Curbside grab

[westytoploader]

Found this right down the street from me last Saturday! Was on my way home when I spotted a curbed Kenmo' W/D set waiting for someone to take them. At first I thought they were 90's DD machines (dryer was from the early-90's), but then I saw the center dial on the washer. Nothing too special, really, and I was almost going to leave it there, but then I decided to grab it because there was probably nothing wrong with it.

It's a 1980 Kenmore 80 Series in almond, and was utterly FILTHY when I got it...just look at the "before" picture. Quite possibly the nastiest one I've ever seen. I wish I had taken a picture of the tub ring before I cleaned it; that had about 1" or more of detergent/laundry additive buildup over 26 years...she must have been literally THROWING the detergent towards the tub ring. The mechanism, however, did not appear to be in bad shape, and the belt was good as well.

I plugged it in and it ran just fine (though it does seem to drain a little slow). So, after a good cleaning and lube of the cam bars, it will be fun to play with for a little while until I sell it 'for cheap' in the classified ads.

 

[westytoploader]

Now for how it looked BEFORE the cleaning and lid alignment...GROSS! I also defeated the lidswitch (of course) and replaced the badly worn snubber pad.

 

[westytoploader]

Washing...

 

[westytoploader]

Closeup of the circulator column...aka "clothes mover"

 

[westytoploader]

Washing Load #2. I also forgot to mention that it's surprisingly quiet as well...

 

[roto204]

Neat-o!!!

Very nice, Austin!!

My mom's first (that I can remember) Kenmore was like that one, only in white . It was a great machine, and held a LOT--and it also lasted a good fifteen years, under the strain of a lot of family laundry and several loads of such size that sanity was questioned.

The only machine I liked better was my grandmother's variant of the same, which had a waterfall lint filter. (We like drama.)

Cool find!!

 

[gansky1]

This was similar or the same as the model I wanted in 81 when we replaced our GE FF. Instead, a BOL Maytag was delivered for the same price...

 

[toggleswitch]

Good for you, sir!

Free-licious is delicious!

 

[washertalk]

Looks good

but, your before, 'ain't' nothing. I found a white one of those with blue fabric softener and lint over EVERYTHING. The porcelin top and the rest cleaned up nice though. But GROSS!

I like your show room.

 

[tbolt25]

off-balance switch

Does this particular washer you just got have an off-balance switch equipped with a buzzer, and if so, is the switch's trip arm in good shape(plastic or wire trip arm)?

 

[trainguy]

And I Second That!

Nice find, Austin. And it's free!

 

[spats]

Nice find!

and this is very similar to my parents '81 Kenmore.

 

[laundryboy]

congrats

Hey Austin,
Congrats on finding the Kenmore..

 

[sudsman]

Very nice Austin

And the price is right!

 

[hoover1060]

Very cool!

The black panel Kenmores are very spiffy indeed, Congrats Austin!

 

[appnut]

Congratulations Austinj. Those Kenmores I wasn't around much (DAA) so I can't wait to give it a spin.

Those seemed to be very popular models. Too bad it didn't have a FS dispenser.

 

[pulsator]

YAY!!! I love these machines, well, I kinda prefer the block lettering machines, but that's just sentimental. I might be able to get one of these machines around Christmas! YAY!!! I just gotta get enough money saved up and the present aspect of it is bein able to drive to Kalamazoo to pick one up! I went to a used appliance store there a couple years ago and they had 10 or 11 of these Kenmore BD washers in GREAT condition, we'll see if any are left!

 

[mayken4now]

Austin:

That machine was the one I had in my first apartment out of college. I bought the set at Sears, then decided I did not like them. Was only 21 then! LOL. Then came the Westinghouse machines that I have told you about before.

Very nice catch, wish I had mine back now.

Steve

 

[scott55405]

Nice machine and nice cleanup! I see she also got a little happy with the Spray n Wash, but not too bad and you can still read what you need to read. Will be fun to play with and will make someone a nice thrifty daily driver after you're done.

This era was always my least favorite of the Kenmores, probably because they ended all their really cool designs in favor of a very utilitarian one, but like a lot of things I looked a with disdain for a certain period of time, I've grown to look back fondly on these once again. Seems like just yesterday they were new in the store, and here they are the newest probably being about 25 years old (I say that because I remember this design was somewhat modified for the final 3 or 4 years of the belt drive machines).