Odd Old Kenmore Disposer

[volsboy1]

Has anybody ever had one of these disposers.This machine is in MINT never taken out of the shrink wrap disposer.I have never seen a Kenmore like this.It is the Sear's Best and it has a cast ring with spikes on the side of it and that grind ring is razor sharp also a first in any I.S.E. made machine.I thought is was a Auto reverse cause it says Double life grind control but no the whole bottom thing is a switch that you turn and then there are arrows that point to the direction it will go.This machine is huge its alot bigger than it looks in the picture.I was wondering when this was made?You can tell its made very well compared to whats out today.

 

[combo52]

MANUALLY REVERSIBLE KM DISPOSER

I had the batch-feed version of this disposer in my house for many years. It was a very good unit the BF version had an even bigger hopper, you could fill it for a full day before you had to turn on. ISE seemed to keep the auto reverse feature for thier own models so I guess thats way KM ended up with this rather unusual manual switch, the pervious KM unit was green and had a white rocker switch on it to reverse the grind action, yours looks to be from the early 1980s or even the late 1970s I didn't get a chance to look it up in an old Sears cat.

 

[turquoisedude]

Looks very familiar!

I bought a machine VERY much like this back in 1989 when I bought my first house - I was so anxious to get a disposer again after having lived two years without one!! Mine was the Canadian clone KenmorISE, a continous-feed one - orange and stainless housing with the auto-reverse feature. It ran until 2005 then the motor just up and quit on me. Great machine!!

 

[tolivac]

Cast Shred rings!!Wish ISE and other would go back to them-so much BETTER than the cheap stampted shred rings-these get dull,wear out quickly,bend,or even break.The cast ones keep grinding!

 

[combo52]

CAST GRIND RINGS

Are nice when new but the material in cast grind rings wears much faster than the stamped SS ones do. I can show you old cast grind rings from old MT, WK and ISE disposers where the teeth are worn smooth you never see this with the stamped SS grind rings. GE and WP used stamped SS rings all through the 1960s and 1970s and I never saw a dual one but we used to change the grind rings in the WK, ISE and some times in the MT disposers because they would hardly grind any more. The ISEs with the reversing feature did last a lot longer. I have had a lot of experience with disposers here in the DC area, disposers have been required in homes in DC since 1964 and of corse most homes and apartments in MD and VA have had them in large numbers since the 1960s. You really couldn't sell or even rent a home here unless it had one.

 

[combo52]

cAST GRIND RINGS

I did neglect to say that stamped grind rings in your $50-100 are usually just plated steel and these do wear very fast. The single most important feature in a good disposer is to make sure it has all SS grind components. The horsepower is really not important, sound insulation can be nice but no disposer is really quite when grind bones and you really wouldn't want it to be either as it would be more dangerous if you couldn't here it running.

 

[volsboy1]

This disposer is made very well,I collect disposer's I have about over 20 of them.I have also noticed that Horsepower don't matter much at all.I have right now in my sink a 1971 Wasteking SS8000 I got it last year and it was brand new in the box.It is a HUGE machine the cast grind ring is still very sharp and that disposer has a huge weight under the flywheel.Its a very quite machine it is a 1/2 H.P. but has no problem with steak,rib,or any bones.It says in the instructions to grind cigarette butts,paper towels,wax paper and so on but it also has undercutters on it..That was a $$$ disposer for back then 299 bucks the sticker had on it,for 1970 that is a ton of money.This Kenmore is a late 70s or early 80s I think.I can't find a date but it does give a breakdown on all the parts.Its also a 1/2 H.P. Cap start motor stainless steel everything and Cast Nickel something grind ring.Today they just sell horse power for the most part and the grind system sucks..I have a Evolution Excel and I hate it.Its slow as Xmas at grinding yes it is very quite but my Wasteking or my old Maytag will blow it away.That Kenmore will out grind it cause that ring is sharp as a razor..

