My year 2000 Kirkland washer I acquired yesterday..

[ps91rick]

It’s in fairly good shape, could use a paint buff job.. the paint on these newer machines doesn’t seem quite as good as the 70’s and 80’s and probably older..

Anyway, some pictures for you all.. it’s got a massive capacity compared to my ‘76 Maytag regular. I’ve got them next to each other in the garage for now..

I need to pop the hood on the Kirkland (Whirlpool) to look at the bleach dispenser as I don’t think it’s working at the moment.. there was a fair amount of dust and dirt from lack of use and ?? I filled it with water and it just sat there.. I don’t think it’s solenoid controlled as far as I know.

 

[DADoES]

 
The bleach dispenser drains into a tray on the tub ring that in turn drains immediately into the outer tub so bleach dilutes with water.  The outlet port on the dispenser apparently is clogged.  It can be snapped out of the top ... very carefully or one or more of the little tabs that anchor it typically will break off.  Better to poke into the outlet with a wire or toothpick or cotton swab to clear the clog.

 

[ps91rick]

Thx! Mine must have broken tabs already as it comes out easily and moved if bumped .. I believe mi r is clogged be the removable tray..

 

[ps91rick]

Ok.. I took the machine apart.. wow!! What a difference with how it was engineered for maintenance.. so easy to remove the cabinet! Two easy to get to screws and pop two clips! Nice!!

I removed the top plastic ring that the bleach drains into and found all kinds of yuck under the lip.. and I was able to very easily clean those small bleach holes which were clogged up.. works like a charm now.

I would like to clean the top half of the agitator but not sure how to do that. I saw a hole in the side and perhaps it’s as easy as sticking a screwdriver in the ..? I’ll look around at some point but I’m happy with the machine and it’s considerably larger than my old machine which is nice.

Thanks all for the tips !!!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Congratulations!

Have lots of fun with her. These are good performers.

 

[whirlykenmore78]

Good find:

You will really like that machine. You will also find three improvements over the MT. The WP will wash much larger loads, clean and rinse better and be easier to fix. Also parts are very easy and inexpensive to find for these machines.
WK78

 

[ps91rick]

First issue...

So yesterday I wanted to do a load using hot water.. It started filling with warm as that was what was initially selected.. so water was pouring in and I switched over to HOT and all water stopped..

Now, if I recall, there’s a solenoid that should get power to open the valve for the hot water. I’m assuming that perhaps the solenoid isn’t getting power on the hot setting.. The warm setting works fine — I get warm water.

So.. I’m thinking that I’ll initially check the temp switch and see whether it’s perhaps not feeding power to the solenoid when hot is selected.. Is that a good place to start and is that a typical failure point for these?

 

[yogitunes]

just out of curiosity, this may be one of the odd dubbing temp versions....

meaning, if you select HOT, it will fill with that temp for 60 seconds, and then switch to WARM or COLD for the rest of the fill....I thought there was something wrong the first time I encountered this...and found out it will only restart this sequence after a full cycle...

there are little tricks they throw in there.....

as well as some machines offer a WARM rinse, but its not the deep fill that is WARM, its the final spray rinse that is WARM....

there are vids on replacing the 'dogs' inside the agitator, one of those will show you complete removal, tear down, and replacing all the parts inside....easier than you think...there are changes to some, but the general internals are all the same..

 

[ps91rick]

This one definitely has full hot.. its worked fine up until recently.

As for the agitator, i rebuilt mine for $20 and its working well..

Thanks!

 

[DADoES]

 
Parts diagrams show that it should have an electronic temp control board.  Probably is plugged into a socket in the console if it does.  P/N 3407125 which is NLA but can be found on eBay.  They do go bad but it may or may not be the problem.