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Cool!

A similar machine was the successor to my grandmother's '67 Mobile Maid. I loved the performance, and was thoroughly pissed that we only got to use the dishwasher when company was over. Otherwise, all that snowflake Corelle was swished through the sink. :-)

The triangular section in the top rack goes on the far-right; it makes for a removable section of tines.

Thank God your bottom rack doesn't have the triangular fixed tines. Those were sucksters.

If it's not a hose, the carbon-porcelain seal on these sometimes went to poo when enough broken glass found its way into the impellers and blew vanes off of them, thus unbalancing the impellers and fragging the seal--sometimes you'll find bits of the impellers and chunks of glass or olive pits in the wash arms. A little scraping and careful loading goes a long way. WCI/Electrolux sold seal kits for these that were super-easy to install if you needed one.

Beware the fragile detergent dispenser. :-)
 
Nice dishwasher. I always like the look of these. Does it have a third wash arm?
I like the way the wheels are pointing in. The dishwasher looks like it is pigeon toed.
Can we see it loaded with the funky dividers?
 
With a harvest gold dishwasher you are CERTAINLY more civilized. I see you in a whole new light, now.

These were fun to play with. My very first DW was a MOL early 70s roto-rack, built-in Kenmore, in 1980.

I just wish they had a filter.

I think if it were me, I would simply wrap a piece of stainless steel mesh/screen around the pump inlet or design something similar.
If they had simply designed in a screen it would have extended the life of so many of these and provided better results.

Yours looks great for its age. Those racks hardly look used. For a 30 yr old machine, that is saying something. I see the bottom rack needs a bit of ...... but that is fixable.

This was the first generation of D&Ms that utilized the same access panel for all DWs, even the portables.

With the portables, as you can see, they simply added the black block , on the bottom, to hide the strut of the frame which you would not have on an actual built-in.

Before yours the portables always had a one piece access panel, like this equally beautiful, mid 70s KM.

rustyspaatz++11-19-2013-13-31-47.jpg
 
Question:

What color are the sides?
There was a point where Sears sold the portables in either all white,
or
Almond with an interchangeable front panel kit. This kit included panels in Black Glass, White, Almond, Harvest Gold, Coffee, and Avocado.
 
I loved these machines

I had one of these portables in the late 70's, I believe. People have said they were not the greatest performing but I had no complaints. We had low water pressure though and that impacted the cleaning. I can remember it could flip things over on the top rack when it would get enough water on the fill... ahhh memories. I can still hear the click of the dial and see the glow of the power miser button. I can also still smell the old fashioned cascade when it would drain into the sink. It lasted us over 15 years.
 
Whats with the frowny face, Gold?

You found a super and rare KM that is 30 years old and looks in great shape.

 

 

Love the brochure Pete. 

I agree with you about the stuff of today.
 
It is leaking from a small spot where it has rusted through between the seal and the tub. It is small, can I get away with some epoxy?

It has the three spray arms and the detergent dispenser is in great shape.
 
take the side strip off and open your front panels up.....you may have all the colors stored inside....

I have an 88 ultrawash.....and it has four reversible panels...I was even able to custom stainless panels for it
 
I think epoxy may work

But if not, I think these are the exact same tubs that are in the roto-rack models that preceeded your machine. If this is the case, and the epoxy doesn't work, don't despair. I have an extra tub sitting in my basement that's in pretty good shape that I would be more than happy to ship to you.
 
What's This....

....About the lack of a filter? These models had a soft-food disposer blade, and in my experience, it worked very well indeed.

I gifted my mother a brand-new TOL 1973 or '74 Lady Kenmore; not even she - The Appliance Killer herself - had any problems whatsoever with redeposit onto dishes. And it was everything we could do to get her to take the turkey carcass off the platter when she put Thanksgiving dishes into that machine.

She had lots of problems later, when she finally killed the Lady K and replaced it with a lower-MOL GE, but the Kenmore was a total, total champ in that department.
 
This is a great performing machine as it has nearly the same washing pump and principle of the earlier Roto-rack machines. You generally don't have to even scrap the dishes before loading them in this machine as it grinds up and disposes the food waste down the drain. It is extremely rare for me to see any residual food deposits and I like the fact that there is no filter to have to clean. Salad plates go right in along with any other soft food that is left.

While overall long-term durability might be lacking, it sure is a great performing dishwasher. I found an earlier version of that same machine nearly unused earlier in the year which I absolutely loved...

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?45410
 
cute William said-

"...I think these are the exact same tubs that are in the roto-rack models... "

ahh no, not by a long shot. The door seal is the same but the motor mounting holes are different, the top of the machine was expanded to make room for the third wash arm, and the mounting holes for the second level rack and wash arm are totally different from the roto-rack that mounts on the ceiling.

You couldn't even have a third level wash arm with a roto rack.

In my early career, I converted a roto rack machine to a mol 70s KM. Now THAT is plausible, but you have to fill in the holes on the top and drill new holes through the porecelain (something I did not have the expertise for) for the side wall rack supports, and the new holes for mounting the wash arm. (IT was my third Dishwasher)

We had a 1969 MOL KM roto-rack when I was growing up, and it wasn't rare to find coffee grounds and bits of ground up food residue on the tops of coffee cups.

Though, that could have been that the rack was prevented from turning. That was another thing with them, if the support wheels that the roto rack glides on, start to wear the rack can move from side to side allowing it to touch the walls, and that would prevent it turning and thus cleaning.

They are fun toys, as the most gimmicky appliances are, but in the hands of the uninitiated, and those recently escaped from an idiot's asylum (as most of our parents were in the 70s), they can leave lasting scars of mental fatigue.

My well meaning, but woefully unfortunate mother thought that the agitator in a washing machine was there to beat the clothes clean, (apparently similar to hanging a rug outside and beating the dirt out of it, as was done before vacuums) and not as it is intended -to simply stir the water at a fast pace allowing repeated roll-over of the clothing. sigh.

Anyway- "I don't think I have ever seen Coffee"

Wow, how our society is letting down our future generation. They should be teaching appliance colors in school.

Coffee was dark brown. This brochure, for the awkwardly redesigned 1978 KMs that lasted 2 years, shows it on the end.

And yeah, painting the 3 sides of your portable would be an option.
If it were me, I would remove the top, then remove the dishwasher from the cabinet (6 screws), and take the frame outside to hang, prep, and paint.
Or take the shell to a professional painter.

The shell, while bulky, is easy enough for one person to carry.

rustyspaatz++11-20-2013-15-35-41.jpg
 
This is a good question.

In the 60s there was actually a metallic copper as a choice for some appliances.
I think it was literally thin copper that was highly polished. It looked kinda cool.
A neighbor had this on her stove.

I always call dark brown "coffee"

There was shaded coffee starting in the mid to late 60s.
I think this was called "coppertone"

Then in 1977(ish) there was just Coffee, as around this time the appliance manufacturers decided to drop the edge shading for colored appliances.

You'll notice that in the brochure above from 1978, there is no shading on the edges. But just a few years earlier, post #9, from 1974-75, it has edged shading.

Someone else clarify.
 

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