Machines of Ill Repute, Volume I - The later D&M Kenmore

[roto204]

Hot water and scraping!

Allen, I agree that the key was a lot of hot water--and pre-scraping!  No rinsing required, but scraping prevented endless forays to the sink with toothpicks to clear the wash-arms.

 

Dave, I think these finally petered out in the early nineties--my owner's guide matched Peter's 1991 print date, but I'm not sure if this was the swan song for that design.

The 18" models persisted long after that, well into the 2000s.

 

[gr81nknox]

barely beats handwashing

Those DWs are horrible! I lived in two separate apartments which had the BOL Kenmores. The first one was built around 1996 and had the standard DW design(door and access panel). Basic apartment model, had about 3 cycles and heated or cool dry options. Telescoping wash tower was the only thing washing the upper rack. Noisy and didn't do all that good of a job. Then I moved into a newer, more "upscale" apartment which was built around 2002. Also had BOL Kenmore, but this one had the single piece door(no access panel)and taller tub. Had the fine mesh screen in the bottom of the tub as well. It was much quieter than the previous one, but actually cleaned worse. Being used to a circa 1995 Ultrawash back at my parents' house, I was very disappointed in those Kenmores.

 

[roto204]

Sucksters

I haven't had the "privilege" of using the wash-tower units.  We saw a White-Westinghouse unit that was like mine but with a tower and the full-length upper wash arm on the top of the tank, and I thought that was interesting.

 

This unit has three wash arms, and wasn't objectionable cleaning-wise.  No chrome gone off the trailer hitch, but better than the later wimpy-pump Electrolux units that had a ball, but no balls.

 

[mrcleanjeans]

Nate, I L-O-V-E your reviews and writing style! You are a hoot! And you've answered that age old question I've had (well, really, 2 decade old question)about whether or not that honkin' "soil separator" really worked. BTW,what is the large hole resting atop of that thang? An olive pit port or what?

 

[garyl]

D&M dishwashers

I started in the appliance business by rebuilding D&M (Design and Manufacture) dishwashers and selling them, or rebuilding them for apartment managers in the late 70s. I would go to thrift stores and buy them for 25 cents to $5. I'd put in a new pump seal kit, test it and sell it. If they were rusted out, I'd part them out. Often the screws would break off in the pump body, so I would use one from another machine. To make them nice and quiet, I would staple carpet or padding to the inside of the cabinet. Works great!

 

[roto204]

Thank you!!

Thank you so much, Dave!  I'm not sure what the hole on the separator is.  Peter (peteski) had an Admiral brochure that attempted to explain the operation, but I think it was a lot of illustration and not much substance on WCI's part.  I didn't dismantle it to see how it really was supposed to work.  I believe water was infused by the pump, heavier soil was supposed to fall out by gravity, and clean water could exit the top port, leaving the yuck behind, but that's odd because I'm not sure why you'd want to bleed wash pressure out into the tank, rather than sending clean water up to the arm.

 

Of course, no clean water ever reached the arm anyway ;-), so maybe it was moot.

 

The olive-pit port was the wash pump, wherein all broken glass and foreign objects were automatically flushed to the wash arms for easy removal!  ;-)  Once the arms filled up with enough vanes broken off the wash impeller, and the wobbling impeller stack compromised the carbon-porcelain seal, it was time for a pump seal kit.

 

Gary, I love the story of $0.25 to $5 D&Ms.  I seldom see them for less than $25 these days!  I also love the idea of padding them to make them quiet--LOL!

 

I found that the later units with the black, two-piece sump (early-eighties, but before the dreaded soil-separator) were VERY easy to service.  The ones with the porthole at the bottom, with its ring of bolts, were not so much.

 

 

 

 

[mark_wpduet]

I've never heard of this D & M? I thought WP always made dishwashers for Sears.

But.....In the 70s when my aunt/uncle had their house built & all new Kenmore appliances installed, I remember it didn't look anything like my grandmas Whirpool.

Now I know why.

The WP was better to me