D&M Dishwashers

[toggleswitch]

Mom had a Sears "Lady" Kenmmore TOL DW in '68/69 and the damn thing was a space-ship it had so many lights.

It had a red neon "ON" light, two bulbs illuminating the cycle selector switches (chrome plated) and.......

The KEWLEST feature was the temperature indicator lights. I KID YOU NOT! "COOL" "NORMAL" and "SANI-" (Sanitary)
When "Sani-" cycle was selected, the last rinse would run till the water was 155 degrees F. (60c +/- I think)

There was no timer manual/visible on this model. The hidden timer would advance electrically and rapidly when "Cancel & Drain" or a shorter cycle was selected.

In the space where the timer knob would be, there was a plastic dome with seven neon lights in it indicating what phase the machine was in.

Wash-Rinse-Rinse-Wash-Rinse-Rinse-Dry were the phases.
"Normal Wash" was ALL 6 water-changes and "Light Wash" did away with first W-R. "Heavy wash", I believe heated one of the washes further.

The washes were 8 minutes in length and the rinses 4 minutes. The dry was 12 or 26 minutes (both heated)selectable. No cool dry option. 60+/- minute cycle!!!

Oh, and there was a blower pushing in cool air to assist drying. Miss those blowers.

The interior was porcelain and the racks were yellow. The silverware basket was int he center of the front reack near the door. The upper rack was a round "Roto-rack" There was a spray tube under the top rack (in the middle of the machine) that would shoot the water straight up and to the right on a 45 degree angle causing the roto-rack to spin.

It was as noisy as a jet!!! It lasted 20 years with only one minor repair (I replaced the main neutral wire in the wiring harness that ran from the controls in the door panel down)

Anyway, these were made by D&M I think I read here. What does D&M stand for and who else did they make machines for? CALORIC comes to mind....can anyone clue me in?
TKS.

 

[kenmore1978]

D & M

"Oh, and there was a blower pushing in cool air to assist drying. Miss those blowers."

Actually, those blowers SUCKED air OUT of machine and exhausted it underneath. Air entered through vents in the door.

D & M stood for Design & Manufacture. It was ultimately swallowed up by the WCI monster. During their lifetime, they made dishwashers for a LOT of manufacturers. So far as I know, they never marketed under their own name, their entire business was building machines for other companies under contract.

 

[toggleswitch]

D&M dishwashers

"Actually, those blowers SUCKED air OUT of machine and exhausted it underneath. Air entered through vents in the door."

AHA! Tks Kenmore1978. That explains the rotted cabinets, wall and rusted out guts of the machine.

 

[kenmore1978]

exhaust air

None of those things occured with my 78 Sears machine. What finally killed it was me blowing up the motor relay board, set #3 of rusted out racks, and leakage around the door I couldn't seem to fix. Rust wasn't a problem right up to the end. That blower motor DID start to seize up and got replaced, though.

 

[toggleswitch]

Dying D&M Dishwashers

"What finally killed it was me blowing up the motor relay board"

-How did that happen?

"Rust wasn't a problem right up to the end"

-Did yours have a cool dry option? As ridiculous as it sounds I think the lack of such an option kept the macihne I knew from rusting...the dry-s were always heated.

 

[toggleswitch]

Dying D&M Dishwashers

"What finally killed it was me blowing up the motor relay board"

-How did that happen?

"Rust wasn't a problem right up to the end"

-Did yours have a cool dry option? As ridiculous as it sounds I think the lack of such an option kept the macihne I knew from rusting...the dry-s were always heated.

 

[kenmore1978]

Death of Sears KM DW

"What finally killed it was me blowing up the motor relay board"
-How did that happen?

At the end it had the bad habit of starting the cycle over again rather than turning off. Initially, I foundit was because water from the leaky door was getting on the multi plug where it plugged onto the motor relay board. If I went out and turned off the circuit breaker, or unplugged the muti plug and plugged it back in, it would stop. I DUMBLY got lazy one night and unplugged the multi connector without turning off the power. When I went to plug it back onto the board, I must have been off by a couple contacts as there was the customary "flash" and that was all she wrote. Between that, the rusty racks, bad timer, blown relay board, non-working detergent dispenser, and seemingly nox-fixable leaky door, I just gave up. The cost of the parts would've just been too much, and my financial condition is pretty bad at the moment. It got replaced by a "curbed" '88 WP and I stripped it for parts for a portable version of the same machine I have in my garage. The City got nothing but the rusty racks and the tub.

"Rust wasn't a problem right up to the end"

-Did yours have a cool dry option? As ridiculous as it sounds I think the lack of such an option kept the machine I knew from rusting...the dry-s were always heated.

Yes, it was called "Power Miser" and I used it most of the time, unless I was doing a load with a lot of plastics in it.

At the end, it had 2 small spots of rust, one near the sump and one around the hole where the blower was attached to the tub. It WAS on it's third set of racks and 3rd inner door panel

 

[toggleswitch]

hard-wired in... or plug and cord?

Can I assume that in LA DWs are hard-wired in?

All that I have seen in my area are...but then again all DW's I have seen were added after construction. Don't know the law and what builders are doing these days.

I have seen in Florida that all seem to be plug-and-cord connected with the outlet under the sink, the circuit shared with the mandatory garbage disposal.

BTW-- NYC and Toronto were the only North Amercian cities to PROHIBIT garbage disposals for the longest time. NYC now allows them but no one cares. Some people with private homes now install them.

But in such cold climates I am assuming we don't have the bug problems warmer places have with food in the garbage cans.

your thoughs Kenmore1978?
-Warmest Regards

 

[kenmore1978]

hard-wiring

Los Angeles USED to require hard-wiring of disposers and dishwashers, but have since relented and now allow outlets under the sink that disposers and dishwashers are plugged into like any other appliance.