Anyone hear of Sears Kenmore?

[Compwhiz]

I dont get the brand name. Do any of you here have this brand
My neighbors have an older one then the one i want a pic of below

Apperently we had a washer and dryer when we moved to our new house but the motor burned up in the washer, and the belt degraded in the dryer, so sadly they are gone. Anyone got a pic? it had a cyan control panel with a light and it said seas kenmore in cursive on the left. It was white duh. oh and it had a metal handle on the lid

 

[jaxsunst]

Kenmore is Sear's brand of appliances. The washers and dryers are made by Whirlpool, the refrigerators will either by GE or Whirlpool (mine is Whirlpool sourced and my mother's GE), the dishwashers are D and M, and I am not sure about the ranges, I think they are GE.

For modern machines they are good, for Vintage they are GREAT. The old belt driven ones sound really cool.

 

[kenmore1978]

Kenmore

To clarify, washers & dryers are still made by Whirlpool, but dishwashers aren't D & M anymore, they're either Whirlpool (the upper models) or GE (the crappier stuff). Refrigerators used to be entirely made by Whirlpool, now split between Whirlpool and GE. Ranges were Ropers, don't know who's making them now.

 

[agiflow-action]

Frigidaire is making most of their ranges now.Whirlpool still makes some of their models and I beleive ge makes a couple of ranges also.

 

[westytoploader]

Their 27" laundry centers are made by Electrolux, as they have (yuk) plastic indexing tubs and the tell-tale "WCI-dryer-look".

The 24" ThinTwin machines still carry the Kemmore/Whirlpool DD design, plus they're much cuter, IMHO.

Not sure who makes their portable washers...anyone know?

 

[goatfarmer]

"Some" of their older refrigerators were Gibson(WCI) made.

kennyGF

 

[DADoES]

I'm wondering how can anybody have NOT heard of Sears Kenmore . . .

 

[westytoploader]

You know Glenn...I was thinking the exact same thing. Nearly every mall you walk into has a Sears, and nearly every member has childhood memories of being in Sears.

While the vacuum section was my all-time favorite, the next best thing was the washer/dryer section. I remember starting the window-lid Kenmore and watching the Dual-Action agitator roll the poker chips around furiously. Also remember playing with the demo DW's, Neptunes, and the Frigemores when they were introduced (I was just 8!). The early Neptunes would tumble with the door open (you just had to push in a switch, like a dryer, although you needed to close the door to spin)!

When I was 10, the washer I wanted the most was the electronic-control Amana. I remember looking at the controls and thought it was neat just pushing a button if you wanted to spin something. And who can forget the neat blue LED display and the stainless tub! Very solid-sounding too.

--Austin

 

[tolivac]

Sears store displays

The favorites for me are the appliances,power tools and the vac sections at Sears.When I lived in Manassas Va-the Manassas Mall had BOTH a Sears store and a Wards.The Saers had the DA glass front and tub DD DA washer-they had rags in it and you could watch them when you pused the activiate buttobn on the display machine.At Wards they had a display machine that was a Maytag that had the glass front and tub.The Maytag had their version of a DA agitator.The salesman demoed the machine.First he put poker chips in it.You could watch them circulate. Then he put LIGHT BULBS in it-empasizing how gentle the machine was.It ciculated them without breaking any of them.(wonder how the filaments faired out though)The Wards display also showed a Maytag washer and a KN one side by side with their cabinet panels removed showing you the chassis,tubs and mechanisms.I also visited Wards vacuum dsiplay-the Fantom vacs were big at that time-Sears didn't have them.

 

[programcomputer]

I'm Just that OLD....

Hmmn.....

Well I can remember when our Sears here in Lansing Had deep red shag rugs for the current 1982 Product line where everywhere you looked they had that white fluffy crap forever all over stuff. They also used some sort of baking powder mixture too that never seemed to cleaned up all that swell. No you have to remember that in 1982 I was 6 so.....

Wards had the best vacuum department of all. thru their incorporation of Electric Avenue about 1987-88 when Wards started to fail. At the point described tho...there were probably at least 20-30 different machines across the spectrum...and even then I was a TOL lover.

From my earliest recollections all they had was Eureka built uprights and canisters, Except for a Hoover built Concept One style machine, becasue Eureka was late in the game creating a Self-Propelled machine, all of the floor scrubber/polishers hand and stick vacs plus they also had a version of the Swingette was Hoover built. Douglas (Division of Scott and Fetzer) made their steam cleaner which was some bulky ass all in one thing that never interested me in the least bit.

My very favorite machines at that point were at Sears:

1. A Black and Chrome Commercial Kenmore w/ a Cord Reel in the handle. And Anything from them that was a TOL canister. I remember that the canisters were heavily pushed by Sears at the time far outnumbering models of uprights available then. Of course all the uprights then were made by Singer.

@.Over at Wards My dream machines were an all pushbutton ( I believe ther was six of them)

 

[programcomputer]

To Finish Up......

- Was the Canned Ham bodied two speed Cordaway canister vacuum with the Power II Powerhead, which had the recently developed Vibragroomer II in it, with a wraparound headlight. For the uprights it was an ultra rare model...but it was the 16 inch "Wide-Track" Cordaway Upright.

At this time the colors for most of the machines were choclate brown, off white, orange and tan. This machine had the famous Eureka Boxtop Bag system which allowed the upper bag to inflate completly...and those who know vacuum cleaners know about Eureka boxtop bag.

The Canister I can remember was 309.95 and the upright was $ 299.95 Most of Wards machines were Eureka built and except for the PowerDrive Hoover model...(like the Concept One) and a few stickbrooms called "Jiffy Vac's) and a Douglas Steam/Home Maintenence system....which never interested me in the least bit....

Penney's by this time in most store of my instant recollection had disbanded their appliance and electronics departments to focus on mainly clothing and other home items. My last recollection in about late 1984-85 they still were selling some crappy cheap Eureka BOL upright and Canister and a Douglas (again) built canister w/ powernozzle...but alll else was gone.

Singer Sewing Center had the vacuum display that I remember best. For whatever reason I thought that Singer was well ahead of the game in the 1980-83 period when they stopped selling thier own machines thru their sewing machine outlets. It seems so I have been told by enough people.....that Sears gave them an ultimatium about selling thier own brand name stuff agains the identical "badge engineered" Kenmores.

Only about two or so lears later...after Singer stopped making thier own machines...Sears issued insult to injury when they started having other makers built their machines too. Whirlpool and Singer now shared the bulk until their brand Central came on in the late 80's. But those singer built machines hung on thru the late 1990's when they were finally put down.

As far as washers were concerned...Wards and Sears were the best in that order. I remember seeing the first all electronic Lady K' machines and seeing the glass lidded 80 series forever washing a load of rag material. All you had to do at our store was push a button and it would agitate for like three minutes. then it would stop....until you pressed the button and the process started over again.

Wards was best tho in this regard...as they were mainly Norge and Westinghouse stuff with a few Maytag brand models scattered about. Our Wards always had a WCI built version of the Space-Mate front loader full of toweling inside. But thiers was better setup so to speak....becasue in form the machine was hooked up properly and would run thru an entire load. and the dryer worked also vented into a wall outlet which I never knew where it went...

Ah my memories...sorry I ranted..just couldn't understand how anyone myself did NOT know about Sears....

Chad