Frigidaire Appliance Company is the American consumer and commercial home appliances brand subsidiary of multinational company Electrolux. Frigidaire was founded as the Guardian Frigerator Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and developed the first self-contained refrigerator, frigidaire refrigerator reviews 2020 by Nathaniel B. Wales and Alfred Mellowes in 1916.

The brand was so well known in the refrigeration field in the early-to-mid-1900s, that many Americans called any refrigerator a Frigidaire regardless of brand. In France, Canada, and some other French-speaking countries or areas, the word Frigidaire is often in use as a synonym today. 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.

The division also manufactured air conditioning compressors for GM cars. Frigidaire was sold to the White Consolidated Industries in 1979, which in 1986 was purchased by Electrolux, its current parent. Frigidaire dealer and Esso gas station, Arkansas, ca. 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. 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.

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. In 2016, Frigidaire partnered with Ryder and Embark, an autonomous trucking firm, to deliver refrigerators from Texas to California. Level 2 autonomous trucks are used. They have a driver behind the wheel at all times.

The reason for experimenting with autonomous vehicles is a looming shortage of drivers. From the 1950s through the 1970s, these units developed a reputation for providing powerful air conditioning systems on virtually all GM cars and trucks from the largest Cadillacs to the small Chevrolet Vega. A new cooktop manufacturing facility opened in the Frank C. Pidgeon Industrial park, southwest of Memphis. The facility is built to LEED certification standards. Frigidaire also operates a manufacturing facility for free standing gas and electric ranges in Springfield, Tennessee.