D&M where art thou?

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cuffs054

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What ever happended to D&M? Just saw my neighbors "ROPER ROCHELLE" DW. Must have been top of line. It is clearly a D&M rapid advance push button timer model with a center spray instead of uppper arm. It's noisy, water wasteful and incredible kwool to watch. Did Sears kill them with the tie in to Whirlpool?
 
WCI

White Consolidated Industries acquired Design | Manufacturing around 85/86, if I recall. Now, they are a part of the WCI/Electrolux family.

Though Whirlpool has the Roper trademark, the D&M Roper/Chambers/Kenmore/etc. designed machines that bore those names were definitely D&M, as you pointed out.
 
IIRC the closest thing to the old D&M engineering can be found even today on an 18 inch wide (45cm) Frigdaire DW that others also slap their badge on as well.
 
D/M do we really miss them?

D/M desinged machines for many private labels and while they were decent machines mechanically, they really didnt do a good job of cleaning the dishes. How can anything, including the current 18 inch units that are made for many manufacturers clean well, when there are no filters in them per se and the soft waste disposer grinds everything up and send it up to the top washarm?

Ironic how WCI took Whirlpool to court to block the purchase of Kitchenaid from Hobart claiming a monopoly by Whirlpool and yet they had nearly every other line under their roof at the time. Seems the Judge saw thru that as well.

Now, all a once superb Kitchenaid is is nothing more than an overpriced WhirLpool unit. I am glad I still have a few vintage machines at home and in my garage
 
the Kenmore Rotorack version of the D&M design were actually very good cleaners and didn't deposit debris on the top rack cut it was always spinning. And welcome new member Stevet
 
Yes, the RotoRacks were very good machines, indeed. I think those babies used close to 3 gallons of water per fill, which certainly helped with their good washing ability. That and the fact the upper line models came equipped with 1000 watt heaters to heat fast to either 145 or 150 degrees in the main wash, really did a lot to boost their performance.
 
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