Digital D&M in San Francisco-Bay Area
- Thread starter roto204
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Putting frosting and candles on dog poop does not make it a birthday cake.
This is still a D&M dishwasher, no matter how many lights, touch pads, bells or whistles you put on the control panel.
This is still a D&M dishwasher, no matter how many lights, touch pads, bells or whistles you put on the control panel.
Oh, Tom...
...my sentiments exactly. ;-)
*ducks and runs*
...my sentiments exactly. ;-)
*ducks and runs*
laundromat
Well-known member
Loud,easily rusted out and many pieces of sediment from previous washloads.
Loud,easily rusted out and many pieces of sediment from prev
Relevant to both the washer and dishwasher ;-)
Relevant to both the washer and dishwasher ;-)
Interesting, no?
No.
No.
Nate, I do not think this is digital. I think this is a rapid-advance timer model. If it is, Steve 1-18 had this model when he lived in Colorado decades ago, or soon after he moved to GA. Anyway, he really liked all the ker-klunking of the timer advancing and such and said it cleaned pretty well when all the high-temp options were selected. But I'm stumped as to when this actually was on the market. This may have been the 1st generation post-rotorack Kenmores. If this is the case, they weren't bad performers. It was the next generation, which also debuted the electronic TOL version, which got in trouble with the Fedeeral Trade Commission due to false/misleading advertising because those simiply hardly cleaned anything and I know because I had a MOL model from that particular era in my first house and it was the pits, especially compared to the PotScrubber put in my next home.
surgilator_68
Well-known member
ROFL Tom said it best!!
Same car, great hubcaps
Bob, I too wondered if this is a touchpad or rapid-advance. The panel configuration suggests a compartment for hiding the timer, so I wonder. There's a much later (plastic wash arm, last iteration) Kenmore D&M on Craigslist up in Sonoma that has a linear touchpad panel from left to right and is very clearly digital. I think this one would be a kick, too.
None of the D&Ms I've had have been poor performers, but like anything, they require loading that suits their deficiencies. They move a ton of water and can clean dishes well, but depend on serial dilution to get rid of soil, since they lack filters. Greg and I had a running dare to toss an un-scraped casserole of rice or potatoes au gratin into a D&M and let it run through the heated dry. (I never took him up on it.)
If you put lots of soil-laden dishes in there, you're bound to get some redepositing of yiblets.
As for putting frosting on poo, the world is replete with examples of mediocre equipment dressed-up with glitzy technology. The Lady K set above was tongue-in-cheek, but illustrates the point--it's just a belt-drive Kenmore underneath.
Like anything else, to each his own...
Bob, I too wondered if this is a touchpad or rapid-advance. The panel configuration suggests a compartment for hiding the timer, so I wonder. There's a much later (plastic wash arm, last iteration) Kenmore D&M on Craigslist up in Sonoma that has a linear touchpad panel from left to right and is very clearly digital. I think this one would be a kick, too.
None of the D&Ms I've had have been poor performers, but like anything, they require loading that suits their deficiencies. They move a ton of water and can clean dishes well, but depend on serial dilution to get rid of soil, since they lack filters. Greg and I had a running dare to toss an un-scraped casserole of rice or potatoes au gratin into a D&M and let it run through the heated dry. (I never took him up on it.)
If you put lots of soil-laden dishes in there, you're bound to get some redepositing of yiblets.
As for putting frosting on poo, the world is replete with examples of mediocre equipment dressed-up with glitzy technology. The Lady K set above was tongue-in-cheek, but illustrates the point--it's just a belt-drive Kenmore underneath.
Like anything else, to each his own...
It was the next generation, which also debuted the electron
How is this? Different cycle configs? Mechanically, every D&M I've taken apart from 1968 through 1984 were identical, although subtle changes--such as changing the impellers from pot metal to plastic, changing the tub mount from the awful porthole design to the rather clever two-half-clamp design, and decreasing the size of the wash-arm holes--certainly occurred.
What was so radically different that made them awful all of the sudden?
How is this? Different cycle configs? Mechanically, every D&M I've taken apart from 1968 through 1984 were identical, although subtle changes--such as changing the impellers from pot metal to plastic, changing the tub mount from the awful porthole design to the rather clever two-half-clamp design, and decreasing the size of the wash-arm holes--certainly occurred.
What was so radically different that made them awful all of the sudden?
