electrolux trilobite people keith mcloughlin marcus wallenberg other electrolux v awu the cube 1sold or demerged 2now integrated into other electrolux divisions or subsidiaries category retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title frigidaire & oldid 740838959 categories home appliance manufacturers of the united statesmanufacturing companies established in 1919home appliance brandsmanufacturing companies based in georgia u.s. state general motors marqueselectrolux brandshidden categories all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from june 2013 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages fran aisitaliano edit links this page was last modified on 23 september 2016 at 16 43 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view