I've nurtured a passion for major appliances ever since my grandmother gave me her GE Mobile Maid to play with ("don't plug it in!" came the shouts). I also enjoyed reassembling old washers from my grandfather's junkyard.
Since I'm only 26, I don't have any time context when it comes to these vintage machines. For example, my grandmother got rid of her Kenmore 70-series Super Roto Swirl machine when I was seven, so that doesn't help me identify what year it was.
To this end, I found a machine that I loved when I was in high school--it was sitting out by the bus stop. I dragged it home with a dolly and got it running again (although I didn't understand what a wig-wag was for, so I shifted between agitate and spin by sliding the shift levers with a hammer).
This machine was a Kenmore 70 series (not a Lady Kenmore or anything fanta-bulous like that), with a Super Roto Swirl agitator (hence my affection for it--it was like my grandmother's in that respect) that offered as much capability as my parents' Dual Action 80s Kenmore machine! (I was thoroughly impressed, and this machine even substituted when my parents' machine died a few months later--maybe it made the Dual Action machine give up...)
It had a matte, textured chrome control panel with a sort of retro-metal-ice-cube-tray pattern embedded in it, and it had one of the big, plastic-flanged timers with the red line painted on it, located on the far right. It did not have a backlit control panel or anything so fancy. It had a mottled black/white spatter porcelain basket.
Of note, however, were that it had an infinite water-level control (consisting of a chrome slider that you slid all the way to the right until it "sprang" back slightly to the left, initiating a reset of the level) and a second-rinse switch (configured the same, but no spring action).
Unfortunately, I don't have any photos, nor do I remember enough of the details to be super-helpful. I would, however, like to ballpark its age so I can begin hunting for a similar model, if not the same one. The fact that it's chromey but not backlit, with a Super Roto Swirl agitator, though, would seem to confine it to a certain year range.
Can anyone help me narrow it down to a span of years? I'd greatly appreciate your expertise
.
Nate
Since I'm only 26, I don't have any time context when it comes to these vintage machines. For example, my grandmother got rid of her Kenmore 70-series Super Roto Swirl machine when I was seven, so that doesn't help me identify what year it was.
To this end, I found a machine that I loved when I was in high school--it was sitting out by the bus stop. I dragged it home with a dolly and got it running again (although I didn't understand what a wig-wag was for, so I shifted between agitate and spin by sliding the shift levers with a hammer).
This machine was a Kenmore 70 series (not a Lady Kenmore or anything fanta-bulous like that), with a Super Roto Swirl agitator (hence my affection for it--it was like my grandmother's in that respect) that offered as much capability as my parents' Dual Action 80s Kenmore machine! (I was thoroughly impressed, and this machine even substituted when my parents' machine died a few months later--maybe it made the Dual Action machine give up...)
It had a matte, textured chrome control panel with a sort of retro-metal-ice-cube-tray pattern embedded in it, and it had one of the big, plastic-flanged timers with the red line painted on it, located on the far right. It did not have a backlit control panel or anything so fancy. It had a mottled black/white spatter porcelain basket.
Of note, however, were that it had an infinite water-level control (consisting of a chrome slider that you slid all the way to the right until it "sprang" back slightly to the left, initiating a reset of the level) and a second-rinse switch (configured the same, but no spring action).
Unfortunately, I don't have any photos, nor do I remember enough of the details to be super-helpful. I would, however, like to ballpark its age so I can begin hunting for a similar model, if not the same one. The fact that it's chromey but not backlit, with a Super Roto Swirl agitator, though, would seem to confine it to a certain year range.
Can anyone help me narrow it down to a span of years? I'd greatly appreciate your expertise
.Nate
