1974 Lady K found and brought home!!

[chaskelljr2]

Technically speaking, there is NO such thing as a "1971

Gordon:

You are right. I say this because the 1970 had an "Enzymes Soak" Cycle Button as opposed to the "Automatic Prewash/Sani-Rinse" Cycle Button that was found on the 1971 (and probably, a later 1970 too). So..... there were IN FACT mechanical revisions even within the 1969-71 model year band.

--Charles--

 

[chaskelljr2]

"swestoyz"

"So was this one of the last keyboard controled Lady K's - with a garage door?"

Yep..... it was..... Kevin's machine was "the last of the breed".

--Charles--

 

[jons1077]

Speaking of "pre-soak"

I noticed this one has timer variations as well. They cut the soak down to 22 minutes from the half hour mine has.

Too bad they didn't make a vari-flex for the larger capacity machines.

Jon

 

[revvinkevin]

First wash!

I ran a load in this machine yesterday and everything worked as it should! Whoo Hoo!

 

[70series]

Awesome money shot with the dispenser engaged. That first 4 minute interval is the best part of the cycle in my opinion. Happy Easter everybody.

Have a good one,
James

 

[strongenough78]

Charles,
I'm just going by what my grandma told me in what year she bought them. One of the last times I saw her she told me she bought them in 1971. So to be honest I'm not totally sure. She still has the dryer though, the next time I visit her I'll check it out just to be sure. But I do remember hers having the color coded buttons, whether or not the buttons themselves were woodgrain or not I'm still fuzzy on. I'm thinking they weren't because when I see models with the woodgrain buttons, it looks totally different than what I remember hers having. Her's did have the woodgrain flip up door and the vari flex agitator. Thanks for the info though, but when I get a chance I'll check out her dryer to see what I can find as far as a year.

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Jon -

About the shortened 22-minute pre-soak: Not only did this happen to the Lady K on or about 1974, but every properly equipped Kenmore got a 22-minute pre-soak from this point on in belt-drive production. I don't know the reason for the 8-minute reduction across the board, but I suspect it was to lessen complications in timers that had experienced a rash of failures including activating low speed and high speed windings in the 3-speed motors simultaneously, which can't be tolerated more than a few seconds before the thermal protection cuts them off. I took a '70 Lady K on trade in 1993 which had this problem and it sounded like a rocket ship - for a few seconds anyway before it either would turn itself off or blow the breaker. The timer for it was $120, my cost, so the machine went to the landfill.

Gordon

 

[spiralator60]

Penta-Swirl Agitator

Kevin,

What is the turnover/rollover action like with the load that is pictured in post #341822? Is it as aggressive as, say, the Super Roto-Swirl? Or is it more like a straight-vane agitator?

Darryl

 

[chaskelljr2]

"StrongEnough78":

If your Grandmother bought her Lady K set back in 1971, then more than likely, her washer had a 3-Speed Motor, a Vari-Flex Agitator and the colored stripes on the Push-Buttons (they were still available in 1971..... but the point I was trying to make was that the machine in general was introduced as a 1970 Model back in 1969).

--Charles--

 

[revvinkevin]

What is the turnover/rollover action like.....?

Hi Darryl,

I'm not familiar with the wash-action of the straight vane agitator, so I cannot compare. The rollover was decent, not super aggressive, but it was moving pretty well.

You are welcome to come over and check it out sometime!

Kevin

 

[strongenough78]

Charles,

Ahhh I get ya now. Yeah her's had the 3 speed motor, colored stripes on the buttons and the Vari Flex. Thanks for the clear up.

 

[strongenough78]

Charles,

Ahhh I get ya now. Yeah her's had the 3 speed motor, colored stripes on the buttons and the Vari Flex. Thanks for the clear up.

 

[strongenough78]

Oops I didn't mean to post that twice lol. My bad!

 

[mrb627]

30 to 22 Minute Soak

My guess would be that they needed the extra timer increments to extend the neutral drain from 2 to 4 minutes for the larger capacity machines.

Just a Guess...
MRB

 

[kenmoreguy64]

mrb627 -

That's a great guess, but when they did that, the spin cycles were shortened. There had been a 4-minute spin in between wash and rinse, and a 6-minute final spin. When the drain times were extended by two minutes the spins were shortened correspondingly. This was done across the board, even on timers that weren't used in large capacity models, on models without pre-wash or pre-soak, and on timers that had huge amounts of excess dead-space.

I always figured that the shortening of the spins was to lessen bearing wear (which was a problem on standard and tall-centerpost belt drives), and that the extended drains were the simplest way to leave the final cycle layout and duration unchanged. Seeing as some large capacity machines could have used a longer drain, it was a 'no-brainer'.

Gordon

 

[DADoES]

Shortening spin must have been a Kenmore thing. Our LDA-7800 had 4-min drains, but the spins were not shortened.

 

[appnut]

Our 1976 Model 70 large cap. kenmore we had, the final spin on normal was 6 minutes and knit/delicate & perm press the final spin was 4 minutes. I hate to say it, but the LKs I played with from 1970 to 1973 had just a 2 minute spin on normal between wash & rinse. Everything pretty much evens out when you note the 8 minute shortened soak, Perm Press was now 8 minutes instead of 12, and there was only one cool down fill instead of two. That pretty much accounts for the changes for the added. Knits remained 10 minute wash though.

 

[appnut]

Even when Whirlpool FINALLY decided to put an extended soak cycle on their washers, it too was only 22 minutes. BTW, even my 1986 DD LK Shredmore only had a 22 minute presoak and 4 minutes of that was for the prewash agitation.

 

[toggleswitch2]

~30 to 22 Minute Soak.

Theoretically this is a goood idea.

Detergents can only hold soil in suspension (in the water) for a maximum of about 30 minutes. soaking longer than that without a pre-wash and water-change first is counter-productive; dirt from underarms and inseam areas gets distributed to other parts of the article of of clothing.