1952 Sears Christmas catalog - Kenmore washer

[bradross]

Greetings to everybody,

As most of you know, I'm mostly interested in wringer washers, but thought this was worth posting. Automatic Kenmore washer of 1952, priced w/suds saver at #239.95 - inflation adjusted to 2020 dollars, this is a whopping $2344.00 !

 

[maytag85]

$2344.00 may be a lot for a washer like that but I am more than willing to pay up since it would last me a very long time plus I wouldn’t have to deal with having something the breaks as soon as the warranty expires and deal with piss poor designs that don’t hold up. Sadly people are too cheap to pay for quality these days and people would start kvetching that the tub is too small but comforters didn’t exist around that time and people mostly had thin bed spreads and quilts and a 8 to 9 pound tub was more than plenty. Plus when you separate laundry by color and type, you really don’t need a very large capacity machine.

 

[tomturbomatic]

That washer with sudssaver was the one my parents bought at the Sears in Ottawa, IL when they moved to a house, the financing of which was helped by the sale of the Maytag Master to my Aunt Mary in Milwaukee. The Maytag was kept in my parents' storage cage in the basement of the apartment building and when laundry was done, Mom and Dad went down to the basement and pulled the thing up to the sink and did laundry. There were coin operated wringer washers furnished by the management, but Mom had to have her own machine.

The Kenmore was no stranger to the Sears Service Man. I remember him unscrewing the holders of the little square panel on the side of the machine. I would stand behind him at 3 and 4 years of age and look inside to see what he was doing. By 1956, the suds valve was leaking and had to be removed. It was no longer needed because we had a gas water heater in the 1955 house. Then there was a noise in 1957 that indicated that bearings were going so it was sold to a young couple and replaced by the 1958 Lady with the green porcelain cabinet.

 

[DADoES]

Don’t make assumptions about reliability of vintage machines. They had plenty of repairs. Our ‘62 Whirlpool had numerous repairs. The mercury lid switch bracket rusted off. Wigwag, pump, water valve hung open, belt, bearings, bakelite agitator cracked. The bearings went bad again which led to its replacement at 15 yrs.

The difference vs. today is parts & service was much less cost compared to a new machine so repairs were done when they aren’t nowadays.

 

[maytag85]

Huh, find it odd that my ‘63 Whirlpool was in service from 1963 to 2005 and the only repairs it had done from what I could tell was the pump and belt. The bearings only wore out when you didn’t wash fabrics with like fabrics causing the machine to go off balance thus putting wear and tear on the bearings and snubber and it’s simple things like that, that increase the life span by many years.

 

[frigilux]

Always love to see vintage appliance ads from Sears catalogs! Thanks for sharing that with us, Brad.

Reliability/Repairs: Our 1960 Kenmore Model 80 was handled with kid gloves, yet it was on a first name basis with the Sears repair guy--LeRoy, if you're wondering. The upside is that the wonderful beast could actually be repaired. It represented a sizable chunk of change, so was  designed to be repaired, not discarded. The notion that vintage machines went about their business unscathed is romantic, but not necessarily accurate. The washer repair industry flourished in the 1950s-70s.

 

[DADoES]

 
Sean, the LJA32 was used per a typical 1960s household raising 3 kids with a working dad and stay-home mom (there were no disposable diapers).  Dad was an operating partner of a gas station that was open 6a or 7a to 9p or 10p during the early years.  He'd often change work clothes at noon/lunch.  I don't recall details of the (varying) weekly schedule arrangements with the other owner/partner.  I forgot to mention that the snubber wore down and was also replaced, by me.     The brush filter was replaced at least once if not twice due to the bristles getting akew.  Dad would clip some off the exterior so the mangled ones wouldn't interfere with seating it into the housing.  We cleaned it with a hair comb.  It had a full porcelain top and cabinet (designated by V in the model number, presumably for "vitreous porcelain") but it was installed in the garage and developed some rusting over time on the inside edges, baseplate, self-leveling leg mechanism, the aforementioned lid switch bracket, tub ring clips, hose clamps, etc.

 

[golittlesport]

I remember seeing that early Kenmore front control automatic in quite a few homes as a child. I never saw a roto swirl agitator in one however. Great ad.

As others have said, washing machines in those days had plenty of issues. But parts and repairs were cheap compared to today so people would keep fixing and putting money into their investment. An automatic washing machine was a major investment.

I remember our neighbor had that front control Kenmore in the ad and also a 1958 Kenmore automatic. One or the other was always on the fritz, which is why they kept two machines.

 

[maytag85]

I mean those old machines needed repairs from time to time but people would be more than willing to have them fixed since it would be an investment but again people are too cheap to pay for quality these days.

 

[tomturbomatic]

The crooked salesman sold my parents a service contract that was not needed in the first year because of the one year warranty so after fighting with Sears, it was transferred to the second year and the machine was kept under service contract as long as we had it.

 

[repairguy]

Reply 7

Should’ve bought a speed queen to beat the fritz. Lol!