About as BOL as it gets.

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BOL Sears Washer and Dryer

These were made as an advertising enticement to get people into the Sears appliance department in their stores. The interesting thing is they only cost a few bucks less to make that the pair that was priced for hundreds more that Sears wanted you to buy.

That said I would have NO PROBLEM using these as my only washer and dryer for the next 20 years, I can certainly think of much worse machines to have. Back in the mid 80s when we got a lot of the basic 24" single dial DD washers on product exchanges I would always bring them into my home shop and do all my laundry in them with no problem at all.

The dryer has auto-dry because auto-dry is required on all dryers to save energy and also to help protect against over drying to reduce fire risk.
 
In 1998 I had a Kenmore version of this washer, but with three water level and temp switches on a darker brown panel.  It was a giveaway, left in a house a friend bought.  It held a surprising amount of laundry and even with the straight vane agitator, turned over nicely and washed well.  It could have probably performed better on very large loads with a dual-action agitator, but I had no complaints.

 

I remember my mother coming to visit and being confounded by my having TWO washers.  What for??

Oh, just wait, Mom :-)
 
The one thing that dryer could NOT do was operate on 120 volts and shut off automatically because it was a time/temperature auto dry system. The WP-built portable dryers for 120 volt operation all had electronic dry controls for the automatic termination cycle.
 
"How much more "basic" can you get than this set?"

Well, you could just have the washer and no dryer. I've washed my own clothes since 1981 and never felt the need to own a tumble dryer.
 
Looks perfect...

For my boys. At 9 and 11, they strive for functional laundry incompetence hoping that we will just take over for them.

And the washer has more features than the functional features of the first washer I had in college. I hooked it up to the garden hose in the garage of my rental house and ran the drain hose down the hill in the backyard. Cold/Cold, but it beat trips to the laundromat any day of the week.

I had a friend in Richmond, VA whose only washer was a Kenmore table top portable. She did laundry for herself and her husband in it. Talk about basic. Hers didn't even have the drain valve at the bottom.

Sarah
 
one mans trash, is anothers treasure.....

may not be the dream set we are all used to.....but for some, this may be all they could afford, or felt they needed....

and for some, it may be the holy grail versus the laundry mat, or washing by hand....

this mentality would be no different of a TwinTub in the 60's.....may seem too much of hands on by todays standards, but think back in the day, something this small and simple could have made daily life so much easier for many...

we play with machines today, knowing automatics are readily available....but sit back and wonder, in that era, you used what you had to get by, may not been the best way of doing things, but you adapted to make it as easy as possible...and some task were drudgery...
 
Malcolm-
I think that mark on the dial indicates the end of the wash and beginning of the drain and spin before the rinse.

Rick
 
Well, If I had to choose among no washer and these ones, of course I'd get these any day....
Just find very weird at how an automatic machine may not have what I call basic essentials like a temp selector, which cannot really believe may have increased the price that much to make it lesser appetible...so I hope to do not offend anyone saying that this is true nonsense....
Load selector is just a plus as it may allow only a water saving feature not affecting the work it has to do as the washer will actually get clothes clean whenever you load it with a full load of towels or just one t-shirt, even though in the last case you'd have water wasted for nothing...
You know, I own a twin tub, and for what concerns the washing I can decide how much water use and just get it from the tap the temp I want it..
But it's a twin tub....
This one is an automatic, it wash and spins itself, but you have to play with taps to get an hot wash which should not miss in any respectable washer worth to be called so IMO, also you cannot fill it less for reduced loads like you could indeed do with any wringer or twin tub machine....so just don't get this, you'd have more flexibility with a twin tub in this sense....I think of me, having the taps hook up under the sink, and cannot really imagine me playing with taps when I want an hot wash with a pair like this....
Since temperature selectors are and were really not a feature all this expensive to install I'd have just found sensed them to have at least this, i can live with a washer with 1 cycle only and a full tub fill only as I could manually play and adjust the cycle according to llaundry i have to wash,, but cannot live with a thing having no temp selector may it be taps or actual selector I can easily reach to select the wash temp I want...that in a machine even if having only one cycle meant as auto WASH RINSE SPIN would make of it an actual automatic...it is just is not completely automatic without a temp selector IMO..
 
BOL Kenmore Pair

Hi Freddy, reread my post, when Sears introduced this washer they never intended that anyone would buy them, these were only made to get people into the Sears Store and let the Sears Salesman try their darnedest to sell them something that the salesman actually got a sales commission on.
 
I have good friends that owned a Sears dealer store and Sears dictated everything. Just before they sold the store, the only commissions paid to the store to pass on to salespeople was on the high end Elite models. The store got zero on those Galaxy, Capri models, only a severe scolding from the district manager for not selling the customer up to top of the line. Plus they had to deliver it, set it up and get paid a flat $25, even if their truck used that much fuel to go to almost Canada. I havnt stepped foot in Sears in years and never plan to even though I was brought up in a total Sears home.
 
Another BOL Dishwasher

When we bought this house it came with a Kenmore builder quality dishwasher. This thing was as BOL as it gets too. There was a "dry" on and off switch. The timer had only two marks on it. "Start" & "Dry". That was all.

The thing was loud as hell when it ran, but if you provided nice hot water to it, the dishes would come out reasonably clean.

You gotta feel kinda sorry for BOL appliances.
 
may not be the best of the best....

but look into todays market....it may only be a manual selection by adjusting valves for temp....BUT look at how were trying our best to change the HE machines today into giving us a HOT wash, or even more water....

I think many would probably go with this machine rather than a new HE for the most part....

but for basic functions in a machine that would serve anyone well.....take a direct drive, largest capacity, 3 water temps and levels, a Normal cycle, and maybe a short one.....2 speeds are optional......and you would get along just fine

everyone different, but the bottom line, even with all the cycles I have available.....I run the same one over and over......Normal, HOT or WARM wash, Cold rinse....and thats it...

its just nice to look at all the shiny buttons....

one size does not fit all.........but put this washer in a kitchen, and hooked to a sink.....for some it would be a godsend!....
 
Martin -

I think you are exactly correct. Nearly always I use the normal cycle, warm wash with a cold rinse. Occasionally I find a use for delicate and pre-wash, mostly because they're there on many of my machines, but the rest of the features I don't use. On a large capacity machine I would want adjustable water levels, or I'd have to adjust my habits with a single fill level, but in standard capacity machines they seem to always run full anyway.

There was a standard capacity belt-drive version of this machine, but it had two wash temps. I have looked at that model and figured I could have easily learned to be happy with it. There was a couple other very BOL belt-drives as well, and these make up the bulk of my dream find list.

Gordon
 
I know we talk about some machines being BOL with a few features.....

but these would have to fall under Sub Level of BOL.....at least their Automatics....

any lower and you would have to fill it yourself with a hose, then we are hitting levels of semi-automatic....
 
Thinking of a certain BOL Dishwasher memory:

And in an apartment my ex- and I "house-sat" for one of her sisters, the Hotpoint dishwasher there had the one knob w/ only an "Off" and "Dry" and probably louder than a heavy rainstorm falling on a tin barn!

The other appliances were a non-frost free Hotpoint fridge & a no-name 20" gas stove my ex- begged me not to turn on!

The former apt. her sis lived in had much more full-featured Hotpoint appliances, ref. d/w and s/c elec. stove, and included a washer & dryer in a sliding door closet I unfortunately didn't get to see...

-- Dave
 

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