1960 Sears Roebuck & Co.

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

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Greg Thanks

Great scans. The dishwashers must be impellar action? No
mention otherwise. Gotta love those persimmon and peach interiors!

Dick_s : the 8lb two cycle automatic is the one I described to you that I saw about two months ago in the Mom & Pop
Used Dealer/Repair shop near Beale Airforce Base West of
Grass Valley
 
Wow! Back when machines had real personality and there were some real differences between models. Thanks for posting this, Greg.

How did that one fan page get in there? You know I'm just saving up the slaps for you... ;)
 
Dick S., look again at the pricing. The LK is $299; the Model 80 is $259 and your mom's is $229. My high school best friend's mom had the same washer. I remember the hot water saver was a toggle switch on the back of the machine panel that opted for a cold rinse on the cottons cycle. I find it interesting the 24" wide machine has the exact same panel, add a fabric softener dispenser, and only a straight-vane agitator.
 
One other thing that surprised me was that they were still making the "Bug Eye" machine then and a two speed model at that.
 
Great scans Greg! Sears always used to have a fun catalog to go through. I remember looking at them when I was a kid.
These are just fantastic pixs! I have always thought that the Kenmore control panels of the 1950's and 1960's were the best looking of all machines.
 
This is about the 100th time I've looked over the scans---I love looking at old Sears catalogs. Had a '59 for years, but it went into the trash when I left for college. Bad mother! Bad mother!

I didn't realize the Roto-Rack went back so far. For some reason I thought it was a 70's thing. We had a pull-out mid-50's Westinghouse for many years. When we moved we didn't get a dishwasher til the 1974 (or '75, maybe) LK was added to the kitchen.
 
Eugene, the Roto-Rack goes back to the early 1950s. One of the brnds that sourced from D&M has a POD here every once in a while--it wasn't a common brand, so I don't remember what it is. A member heere rfound the same dishwasher I speak of and has/had it in his collection--his name is Philippe.
 
Let's go to Sears kids...

WOW - these are great scans! Who would have thought that some of the coolest looking washers were at your local Sears store in 1960 - sheesh!

I just love the look on the delivery guy's face - "These damn bolt down machines, rusted nuts, where is my saw!"

Ben
 
The disposals

were made by American Standard, and were AWFUL!!
Our next door neighbor had the "Golden" model pictured above, she had everything "Lady Kenmore" in her kitchen, but vintage 1966 maybe?
ISE started making disposals for Sears in 1967 I believe.
 
He's thinking "Man, this'll go GREAT with my collection at home!"

While we're discussing D&M, did Modern Maid source from them?

Oh hell, did ANYONE besides my grandma on my dad's side even HAVE Modern Maid stuff? I remember a dishwasher and a range. The range had these interesting infinite controls that clicked loudly all the time...
 
Wow, Greg! Thanks for taking the time to scan these great pages! 1960 sure was a great year!

Especially love the combos, of course. I'd definitely pay the extra 30 bucks to get the window in the door.

What's "cycle hold" all about? Don't recall ever seeing that before.

veg
 
That delivery man removing the bolt down machine is probably thinking that they chould save it to spin the clothes properly after washing them in the combo.

Greg, Thanks. I had no idea that the 24 inch dryers lasted so late into the lineup; interesting how the wattage dropped from 5200 watts on the higher end 24" dryer to 4400 on the lower one. Interesting the way the BTUs of the gas burners declined as the models got cheaper. Always count on Sears to have features to help them steer the customer at least one model higher. $339.00 was pretty cheap for the LK combo when the TOL Philco was over $500.00. The model 50 combo had the two part timer like my first 33"WP with the dryer timer mounted around the washer timer shaft.
 
WOW! What memories!

My Grandmother had that very Kermore washer/dryer combo. Sadly it only lasted until 1966 when they bought their Westinghouse TL with the matching dryer. When the w/d combo was retired my grandfather took that machine apart piece by piece. They always had a problem with the machine drying good at times them not drying at all. Sears always had to come from Atlanta and they could never fix it. I think the problem was the heating elements located directly behind the tub were completely corroded thru. I think it happened due to suds remaining on the elements after the wash then being heated during the drying process. But it was a hunk of machinery!
 
Has anyone had experience with the pressure rinsing wringer? Lovell either introduced that feature or at least heavily advertised it. The thing I wonder about is the way that the wringer handled the water it extracted. The tilt plate under the rolers tipped toward the direction from which the wet clothes were fed into the wringer so that wash water, for example, drained back into the washer. If you were using the Kenmore with this spray rinse feature, did the water drain in the same direction? You would not want it draining back in the washer to cool and dilute the suds and how would this spray rinsing improve the process if it drained into the rinse water the clothes were being dropped into? Was it maybe used between the first and second rinse tubs so that it drained back into the first tub and then that water could be changed after every load or two? I only had experience with my relatives' Maytags. I do not even remember seeing this wringer demonstrated in Sears, although I remember the clear pipe with the spigot on the end in the wringer washers. Even in the store, I remembered the admonitions to stay away from the wringers. Back in 1960, we only had the big downtown Sears so trips to Sears were not as frequent as they would become when they put stores in the suburbs.
 
