Big-tub Roto-Swirl?

[kenmoreguy64]

Here's an odd question that I've wondered about for years....I have a 1992 Whirpool laundry repair parts catalog. It has drawings of many parts, and listings of most common ly used repair parts that were available at the time.

Back then they still had black drive block agitators available new...the WP Surgilator and the Kenmore Super Roto-Swirl. As a service to the lesser educated, WP grouped the agitators by machine type, first the two drive blocks, then the compact, then 24 and 29 inch standard capacity, then 29 inch large capacity (they don't use marketing gimmic names like "Super capacity" in the parts division), then the direct drivers.

My question - on one of the pages is a Roto-Swirl for large capacity machines. That makes 3 roto-swirls in all - the black drive block, the white newer replacement (almost universal) for all standard capacity machines, and then this strange big-tub version. It was available only in Gold.

The catalog then lists all Kenmore models from 1975 on to the then current 92 models. None of them show using this big version of the Roto-Swirl.

My question, after all that, is when were they used? I don't recall ever seeing a big machine with that agitator, and I thought I'd seen them all since the late 60s. I almost bought one back then just to have it, but even with a wholesale account, it was going to cost me like $70. Now it is NLA. I'm guessing this was used prior to the mid-70s onslaught of the 18lb. capacity machines.

 

[DADoES]

I'm guessing it was used in the first offering of 18# machine. Whirlpool also used a larger bakelite Surgilator in the early 18-pounder, there was a magazine ad in the picture-of-the-day rotation a while ago.

 

[tomturbomatic]

The trouble was that the large Surgilators, at least, with their bigger fins at the base put too much strain on the tranny and broke the gears. The giant agitators were replaced by taller versions of the regular Surgilators. I cannot say that is true for the Giant Roto Swirls because Sears experimented with many agitator designs.

 

[gyrafoam]

Robert Perdue says that oversized (black) Surgilator was in the mid-sixties (he thinks about 1966) when the first of the big-tub Whirly's were introduced. It wasn't interchangeable with any other type Whirly. And you are right about them being NLA by the early seventies. The Big White Surgilators were introduced,---- then the ones with the wings on the skirt.

As for the big-tub 'Kenmo's, Robert says there was only ONE size (gold) Super Roto-Swirl and it was in both tall-tub and standard 'Kenmos. i.e., they used a standard sized Roto-Swirl for both versions.

 

[kenmoreguy64]

I hate to argue with Robert - but it's right there in the catalog. There would be no reason to offer two splined Roto-Swirls if they were interchangeable, and like I said, this odd-ball is listed as a Large capacity and is grouped with the Penta-Vane and Swirl agitators. It has a different part number and is offered in a different color to the white Roto which is referenced as the replacement to any machine having had a polypropylene Roto-swirl, black, gold, or white originally. By the drawing it looks MUCH taller. Maybe I can scan it and post the pic here.

My guess is that there must have been a pre-1974 model that was marketed by Kenmore at some point when WP was trying out their big-tubs too.

I remember a few early WP big-tubs. I had one with a black surgilator, and another with a white Surgilator (looked like the regular one on steroids). It was much taller than the standard one and used a transmission with taller agitator shaft. There's a listing for that too in the catalog. Yes, those agitators were not interchangeable with other machines - they were too tall.

I don't agree either that a standard roto-swirl was used in big tub machines, at least not from the factory, though I saw one at a used appliance store where the technician put anything in that would fit. On an 18 lb. machine, water rises on a full load all the way to the top of a basic roto-swirl beyond where it begins to curve upward toward the cap and only protrudes above the water line by a couple inches. Since the tub is wider too, the 18lb. machines need a whole new agitator to be truly effective.

 

[gyrafoam]

Calling John Lefever-----------

We need input please!