Versions of Kenmore Wrinkle Guard
This thread got me thinking, my family and I have had three Kenmore dryers with Wrinkle Guard, the first two of which operate quite differently, and I was considering the usefulness of each.
Our first WG equipped dryer was a 1972 KM 60 series. I don’t know how long the WG period operated, but I think it was 2+ hours like John said. It would come on, tumble briefly, then buzz and stop for a period. Occasionally we’d say “Oh my gosh, I had no idea that thing was still on”, but the cycle seemed to serve its purpose. I too was wondering about wear and tear on the motor with all those starts, but once again, John’s summary on this is good enough for me. We liked that ‘72 dryer a lot, better than the 1961 70-series we had first.
The second and third dryers are near twins, my Mom’s next dryer, a 1983 KM high-end 70 and my 1986 KM mid line 70. Both have ‘Wrinkle Guard I” which tumbles continuously for 30 minutes unstopped, with buzzes every five minutes. I love my dryer, it was neat to have it new in 1986 as a college student, but I dislike that WG cycle, mainly because I often forget to be nearby at the end on dry time, and next thing I know I’ve wasted a good deal of extra run time on the chassis for seemingly nothing, had I emptied the dryer when I should have.
My mother didn’t care for the WG in her ‘83 dryer either. Her dryer has and adjustable signal. She reacted to the WG by turning off the signal, then later by just using the timed cycle so the dryer would not run for so long.
My good friends in the condo next to me in school had an 85 KM with Wrinkle Guard II, which tumbled and stopped every five minutes for 45 minutes. I remember watching Oprah with them many times while the dryer turned itself on and off but went unnoticed because they too had turned off the cycle signal.
High-end electronic controlled dryers in 80s, likely longer than that had WG III which was back to the original, tumbling intermittently for 2.5 hours.
Not sure which of these I like better, probably WG II, but I know for myself, since I still use my ‘86, that I make it a joke/ challenge to stop the dryer before it’s first buzz (I can’t turn it off on my model) or at least after the first one.
I still have the 1978 KM 60 series dryer that I purchased used for my sister and her first apartment. I was given the dryer back 11 years later and have enjoyed using it a lot, mostly because it has no WG, no buzzer, and a timed perm press cycle that operates for a max of 50 mins. With a large load, I set max time, and without any noise, delay, or pestering, it’s done, perfectly every time.
Gordon