'59-'61 Lady Kenmore One-Touch Cycle Selection: Original Design?

[frigilux]

I picked up the May 1959 issue of Electrical Merchandising Magazine that Robert uploaded to Automatic Ephemera a few days ago. One of the many super-cool full-page ads was for Controls Company Of America, touting their new automatic cycle selection (rapid advance system) timers, which could be designed for many applications.

The application shown in the ad is obviously based on the then-new one-touch cycle selector used on the 1959 Lady Kenmore. While Kenmore went with a single large button that could be pressed at the top or the bottom to select the Heavy or Light Soil version of a cycle, the design shown in the ad is interesting, as well. Wonder if it was one of the styles Kenmore was considering? Have never seen this prototype before.

The photo of the '59 Lady K console comes from Ben's (swestoyz) video of his machine. You can hear the awesome, percussive sound of the rapid advance timer setting up a cycle at 1:03. I grew up with the same system on a 1960 Model 80.


Photo 1: Controls Company Of America ad in magazine
Photo 2: Actual controls of the 1959 Lady Kenmore[this post was last edited: 6/17/2016-07:25]

 

[bajaespuma]

Amazing technology for the age of the punch-card

Wonderful thread.

 

Had my Father purchased that Kenmore set for our first house I would have been over-the-moon thrilled by the colored plastic keys, all the bells, whistles and mechanisms that I got to see in Ben's video, but my Mother would have demanded, DEMANDED, that he return the set to the store and bring her a machine that had virtually no options but wash, spin and rinse.

 

I don't know whether GE began this "one-button cycle selection" fad with their WA-950R model in 1958, but it's interesting that they stuck with a conventional switch system run through a traditional wash-cycle dial control while Sears and Maytag went all the way with these neat rapid-advance timers. I always thought that the flaw in the Filter-Flo design was the lack of flexibility in the cycle choice until they addressed that in the late Sixties. Plus, they just missed the "neat-O, Wow!" appeal of an exotic all-pushbutton machine.

 

[combo52]

One Button Washing

Controls Corporation built this system for KM, Hotpoint and Westinghouse's L-1000 washer that also came out in 1959. I never saw a HP washer with this feature. We have the 59 LKM and the L-1000 at the museum.

 

Maytag did the same thing by working with the timer maker PR Mallory, to my knowledge these were the only four washer brands to ever offer anything like this till electronic washers came out in the late 70s.

 

John L.

 

[bajaespuma]

Machine in question

Was this that Hotpoint?

 

[DADoES]

 
KitchenAid, circa 1987.

 

[appnut]

My "other mother" had that Hotpoint touch command dryer to replace her frog-eye.  (Her sister gave her the dryer after the washer tanked--was a beautiful charcoal black set). 

 

[mixguy]

Sears Push Button Washer

a cousin of mine had the Sears Push button washer and matching dryer and it was in use for at least 18 years without a repair to the washer and the dryer had the heating element changed once.

 

[tolivac]

Interesting and really cool KN machines.The "stepping" action of the timer makes me think of some of the stepper OL and time delay relays in our CEMCO transmitters.They make a similar sound when cycling.Very old Struthers relays.They have the stepper coil and reset coils.Would love to see the mechanism in that timer working !!Any shots of that?

 

[goatfarmer]

Rick R's Wards Touch N Wash. Similar system?

http://https//youtu.be/LI7yJhLKhF0

 

[vacerator]

Totally Cool!

The first rapid advance timer I ever saw was on my folks Lady Kenmore top load DW from the late 60's. My dad found it slightly used. He had to explain to me as I was only 11, that a second motor on the timer advanced to the selected cycle, rather than your hand doing it.
Those GM Frigidaire monitor tops are the most! A unique style all their own.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Was this the first Kenmore with a suds return selector switch that allowed the suds to be drained? Was it only available on the TOL model? Did it continue to be offered on TOL models? I remember something about the suds option in the literature of mom's 1958, but did not pay attention because ours did not have it. There was also something strange about it because there was part of the term blacked out in the book It read SUDS and then a black area that might have read SAVER or MISER or something, but it was blacked out. Maybe it offered this option to save or drain also, but I don't remember.

 

[combo52]

Suds-Saver-Option-Switch

Hi Tom, I do seem to recall a high-end or TOL Kenmore around 1957-8 that had a toggle switch labeled [ suds O matic  On-Off ] that allowed you to turn off the Two-Way valve thus allowing all the waste water to drain out the rinse drain hose.

 

But other these models the only KM-WP washers that had a separate switch for the SS were these TOL LKMS from 59-62 that had this three function Suds-Saver control switch. On the 59-62s this switch was labeled  Save-Drain-Return  when you swing the switch to return it started the rapid-advance timer motor that advanced the timer to the suds return position and the machine would start returning the suds water in the holding tub back into the washer. After the water returned you then could select any cycle you wanted and the washer would on through the cycle.

 

John L.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Thank you, John. I knew you would know. Maybe our 1958 was among the first to offer that option because there was that switch mentioned in teh owner's manual.

Now, about Maytags, the only other brand I know of that offered suds saving models down through the line: I think I remember my Sainted Aunt Mary's almost BOL 1957 Highlander had two toggle switches: Hot & Warm and Drain or Save. Did all suds saver Maytags have the option of saving or draining the wash water?

I remember what a change it made in my mother's washing pattern when wash water did not have to be saved and reused immediately which meant that part of a day was not devoted to washing several loads of laundry. [this post was last edited: 6/19/2016-11:09]

 

[moparwash]

another ad...

For the Hotpoint Touch Command...has anyone found these?