Yes, I'm still returning to gawk at the pretty pretty washers...

Interesting that back in 1960---well before liquid detergents became the norm---Sears was already 'promoting' them by having a liquid-only dispenser on its flagship washer. I remember seeing TV and print ads for (liquid) Wisk back when I was a little kid, but everyone in my orbit used powdered detergents. Of course, I grew up in the anti-new-fangled world of smalltown upper-midwest and we weren't known for being early adopters.

Does anyone else old enough to remember the Beatles's breakup recall having family/friends/neighbors who used a liquid detergent as their daily driver back in the early 1960's?
 
Eugene, our next door neighbor on one side had a 1960 or 1961 Series 70 Kenmore. I remember her using All or Wisk liquid and Snowey Bleach--what a combination.
 
Bob--Wow, I'd forgotten all about Snowy Bleach. Had a very distinctive-looking box, as I recall. My mom was a die-hard liquid chlorine bleach user. She never went in for the color-safe bleaches.

Until recently, when I discovered Quixtar's Tri-Zyme Detergent Booster and their All-Fabric Bleach, I was also a die-hard LCB guy. But the comination of SA8 with the above-mentioned additives gives me brilliant whites and excellent stain removal without the fabric wear of LCB. I had a white chef's apron which had gone gray over time and LCB never whitened it. Seven or eight washes in SA8 + Tri-Zyme + All-Fabric Bleach has whitened it noticeably. Can't argue with results.

We always had Tide, Oxydol, Cheer or Bold in the house, depending on which brand was on sale that week. We always had a box of Ivory Snow or a bottle of Woolite on hand for delicates.
 
Eugene, Sears had an early liquid detergent. It was low sudsing. The first of the 29 inch WP & Kenmore combos had a detergent dispenser that would dispense liquid or powder detergents. It was a plastic cup with a cone in the middle and it was mounted on a spindle in an enclosure similar to the detergent dispenser in the later 29 inch combos. It did not use the recirculating wash water to dispense the detergent, but used a fill solenoid to shoot a stream of water at the edge of the cup which started it spinning, mixing/dissolving the detergent before sending it over the edge of the cup and down into the tank. That dispenser was replaced when the machines were redesigned to change the lint separator system for a lint screen in the dryer exhaust. The new dispenser assembly allowed for a fabric softener dispenser not included in the original.
 
Automatics

I stumbled across this website on Thanksgiving day, looking for some information on a washer/dryer combo we used to have that my mother called a Turbomatic. I was born in November 1959, so I was insignificant during the time we had it and I don't remember it much. The farthest back I can remember was a 1966 Model 70 (I think that is what it was) pair, Those took us (including 4 kids) all through our growing up time. But I digress...

I didn't even remember that we had it, and I mentioned it to my mother that I thought it would be a great idea to have a machine that could wash and dry clothes without taking them out of the machine from the washer to the dryer. She said they already had made them! Wow, someone stole my idea - before I was born!

Until I got here to aw.org, I didn't realize that there were a number of companies that offered automatic washer & dryer combinations. Today, I don't know of any. What happened to make them fall out of favor? I would think it is a great idea and it really should have caught on. Obviously it didn't. Any ideas as to why we don't see these anywhere anymore?

That is something I've pondered for at least the last 30-40 years.
 
In the third picture, a little wheel on the right reads 4 2 0 What's going on here? ;'D

I must tell you that when I saw the Visimatic wringer with the spray rinse, I nearly passed out from shock. If you knew how many times I've wrung on slow speed, meditating on how cool it would be if only there were a long row of sprays hitting the clothes, you'd understand. I really went nuts, and swooned for days:"How could we get one?!"

Wonder if anyone in the club has seen such a dream in the flesh.

Also, the Combo is not any old Combo that "sloshes clothes in a little Puddle"--ha ha, A PUDDLE, (My God ! it's the same thing today in the new machines)--but "sprays clothes in a hot jet of suds." Which means that not only WP combos but KM's as well wash in this coveted manner, which means that now we all have twice the chance of getting one of these super efficient, most fun to watch machines!!

Like, Eugene, I've slept in this thread many times. It's tremendous. Thank you, G.
 
I imagine 4 2 0 are dosage levels for fabric softener control (4 oz., 2 oz., or 0 oz.). Likewise there are 8 6 4 markings visible for the liquid detergent control.
 
Thanks, Glenn, and here i thought it an invitation to spoke

always thought that it was only the maytag 906 offering the single push-button feature

wonder if the other boys had it: Frigidaire, Norge, etc.
 

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