Kenmore Dishwasher with roto-upper rack

[llmaytag]

Does anyone remember those Kenmore dishwashers with the revolving upper racks? The wash arm was fixed and half size and the jets would push the rack to revolve? Seems to me there could be a lot of issues with that. Does anyone have any practical experience with those models?

 

[toggleswitch]

yes, mother Toggle had one in 1968 (TOL no visible timer)and again in her new house in 1973 (MOL).

They were fun and worked well. The end of the 1-foot long (30cm) half-depth wash-arm had a screw-cap that was removable to enable cleaning out debris from the holes (water "jets").

I was OK to lose the space in the corner with a round rot-rack, bacause at the time the mentality was to put only glasses, cps mugs("beakers") up there and not pots and pans.

The fun thing to do was open the latch and then open the door to catch the rack still spinning! If anything the cetrifugal force emptied the caved-in mug bottoms of water.

The rack itself was center-suppoted and rested on a platic "cam" that had a "seat" for high and low positions that was about one whole inch (2.54 cm) apart.

 

[machinehead]

Oh Lordy yes!

Yep, thats one of the Dream Machines yet to come to be. My Gramma has pictures of me at age 4 or so, wearing PJ's with the feet, sitting on a bar stool staring at her 1974 KM DW with the infamous "Roto-Rack" and trying to figure out what the hell it was doing, making all these cool noises during its cycle! Some of my best memories for certain...

I am working on restoring a 1962 (?) KM 600 portable dishwasher that has the Roto-Rack in it in pink but no lower spray arm like the '74 did. They used an impeller, or in more scientific terms a Cuisinart-blade looking thing to fling water all over the dishes on the lower rack. Still had that familiar tube for the upper rack though, the one that caught seeds and particles better than i dunno what!

By far the Roto Racks are one of my fav's!

 

[kenmoreman]

Roto Racks

These DW's were great. They cleaned dishes better than any top rack could. I worked for Sears as a service tech during the 70's and 80's. They were easy to work on once you got to know them. They were made by DM (Design Manfacturing) whick also made many other brands at the time. If you have any questions I would be glad to help.

 

[toggleswitch]

from my archives.

Unique top-loader seen in appliance store!
"D" shaped segment lifts out to load. Hugely incovenient!

 

[toggleswitch]

.

 

[pturo]

We had a TOL Lady Kenmore about 1973(Avacado) installed when I was just a kid with an interest in machines. It had no dial, all buttons and lights with Sani-Cycle. I don't recall any issues with the top rack, but as Toggles said, it did spin off the schmutz from the top of the rack, things got clean, and all the lights were fun to watch.
Because it did not have that "center washer post" clearance(GE) needed for dishwashers at the time, the bottom rack was considered huge and flexible, big enough to compensate for a top rack that was round, instead of square, where the square ones required less capicity on the bottom in order for the top rack to get clean.

 

[toggleswitch]

It is interesting to note that in the above picture of a portable TOL machine, that plastic white and silver round thing is NOT a timer. The timer was hidden and had electrial rapid-advance.

Rather, it is a segmented "cup" that houses neon indicator lights that follow the cycle sequence of:

W-R-R-W-R-R-DRY

There were also two lights above the pushbuttons on the left side of the control panel of the machine.

On mother's later more MOL machine that location was taken by a timer. Interestingly the timer had a red neon pilot light over it, as if the thuderous noise and many other indicator and console lights somehow did not convey "OPERATING" status.

 

[rpm]

We had one too!

This is my mom's coppertone top loader.
It was very inconvient to load the bottom if the top racks were full'
Since it was the 70s it would be full of heavy stoneware mugs.
Mom was a short woman, so she had a hard time bending into the machine to heave out the one side of the rack
Ours had two silverware baskets along the side.
The controls on the front were two big pushdown buttons.One for open the other for start.
It had the big light show too when it started.All across the top was the indicators and buttons.
What are those two white vent things in the back of the machine?

 

[toggleswitch]

It might even be fan-forced convection drying.......

~What are those two white vent things in the back of the machine?

Probably exaclty that. An air inlet mounted low and an air outlet mounted high for natural convection drying. Without the (now) customary front door, air could not otherwise get into this tub from the bottom.

 

[roto204]

Vents

My '68 Roto-Rack had fan-forced drying. A tiny squirrel-cage fan blew air in through the slot in the back of the tank, and it exited out the two slots on the bottom-inside of the door...

...where it then exited out the top of the control panel, rusting everything inside of it along the way.

Ecch.

 

[toggleswitch]

Blow or suck. What's the difference?

Well I actually thought that the rear-mounted blower pulled air out.

I could swear that the moisture rotted the cabinetry and lower mechanicals of the DW in mother Toggles early 1973-ish model.

 

[roto204]

Blow or suck?

Honey, please. ;-)

You may be right, though mine, uh, blew, at least, if the rusted control panel mechanicals were a clue.

Sounds like yours sucked ;-)

ROTF

 

[toggleswitch]

We need another opinion.

Gansky, world, what say you?

 

[nmaineman36]

If I can recall it did suck. When my parents had that dishwasher..it was the first one I had to use I thought that it had a blower to dry the dishes. I remember putting my hand at the opening and thought that it was strange that it didnt blow it pulled the air in. And I can remember seeing a diagram cutaway of the dishwasher and they showed the air being pulled into the door area and down over the heating element and then up thru the load and back down the back wall and out thru the fan. I think I have something that can show it...i will have to dig it out.
My 4 cents

 

[stopmeister72]

we had one too

When we moved down here when I was in 3rd grade, the house had a LK harvest gold roto- rack, no timer, just the claky buttons on the left, the black panel and a little toggle switch on the right for a long or short dry. That is the first dishwasher we had ever had. Only thing was it leaked. My dad and I losened up the plate and reversed the gasket to see if that would help, but after putting it back together, packing it full of dishes and waiting for a surprise, it didn't work - motor wouldn't run. Now, I think we probably pulled some wires loose but I was too young to know and my dad didn't know anything about dishwashers. Too bad they didn't have it fixed. After a few years of bugging my parents, they final got another Kenmore, pretty much bol, but it did the job. I was always trying to make it better, actually broke it not too long after we got it, but played innocent and sears came out, fixed it and said it was a manufacture defect, whew!!!!!! Many others came and went in that space including a Kitcheaid Imperial 18, Hobart WMC1 and now there sits the Hobart WM5H. To the left of the sink is a Fisher and Paykel dishdrawer found on craigstlist for fee (it works , out in the utility room there is a older Maytag and in the garage there is a Superba 18 but haven't had a chance to test it out or take pictures. They guy said it worked, but where the heck am I going to put it? Looks like I need to add a whole other wing for all the appliances.
Y'all take care,
John

 

[j2400]

I remember these

I remember these. There was a Sears portable with Roto Rack in the house I grew up in. I don't really know how well it actually worked--for whatever reason, my parents almost never used it. About the only thing I remember it being used for was cleaning dust of a large set of glass plates we used when relatives visited. (Strangely, the plates were washed during the visit by hand.)

I do remember the owner's manual. The manual covered four (I think it was) Sears models. A big deal was made about the Roto Rack--it would allow clean dishes on top, without worrying about blocking the water path on the lowest rack. I also recall that the lowest two models covered in this manual had a plain top rack that apparently got the water spray from the bottom of the dishwasher. Thus, for a while, at least, the Roto Rack was a high end feature.

 

[laundromat]

My best friend,Donald Bromer in B'more is lucky to still have his mother's model intact at her house.She only used it twice!!