Fabric Softener Dispensers on Roto-Swirls

[danelto]

Folks:

Gordon the Kenmore-guy-expert will probably know the answer to this right off the bat, but I want to throw this one out there.

The gold Kenmore roto-flex agitators. . .did they come with fabric softener dispensers that sat on top?

There were roto-flexes that had a slim circumference at the top--I know these had fabric softener dispensers.

But I'm talking the early 70's roto flexes.

Also, what about the vari-flex agitators? I had a piano key lady Kenmore with a variflex, and it didn't have a fabric softener dispenser.

Had to use the miserable Downy ball.

Did Kenmore make plastic on-top-of-agitator fabric softener dispensers for these?

Thanks.

Dan

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Dan -

I have never seen a Roto-Flex with an agitator mounted softener dispenser. I can't go so far as to say they didn't exist however, and the agitator's top shape would allow for one. The agitator was not in production very long (five years or so), and during it's time was the top-of-the-line agitator from 1965 to 1967 or so, then when the Vari-Flex made it's debut, it was knocked to second place for use in 80-series machines. It was used that way a couple more years, but by 1970 I think it was gone. All the models it was used in would have had electric softener dispensers.

I know the Roto-Flex went into use in 1965 in the Lady K but don't know when it ended exactly. It has the distinction as being the first splined agitator and marked the beginning of the end for bakelite in Kenmore and Whirlpool washers. It was equipped with a gold scrubber cap the vast majority of the that time (if not all the time), and the machines usually had solenoid controlled softener dispensers in tandem with bleach dispensers in the left front corners of the lid well.

The Vari-flex lasted a similar amount of time, late 60s through 1973 or so. The last machines I ever saw them in were the Lady Ks made in '73. This agitator could not accomodate an agitator mounted dispenser as doing so would cover up and render inoperable the Vari-Flex adjustment dial. These washers always had either the electrically operated tandem softener/bleach dispenser OR the triple dispenser.

I am not aware of any Lady K that didn't have some sort of softener dispenser, either the left-side solenoid version or the triple dispenser variety, from 1965 through 1986 and even through the 1998 DD versions. Probably the best dispensers were the lower-line removable agitator mounted ones due to their lack of complexity and their ease of cleaning.

Gordon