I do not know what was changed, but something did. It didn't move water as forceful as the rotoracks in our family. And I moved into a brand new house. And every one of those with the big fat brown faced knob, all werre the same mediocre all the way up to the LK electronic one. The next iteration was the one with the full-size spray arm on the top and the pop-up column (aka GE style) wash arm. They cleaned much better and moved water much better. The bottom rack was a horrible arrangement. And a friend of mine's parents had the very first generation following the rotoracks. They also cleaned much better. Pump motors sounded different on these 1st and 3rd generations vs. the 2nd generation/renditiobn that was in my 1980 house.
D&M KM DWs
The performance wasn't the biggest problem. It was the leak prone very poor quality of the machine in general that made it such a short lived machine. They always had foreign objects & broken glass caught in the pump & wash arms, leak problems around & under the door even the drain hoses were so cheap they would split & leak if you looked at it wrong. To say nothing of all the sharp edges under the machine when you tried to work on them you always cut hands & fingers on something. Sears always had a pretty good reputation for major appliances in general but I can remember as a kid many of my parents friends warning people to stay away from Sears dishwashers. Sears never had a really good DW until WP started making most of thier machines around 1984 then the D&Ms were demoted to the cheap models where they belonged all-along. Its one of many reasons Kitchenaid sold so many dishwashers.
The performance wasn't the biggest problem. It was the leak prone very poor quality of the machine in general that made it such a short lived machine. They always had foreign objects & broken glass caught in the pump & wash arms, leak problems around & under the door even the drain hoses were so cheap they would split & leak if you looked at it wrong. To say nothing of all the sharp edges under the machine when you tried to work on them you always cut hands & fingers on something. Sears always had a pretty good reputation for major appliances in general but I can remember as a kid many of my parents friends warning people to stay away from Sears dishwashers. Sears never had a really good DW until WP started making most of thier machines around 1984 then the D&Ms were demoted to the cheap models where they belonged all-along. Its one of many reasons Kitchenaid sold so many dishwashers.
Yes it is interesting and I'll tell you why...
For the same reason a lot of us are interested in Speed Queens, Philco's, Hotpoints and even some Sears Kenmore products(not ducking, not running). What Tom said applies to many vintage POS's, and I've spoken to lots of veteran repair guys who tell me consistently that a lot of the brands that I think were interesting or had lots of interesting features, bells and whistles were either badly made or badly engineered and went the way of the Edsel.
I'm too old(and Roman)to apologize for anything that interests me.
For the same reason a lot of us are interested in Speed Queens, Philco's, Hotpoints and even some Sears Kenmore products(not ducking, not running). What Tom said applies to many vintage POS's, and I've spoken to lots of veteran repair guys who tell me consistently that a lot of the brands that I think were interesting or had lots of interesting features, bells and whistles were either badly made or badly engineered and went the way of the Edsel.
I'm too old(and Roman)to apologize for anything that interests me.
This looks like a Rapid-Advance
I had a Roper branded D&M in this house when we bought it in 98. It had been here a while but rarely used so was like new. The TOL model, it had a rapid-advance timer with a digital flip-digit time-remaining display that was very cool to see set itself for the selected cycle. It cleaned OK with it's small-hole wash arm and pop-up tower but it used a ton of water and the with the change in the lower rack to the tower design, didn't hold as much as previous incarnations of D&M's. I'll have to see if I can find a picture of the machine somewhere. I think I have the Sears catalog that this d/w is in as well...
I had a Roper branded D&M in this house when we bought it in 98. It had been here a while but rarely used so was like new. The TOL model, it had a rapid-advance timer with a digital flip-digit time-remaining display that was very cool to see set itself for the selected cycle. It cleaned OK with it's small-hole wash arm and pop-up tower but it used a ton of water and the with the change in the lower rack to the tower design, didn't hold as much as previous incarnations of D&M's. I'll have to see if I can find a picture of the machine somewhere. I think I have the Sears catalog that this d/w is in as well...
and just to hammer the point in further,
...here's the "mini-me" version
...here's the "mini-me" version
John told me years ago that for a brief while, D&M made the lower wash arm out of such thin gauge metal that the seam where the top and bottom halves were put together was splitting open and spraying water under the door. This could damage the wiring harness; eventually leading to its failure long after the wash arm was replaced.
It's funny that Whirlpool's first dishwashers were D&Ms and their first Whirlpool-made machines with the black Bakelite wash arm, while outstanding performers, were quite trouble-prone. They worked out the bugs and soon had good machines.
It's funny that Whirlpool's first dishwashers were D&Ms and their first Whirlpool-made machines with the black Bakelite wash arm, while outstanding performers, were quite trouble-prone. They worked out the bugs and soon had good machines.
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