Original reference photography from the Cola Machines archive. Select any image to inspect the machine, mechanisms, identification plates, and restoration details.
The cooler line that marched from wartime chests to electric vendors
Quikold
Quikold's surviving machines span three decisive decades, preserving the shift from ice-cooled retail furniture to tall, mechanically refrigerated vending cabinets.
- Founded
- Origins not firmly established; product line documented by 1941
- Founders
- Not identified in cited public records
- Home
- United States
- Archive
- 29 machines
Quikold left no convenient corporate legend behind. It left something more tactile: squat 1941 coolers, postwar Standards and Juniors, and a procession of upright vendors that reveal refrigeration becoming automatic retail.
The dated evidence begins
A family of 1941 coolers
The earliest Quikold records in this archive date to 1941: the 700, D-48, D-120, D-144, Major, MR-96 and Regal variants. Together they describe a broad cooler program already mature enough to offer several sizes and price points.
These cabinets belong to the era when branded cold storage itself was the attraction. Their names—Major, Regal and Standard—sold status and capacity before dense model numbering took over.
The postwar store changes
Upright vending replaces the chest
Mid- and late-1940s Junior and Standard records lead into the 1400-WD2, a substantial upright machine produced from the late 1940s into the mid-1950s. Its surviving cutaway and branded variants make it the clearest visual bridge in the Quikold archive.
By putting selection and delivery into the cabinet, machines like the 1400-WD2 reduced the cooler's dependence on a clerk. Refrigeration had become part of a complete mechanical sale.
More packages, taller numbers
The line expands into the 1960s
Around 1959 and the early 1960s, Quikold offered FA, M, V and high-numbered WD2 families, alongside refreshed Major and Regal machines. Capacities climbed and the cabinet language shifted toward the broad, upright vendors familiar from the period.
FA-52 and FA-67 records reach into the early 1970s, after which the archive goes quiet. Until stronger corporate documentation appears, Quikold's responsible history remains product-led: at least thirty years of change visible through twenty-nine surviving model records.
Seven turning points
Quikold in motion
Seven dated cooler records establish Quikold's early product family.
Junior and Standard models carry the line into the postwar market.
The 1400-WD2 begins its long documented production span.
The 130, Q-80 and other upright machines broaden the range.
FA, Major, Regal and V-series records mark a major catalog refresh.
M-series and large WD2 vendors continue the move toward higher capacity.
FA-52 and FA-67 are the latest dated archive examples.
The complete reference shelf
All Quikold machines
29 model records
Research notes
Sources & further reading
Corporate milestones are cross-checked against the sources listed here. Model dates and archive counts follow surviving Cola Machines records; gaps and uncertain dates are left visible rather than filled with guesses.
- Cola Machines — Quikold archivePrimary model chronology, production-date evidence and photographs.
- Smithsonian Institution — Coca-Cola cooler collectionsMuseum context for branded cooler development.
- Cola Machines — Quikold 1400-WD2Model-specific dates, views and surviving branded variants.