New to me Kenmore 80 series - questions and advisory

[HighpowerXTL5K]

Hello all, first of all I wanted to thank everyone here once again for the wealth of information that has helped me make decisions on several appliances while saving tons of money getting heavy duty equipment that will work for years to come.

Background: we are about to move into our second home (late 20s couple here) and are tired of spending money on POS appliances. We have been homeowners for about 6 years and have replaced enough appliances to make someone lose their mind on the cash blown on “modern” machines. See my rant-ish posts about choosing the speed queen set we purchased a bit ago for our main work horses. So basis here is we wanted an auxiliary washer in our basement to wash more crummy things like shoes, shop towels, and maybe rugs. This led me on the search for an older machine and I was immediately on the hunt for a direct drive machine since everyone raves about their reliability.

So here she is, found her at a habitat restore for $100 only the agitator needs repair I assume it needs a $10 set of dogs. (Already ordered the repair kit on Amazon) How bad did I get ripped off? The housing and controls are near mint condition. The tub is really clean and free of stains. Any recommendation on if/how I should clean the outer tub?

Any other recommendations on things I should check or service before I put her into service. I want my $100 to be well served for a unit to last me 20 years as a backup to my SQ!

 

[qsd-dan]

That's a good score for $100. 3 speed motor, Ultra Rinse, variable water level (which the SQ does not have) and all of the water temp options. Wouldn't be surprised if it outlasted the SQ, especially the control board.

 

[HighpowerXTL5K]

I am super stoked, this thing sure feels like a tank. I believe that it feels heavier than the Speed Queen when moving it around. Does anyone have any alternative to getting the tub nut off without the special wrench? I am thinking about removing the inner tub to clean the outer just to clean and check things out.

 

[combo52]

If the basket lock ring is not too corroded, you normally can just take a small hammer and a blunt punch or tool, and just loosen the ring and unscrew it.

Might not be a bad idea since it’s 20 years old and it’s been used with cold water to take the inner wash basket out and clean it up, if they get a heavy buildup of residue around the center post and under the wash basket, it increases corrosion and you’ll have serious problems with the washer sooner.

This should be a good performing washer a little better in fact than the Speed Queen top loader, but it is 20 years old. It was not designed to last 40 years or even close to that with regular use, hopefully you’re lucky and got low use machine and you might get many years out of this

John L

 

[HighpowerXTL5K]

Truthfully I would be open to collecting some parts and keeping a cache to rebuild this thing when some of the various parts may fail. I already purchased a spare belt for the new SQ just in case.