FUNNY to wake up early in the a.m. and find this to read!!!
Wow folks, I am amused, enthused, and a bit flattered for the comments above (but mostly amused). I saw the notes from Andy and Kenny above while I was still at the office earlier in the day, but only had time to laugh but didn't have time to comment. I came home to a very overdue list of un-decorating tasks to be done, or I would have seen all this during the evening, but instead I never logged-on until now.
But without further yap, here's what I can tell you:
This is indeed a 1976 Lady Kenmore console. It is one of VERY FEW of more than seventy black panel models which had a console light. Yes, there were over seventy distinct black panel belt-drive models from 1976 to 1986. The '76s stand out as being the first of a very highly successful design campaign, but also one that many here don't seem to find particular collectable. For me they are just one of the chapters among many in the Kenmore history.
All but one of the 1976 black panel models, including this one, were unusual because they have a combined "Knit-Delicate" cycle, whereas in 1977 and later, these were always separated into separate Knit and Delicate settings, which turned all 4-cycle '76 models into 5-cycle '77 models, and on up. This machine was a considered a 13-cycle model, with the knit and delicate separation, it became a 14 cycle machine overnight in 1977. In case you are wondering --- of course you are, lol --- the one model that didn't change was the 1976 60-series, which was a single speed model without knit-delicate, which had a 'short wash' in place of the delicate.
Besides the console light, this model also has a soft-padded top, somewhat like the vinyl tops found on many American cars from this era. I don't think that was used on but one or two other models either. To me vinyl tops and Kenmores didn't belong together, it was like bringing part of your Granada or Delta 88 into the laundry room.
Yes, and oddly, all 1976 Kenmores had no more than 4 water levels, even the Lady. The earlier prolific use of infinite water level pressure switches of at least a decade before had yielded to cost-cutting efforts this year, where the '74 and '75 Kenmore 60 and 70 had infinite levels, as did everything above, but only four settings were deemed sufficient in 1976 for everything from the 70-series on up. This shifted back a bit in short order, as by 1979 five level switches were more common in upper MOL models, and the electronic Ladies had infinite switches again. By the 1981 models, infinite had come back to the 80-series models and all above.
This machine and model year signaled in a very significant change in Kenmore manufacturing. For the first time, nearly all models used the same console geometry, and the same inner structure, which was tremendously more cost effective to make, if not very imaginative as had been Kenmore's way for so many years --- of different consoles both between most all models and from year to year. Sears must have saved countless millions of dollars in manufacturing, which I am sure made them more competitive and able to offer those weekly sale prices which sold most of their machines.
This was the last year of the full-fledged electro-mechanical Lady Kenmores. The electronic 1978 Lady K came out during the Fall of 1977 or Winter 1978, and though 1978 was unusual in having TWO different Lady models, the electronic and one mechanical, the electronic model got all the advertising focus, and I hadn't even seen a 1978 mechanical Lady K until the 1978 ephemera debuted here. It is quite different in layout vs. the 1976 model. There was not another electro-mechanical Lady K until the final belt-drive Lady, the 1983 model, which was sold second-fiddle to the 1982 Limited Edition electronic washer through fall 1986.
Being that it is so early, I am sure there's a tidbit or two that I am forgetting to mention, but I'll report back later if so.
Thanks for the laughs and the commentary, I am glad to see positive discussion on this era of machine. They surely aren't the 1974 Lady K, the last of the keyboard models, but this was the beginning of a very significant period for Kenmore...one in which Sears solidified their place as America's #1 appliance supplier, but one in which cost and price consciousness started to become very important and a driver in product design and marketing.
Gordon
