Frigidaire Appliance Company is the US 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 Nathanniel 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.
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.
