The reel from @antiqueappliance_restorations opens on a closed teal refrigerator with a line of text across the door: “The hands free tech of yesterday.” A shoe steps onto a chrome strip at the base of the cabinet, and a moment later the door swings open without anyone touching the handle.

The account’s profile describes a “Minnesota based antique & custom refrigeration specialist.” The caption reads “A fan favorite: The foot pedal opener,” followed by the hashtags #vintage, #refrigerator, #1950s and #tech. The whole clip lasts under nine seconds.

The first second shows the closed door with its chrome handle. The camera then tilts down toward the concrete floor, where a power cord trails along the base of the cabinet and a chrome strip runs along the bottom edge. A foot in a dark shoe and blue jeans comes down on that strip between the one and two second marks, and the door is swinging outward by the two second mark. The interior light is already glowing orange when the cabinet comes into view. Tiered shelves in a copper tone, cut with radial slots, stack one above another around a center post, and below them sit two light blue lidded drawers. A wave textured blue panel runs across the top of the cabinet, and as the camera swings toward the door in the last three seconds it shows the door’s own shelves trimmed in copper and a small copper colored panel set into the door itself.

The reel does not name the maker or the year of this refrigerator, and nothing on screen says how the pedal linkage works. The hashtag #1950s is the only dating clue the creator gives.

For a sense of that period, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History holds a Hotpoint refrigerator, model 9EW12, made by General Electric about 1960. The museum’s record lists swing out shelves among its selling points, along with “reserve coldpower,” a feature meant to cool the cabinet quickly after frequent opening, and says the model came in white and four colors: coral pink, sunburst yellow, copper brown and turquoise. That is a different refrigerator from the one in this reel, but it shows that turquoise and copper tones were ordinary showroom choices, not one off restorations.

Anyone shopping for an old refrigerator should also know a date. Under the Refrigerator Safety Act, signed August 2, 1956, it became unlawful to ship a household refrigerator across state lines unless it was equipped with a device enabling the door to be opened from the inside. The text of the act, as published by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, sets that requirement for units made on or after its effective date. A pedal that opens the door from the outside is a separate matter, which makes the inside release the first thing to ask a seller about on any older cabinet.

A few practical checks follow from what the video shows. Look for the data plate that names the maker and model, since the reel itself does not. Press the pedal strip and watch whether the door travels smoothly, because that linkage is the feature this restorer is showing off. Check that the interior light works and that the shelves and drawers are all present, since those are the pieces that make a cabinet like this read as complete. A seller who restores these for a living, as the account’s bio says this one does, should be able to tell you which parts are original.