 

[a440]

That is an awesome looking disposer!
Amazing how well built it looks!
Brent

 

[tolivac]

Yes, I have had experience with disposers in the DC area-and I found the opposite-the cast shredders lasted longer than the stampted ones-wether they be plated steel or SS.Apartment house landlords usually use the cheapest disposers-those with the plated stampted shredder rings-and the "teeth" wear off of these faster than any other.Again give me a cast shredder anyday.And go back to the "old school" Waske King flywheel,swivel hammers and cast rings instead of what they use today-CHEAP CHINESE JUNK!!!Yes I have a small collection of disposers.

 

[combo52]

CHINESE DISPOSERS

I have never seen a Chinese disposer or for that matter any imported disposer please supply details. In my kitchen I have a Vicking batch feed auto reverse fixed impeller cast grind ring unit and one of the last MT batch feed units in the other sink. The Vicking is the old KA formally National design it works much better than the MT but the Mt is still a very good unit. I often said it was MTs best product and its the only MT product in my house out of more than 35 major appliances.

 

[sudsmaster]

If I'm not mistaken, the modern Waste King line is made by the same company that makes the Titan line, and yes they are now made in China. I have a 3/4 HP Titan. It has stamped SS grind ring and a very high spin speed. It works just fine, has never jammed. It's quieter than the 30 year old Waste King S5000 it replaced, which would jam if you looked at it wrong.

As far as I can tell the Waste King and Titan/Waste Maid products are very similar - the main difference being that you can get a Waste King with a 3 bolt mounting system or the EZ Mount system, whereas the Titan is available only with the EZ Mount, although a 3 bolt adapter is available if you already have the sink set up for that.

 

[gansky1]

Check at Costco, John - I think that is where the Titan models first showed up on our shores.

I have a Waste King that Jeff Parker in Chicago gave me. I put it in the kitchen when we remodeled and it's far and away the best I've ever had. Of course, you really can't compare this to a series of Badgers...

 

[peterh770]

Had one installed while I was growing up. Didn't last very long, the impellers came off the plate. Rather than fool with it, Dad replaced it with an ISE. Sears said it was because we had the dishwasher draining into it.

 

[volsboy1]

I have a National disposer its a very heavy machine.I also have two Kitchenaids and a Viking disposer.The National disposer grinds much faster for some reason but its grind ring is different the breaker bars stick out farther than the Kitchenaids and it has two center rippers in it.. I have seen some cast grind rings wear really fast.The older disposer's cast rings seem to be made a lot better.My 1991 Wastking SS5000 grind ring was dull within a year.Now my Waste king Universal that I have now the ring is still sharp.G.E. disposer's all used a stamped ring I think.Those were made of Carboloy and I had a G.E. induction machine and that grind ring was the hardest material I have ever seen.I tried to drill it but it broke the bits it broke everything that I tried on it..I do have a 1979 Sinkmaster 800 with a induction motor in it and it has a stamped ring in it and grinds very well but when it comes to a New Kenmore disposers not my old one but these new ones suck...

 

[tolivac]

Yes,I have used the GE disposers that had Carboloy cutters built into the shred ring-so effective!!these machines could shred almost anything-that would be an IMPROVEMENT to stampted shred rings--put Carboloy cutters in them.The cutters would do most of the shredding rather than the projections from the ring intself-on some occasions I have seen food residue get behind the stampted cutter projections on stampted rings-causing the ring to corrode from behind-or the hopper to corrode where the ring is.To put it simply-newer disposers don't impress me as much as some of the older models-sort of like dishwashers-many newer ones aren't as good as the older washers-see the dishwasher videos where a camera and light were wrapped in plastic bags and put into the machine while it ran.The problem with WK disposers is no reverse-the reversing helps keep shredders sharper,cleaner,and wear more evenly.Wished the older WK disposers had reverse action like the ISE machines.
Oh yes-remember a GE disposer with Carboloy shredders in a Levittown hose my Mom used to live in-Remember "sneaking" various things and shredding them with that GE disposer-Bottlecaps,wrappers,etc-wonder the drain plumbing didn't get clogged.Those older GE machines were sure better than the WK "clones" you now see with "GE" marked on them-probably made in China too.Those "blender Motor" GE's with Carboloy cutters sure ruled!