Lady Kenmore Roto-Rack "transplant"

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kenmore71

kenmore71

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One of the projects I've been working on with Don "Jetaction" is what I believe to be a 1970s Lady Kenmore Roto-Rack. This machine was originally in an undercounter installation and had Avocado Green front panels. Don also had a Copper Roto-Rack portable from roughly the same time period but it was lower down in the model lineup and also had seen some pretty hard use over the years. I decided that the best thing to do would be a "transplant" of sorts and install the Avocado Lady into the Copper portable "skin". There were a few detours along the way, of course but all in all I think it will be a successful transplant. Here are a few pics of things nearly finished.

Does anyone know exactly what years this "Lady" was produced?

kenmore71++9-23-2011-18-17-7.jpg
 
My mom had an older Lady Kenmore; I believe it was a 1967 model with a coppertone cabinet. The interior racks were torquoise and the panel was different.
How old is your Dishmaster faucet set? We had one from 1955 when I was a kid. Thanks, Gary
 
Nice job

A friend's Norge by D&M had yellow vinyl racks and his was an early 70s machine, I think. Don't you love Sears? Even if their machines were not great at endurance or, in some cases, performance, the TOL models lit up like a TVA power station.
 
Mark, this was the last of teh Lady's with rotorack. The only "enhancement" that was made to the line right before they changed to rectangular top rack was the addition of heat/cool dry feature. This could have been produced anywhere from late 1972 on until they came out with the new racking in 1974 or 1975. We had the next model down in the line in the house in Houston and it was bought before I finished highschool in spring, 1973. It too had the pale yellow racks, my favorite color of them all. The previous series Lady's did not have the Rinse Dry cycle so there was a "space" between the cycle buttons and the rinse temp buttons on that series and the rack color was avocado greene. I always thought the contibnuous buttons, without break, was so much more asesthetically pleasing. I would love to know what the difference is between the Power Wash and Normal Wash cycles. Incidentally, I had an aunt who had th9is very model and in coppertone to match her woodtone GE kitchen from 1959. I was only around a couple of times when it was being used, holidays. I remember one of her daughters (my cousin) rinsing dishes as rusual and putting them in the dishwasher. To my horror, I remember my aunt reminding her to put it on #2 (Rinse Dry). I nearly gagged. Meaning a tepid rinse and the 13 minute dry. The machine lasted until the house was flooded by one of the tropical storms that went through Houston in the late 1970s or early 1980s.
 
Bob, I appreciate the date information about the Lady K Roto-Racks. I had the wiring and timer schematic out this afternoon and I know that it has all of the cycle info on it. I meant to grab it before I left so I could scan it but I forgot to grab it. Next time I'm up there I'll grab it scan it in for everyone to see.
 
Basement update...

The floor, faucet and everything else in my basement is an effort in the works for thew past 10 years. I started collecting "stuff" 10 years ago for a mid-century modern 50's-60's basement and in the past year and a half it has been manifesting itself. It is almost finished with a subway tile backsplash beginning Monday and ceiling Tuesday it has to be ready by October 2nd. The dishmaster is new and the floor is VCT. There are gems everywhere down there and I am pretty proud. The Minneapolis Star and Tribune wanted to do a story on this, we will see..
I am really ready to be done with this and start to enjoy the space. The benefit of this is that as I have unearthed 10 years of collecting I have literally "touched" everything I have collected along with everything else stored in my home and have and continue to make decisions about what I am keeping and what I am not. If you have noticed I have sold tons of treasures on ebay this year and donated boxes and boxes of things to charities. An added benefit to a really cool basement is that I really have experienced not only a physical "inventory" of my possessions, but also a personal and spiritual "inventory" of friends, boards I sit on, organized religion, my love life and professional life. Many changes in all of these areas and what is not real or needed is either adjusted or let go of! All coming together as I celebrated 50 years of age last week! Mid-life crisis? No way! Stronger and better than ever! As Cher sings in Burlesque, (You did just bow at the mention of her name, right?) "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me! Cheers!
 
DEBBIE'S DISHWASHER!!!! (Well, mother Elaine's, really...)

Long ago when she lived across the street from us!

T-O-L, Roto-Rack, Converted to Built-In, (as were nearly ALL d/w's in the 'hood!) & in White...!

-- Dave
 
More pics

I spent part of today putting the Roto-rack back together and doing the inaugural load of dishes. All seems to be working well!

I double checked the model plate and it is indeed a 721505. That definitely makes it a 1972 Lady K!

Here's a pic of everything back together. She's all "lit up" here!

kenmore71++9-30-2011-19-08-7.jpg
 
And here is a picture I took of the cycle schematic.
Interestingly, the only difference between the "Regular" cycle and the "Power Wash" cycle is an additional 2 minutes of wash time in each of the detergent washes. If you look carefully that simply means that it gets 6 minutes of wash time in each wash instead of 4!

Here is the outline of the "Normal" cycle.
The heater element is engaged whenever the motor is in a "wash" phase.
Pause - 1 m.
Fill - 1 m.
1st Wash - 4 m.
Drain - 1 m.
Fill - 1 m.
1st Rinse - 1 m.
Drain - 1 m.
Fill - 1 m.
2nd Rinse - 2 m.
Drain - 1 m.
2nd (main) Wash - 4 m. (detergent cup)
Drain - 1 m.
Fill - 1 m.
3rd Rinse - 2 m.
Drain - 1 m.
Fill - 1 m.
4th Rinse - 3 m. (rinse injector at m. 2)
Drain - 1 m.
Additional Drain - 1 m.
Dry with Heat and Blower - 20 m.
Dry with only Blower (cool-down!) - 5 m.

The "Light Wash" is the same as above, but it begins with the second rinse. Therefore it only uses 4 fills instead of 6.

If you look closely you can see that in "Normal" and "Light" the rapid advance is engaged to skip 2 minutes of the wash period(s). In "Power Wash" the pump runs for a whole 6!!! minutes in each wash.

I'm told that the fill for this machine is approx. 2.25 gal. That means a full wash uses 13.5 gallons of hot water and a "Light Wash" would use 11 gallons.

kenmore71++9-30-2011-19-20-20.jpg
 
Thank you very much Mark.  "Interesting".  I"m kinda disappointed the Power Wassh doesn't incorporate any sort of time delay with water heeating. 
 

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