By 1915, there were a number of electric refrigerators, but they were not practical for home use. The first electric household refrigerator to survive its beginnings was the Domelre, brought out in 1914, which could be placed inside any icebox. Only 525 units were sold (Rees, 2013, pp. 138-139). Although electric refrigerators were available by the U.S. entry into World War I, only the very rich used them (Cowan, 1993, p. 94). Companies continued to try developing refrigeration units to be put inside iceboxes into the 1920s (Rees, 2013, pp. 138-139). The 1930 ad at the top of this page is for that type of refrigeration unit (B&L Engineering(1930). Advertisement. Popular Mechanics, 54 (7), p. 147).
By 1923, 56 companies were already involved in the domestic refrigeration business, including Kelvinator and Frigidaire (purchased by General Motors in 1919). But the compression domestic machine was still in its developmental stage. They cost $450 when most people earned less than $2,000 per year. They required servicing about once every 3 months. The refrigerating machinery was sold separately from the refrigeration compartment—some used the old icebox they already had for a compartment. The machinery, with its noise and oil, could be in a separate room from the icebox (Cowan, 1983, pp. 132-133).
The earliest home refrigerators had wooden exteriors, like iceboxes (Cohen, 1982, p. 27; Krause, 2003, p. 123). The McCray Refrigerator from the early 1920s in Woodrow Wilson’s post-presidency home in Washington, DC was an icebox with a wooden cabinet, as shown in the first photograph below (a label from its interior is in the second photo). By 1928, steel boxes were manufactured instead of wood (Cowan, 1983, p. 134)--the third photo below shows the first refrigerator off the line in 1928 in a factory in the eastern U.S. White porcelain enamel finishes were used to match the new enameled stoves and sinks (Cohen, 1982, p. 27). General Electric (GE) offered the first refrigerator with an automatic compressor for home use in 1917. They had a model called the Monitor Top with a noisy compressor the size of a hatbox built-in on top of the unit (Rubin, 1998, p. 48). The photo on the far right below shows a Monitor Top. Another compression refrigeration, the Kelvinator, with the toxic refrigerant sulfur dioxide, was sold by February 1918 (Cowan, 1983, p. 131).