1959 Kenmore 80 finishing touches

[kenmore71]

Over the past weekend there was a small "meeting of the minds" up at Don's (Jetaction) in Mpls. Ben (Swestoyz) was in town and he spent some time putting the finishing touches on the 1959 Kenmore 80 that he and Don had worked on extensively a while back. Being a bit of a novice at Kenmore work, my primary job was to watch and learn, which I did! I also took a few pics...

Here's a shot as we began

 

[kenmore71]

Money shot of outer tub. Isn't she pretty?

 

[kenmore71]

Under the "skirt".

 

[kenmore71]

An explanation of the what the alphabet letters do on this machine:

 

[kenmore71]

next page

 

[kenmore71]

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[kenmore71]

page 4

 

[kenmore71]

A little night washin'

 

[washerlover]

Beautiful washer! I sooo love alphabet laundry brought to you by Sears Kenmore!

 

[frigilux]

Great washer, and it looks beautiful! I love the sounds of Kenmores from that era.

 

[DirectDriveDave]

Very nice washer! good to see these quality ones worked on and restored!

 

[toploadloyalist]

Funny how the Wash 'n' Wear cycle has no cool-down phase. Didn't several other Kenmores already have that feature by then>

 

[alr2903]

Thats a very nice Kenmore.  I always was fond of the alphabet system. alr

 

[toploader55]

Love that Machine

That machine replaced my neighbor's Easy Spin Dryer. I used to watch her use the Easy, but then Marge (our neighbor) became part of the up and coming Automatic Society on our block !

 

[combo52]

1959 KENMORE REBUILDING

Glad to see these machines getting the attention they deserve. Did you get the dryer also, this was a pair that Tom and I recued and stored for years so I am really glad to see you rebuilding them.

 

I am quite sure that the WnW cycle does include a cold water suspension cool down before the first complete drain and cold rinse followed by the slow 4 minute spins.

 

[customline]

Well......

Nice job Dude !!!!!!

 

[kenmore71]

Wash & Wear Cool Down

I am also pretty certain that Wash & Wear does include a cool-down phase. Here's a description of the how Kenmore machines did the cool-down in their 1958 models. I'm relatively certain that this cool-down sequence was used in Kenmore machines until sometime in the later 1960s when they went to a programed 2 partial drain and refill sequence. I'd have to dig a little deeper to say for certain what year that was. Just imagine how much water you would go through with this early sequence! These tub were, I believe, 18 gallons. I would think it could easily do 4 or 5 partial drains and fills in 2 minutes of timer-activating "pump-out". That's an additional 35 to 45 gallons of water! At least it was cold water.

 

[kenmore71]

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[kenmore71]

final

 

[kenmore71]

1959 Dryer(s)

John, there are actually 2 1959 dryers sitting there, one electric and one gas. I am uncertain as to the provenance of either of them but I do believe that Don or Ben mentioned that one of them had come from "out east." I do know that the gas dryer has the high output 37,000 BTU burner in it. I would like to work on the gas dryer at some point this winter.

 

[yogitunes]

Love that flowing filter

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Hi Mark -

That's really a NICE looking machine. And holy cow on the wash 'n wear cycle!! I still have yet to ever use a Perm Press cycle in daily wash. My Mom didn't use it very often in our '61 70-series, but I remember I think two agitated cool downs that filled during agitation. I guess this cycle was still "under development" back then?

Again, GREAT washer!!!

Gordon

 

[appnut]

Somewhere around 1961 to 1963, Sears did away with the hi to lo agitation speed change in the wash phase of the W'n'W cycle.  At that time, the wash phase remained normal speed through out agitation as did the rinse phase also stay on normal agitation.  they may have done this to differentiate themselves from Whirlpool which continued that original speed shift sequence well into the early 1970s (I think) when WP decided to split the Knits and Perm Perss cyckles into two differeent cycles.  PP had all normal agitation I do beliveve with two cool down drain and fill phases and the Knits had all gentle agitation as well as only 1 drain and fill cooldown phase.  Knits wash time max was 8 minutes.  The delicate cycle was maxed at 6 minutes and had no cooldown phase on WP. No, Sears may have done some "experimenting", but I do not think they started simultaneously agitating and filling during the cooldown phase fill until maybe 1964.  I know friend's 1965 Model 70 agitated during the cooldown fills on low speed just like our 1970 Kenmore 800 did.

 

[jetcone]

Wow I have to say

thats a nice looking machine, I am pining for my '55! The things we throw away ---OUCH!

 

[swestoyz]

May 2010

In the spring of 2010, Don and I started tearing into his '59 Kenmore. Beautiful machine and was very much worthy of a complete restoration. We had no idea it would be as bad as it was when we started. I originally thought some new bearings and maybe a polish of a spin tube would be enough as the machine sounded okay before we started.

I couldn't have been so wrong.

Brand new spin tube/brake assembly, boot seals and new rubber, base plate/center post assembly out of a '77 Whirlpool, a late night effort in Waterloo to rebuild a transmission out of the parts '77 Whirlpool with an NOS agitator shaft, new bearings, and a whole host of other NOS parts and she is as good as new. I certainly learned a lot with this old girl, and I'm glad to have helped Don out with one of his childhood memories.

In comparison to what Mark posted above, this was a shot of the beginning. A lot of work went into getting to the waterfall shot above.

Truly 18 months in the making.

Ben

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?28836

 

[DADoES]

 
Bob, our 1976 LDA7800 with separate Knits cycle still did a speed shift on Perm Press.

 

[combo52]

EARLY WnW COOL DOWN

The early WnW cool down was two minutes of draining time, timed by the timer as it entered the cool down phase of the cycle at the end of wash agitation.

 

Step 1 agitation stops and draining begins Step 2 as soon as the water level switch resets motor and timer stops and cold water starts filling into the wash tub until the water level control is satisfied, then step #1 repeats until the timer runs out the full two minutes. 

 

The actual amount of cold water used in the cool down varies quite a bit depending which model machine you have. If you have the added restriction in the drain system of the two way valve used on the suds saver models the drain flow is not as fast and somewhat less water is pumped out of the washer during the two minute alloted time. and if you have the LKM with the self-cleaning filter and the suds-saver it uses even less total water for cool-down.

 

We had the 1959 LKM with suds-saver for several years at my home growing up. It was the first WP built BD washer that I ever rebuilt. I did this machine around 1968 and we used the WnW cycle for all the shirts and when they came out of the dryer it looked like they had been ironed.

 

I used to figure that our machine used about 20 gallons of cold water for the cool-down, making the total water use around 60 gallons per load. The 1959 KM that Don has just rebuilt if it does not have the Suds-valve may use about 15 gallons more cold water for a total of almost 75 gallons per load. 

 

[combo52]

1959 37,000 BUT GAS DRYER

Those are nice fast dryers, I have worked with many of them. Tom and I also figured a way to make the airflow through the drum more efficient by adding two felt seals to the rear bulkhead. When you get around to rebuilding the dryer get in touch and I will tell you how to do this. Best Regards John.