Picked up a '71 Lady Kenmore Combo for Justin (Countryford) this morning

[revvinkevin]

Justin sent me the FB link as this was in the LA area.  

 

I would have scooped this up for myself, but I am no longer bringing machines home, in fact I will me liquidating my collection, but that is for another post........

 

Listed as a "dryer - older" the seller had no clue what it actually was. When I asked about the history of it,  she said "my mom used it for a while...." what ever that means.

OK here is the gas 1971 Lady Kenmore Washer / Dryer Combo!

I don't know why, but I am surprised at just how NICE the control panel "background" and button labels are! And also surprise, both the control panel and drum lights work!

I also turned it on, the motor whirred to life and the drum turned, however I sadly (no surprise) didn't go into spin. 

 

Kevin

 

[maytag85]

It’s been saved! Hopefully it can be rebuilt and restored to its former glory. I almost thought about picking this up for myself but I don’t have any room myself unfortunately.

I think Ben (Swestoyz) has the same combo from 1971 in his collection as well.

 

[bajaespuma]

What a beautiful machine...

 

[appnut]

I cannot see the panel detail but I do believe this has the enzyme soak cycle

 

[revvinkevin]

Hi Bob, yes it as the enzyme soak!

 

[peteski50]

Kenmore!

What a Great find!

 

[swestoyz]

Great save, guys! And Kevin, hopefully you had help to load and unload. These are beasts!

The panel shots are great. Love the color keyed background on the panel and buttons. So cool!

Ben

 

[combo52]

1971 Lady Kenmore gas combo

Great save Keven, thanks for saving this machine. I know Chris from Ohio was talking about driving all the way out there to get it.

This was the final year for the whirlpool built combos from Sears. This one was made the fourth week of 1971. The one I have that I just finished restoring was made the 37th week of 1971. I think it was very close to when they shut down production.

The white one that I got back in 1980 I’ve had it in storage ever since. It was electric, but I converted it to gas and it’s now installed in my home laundry room.

This is long been the favorite ultimate combo For me, this one not only had the 2 1/2 hour Wrinkle guard system at the end of the dry cycle, but it used the wrinkle guard timer to do the enzyme pre-soak cycle and did intermittent tumbling for around 30 minutes to make the enzyme soaks work.

Right after these combination, washer dryers have been discontinued. I asked the salesman I knew with the Sears store in 1972 if they had any left, he said they had four avocado gas lady Kenmore‘s left in the warehouse here in the Washington area. They were $450 apiece. I had just gotten my first credit card was a serious card. It had a $400 limit. I was very tempted to buy this machine, but that was a lot of money. I wish now I had bought It.

on this Final model, they color keyed the control panel to go along with the machine color, which was kind of neat.

 

[revvinkevin]

This is my first time seeing a '71 in person and I also REALLY like the color keyed control panel, I LOVE the pattern! I noticed the "wrinkle - guard" control and thought "Wow that's really neat!" John that intermittent tumble for the enzyme soak program is a really awesome addition!

It had the fill hoses, drain hose, gas line and an exhaust hose in the drum. The tape holding the power cord to the top panel is VERY old, so it looks like it's been sitting a long time. This would be an excellent candidate for restoration! I may move it around in the truck so I can remove the back panel to see what it looks like inside.

If this were mine I would love to restore it as these are my also favorite combos too, but alas it's not mine.

John, that is beautiful combo, GREAT JOB!

Kevin

 

[maytag85]

It’s probably been sitting for 20 or 30 years with the old tape as mentioned holding the power cord down. I suspect it was only used as a dryer once it stopped spinning for the rest of the time it was in service.

 

[qsd-dan]

Great save, Kevin!

Not too many of these around anymore and this one looks worthy of a restoration for an ambitious collector.

 

[luxflairguy]

What a great save! Greg

 

[johnbee]

Suspension

I don’t see any suspension on this machine. Is it a hard mount washer/dryer ?

 

[combo52]

61 through 71 whirlpool built combination washer suspension

Very good observation, John, there is a little suspension in it. The tub assembly can move back-and-forth less than 1 inch but it has a designed in flex in the mounting of the outer tub assembly to the lower frame. It’s an ingenious system that can detect the slight movement and at the same time as it’s ramping up to a spin speed, it can add water to one of the three baffles inside the wash drum to balance the load, so it can obtain the full spin speed with out having a regular suspension system that allows a lot of movement.

One of the big design challenges on a combination washer dryers was to get it to spin fast enough to do a decent job of water extraction, but also to have a large enough tub to be a decent dryer. Different manufactures did different things. The first combinations the Bendix machines were 36 inches wide and allowed for enough room in the cabinet to have the tub move around a decent spin speed around 550 RPMs. Other manufactures just slowed the spin speed down to as little as 185 RPMs with the case of the Westinghouse combination Washer dryers.

These Kenmore combos when they came out Had a 525 RPM spin speed which was later reduced to 400 RPMs. Apparently they put too much load on weak floors and caused vibration issues. Washers always put a higher load on floors and many other front loading washers throughout history have had issues with vibration on weak floors , so this is not totally unexpected.

It never fails to amaze me the excellent engineering that must’ve gone into this machine, it was certainly the most heavily engineered laundry. Appliance ever sold up until including 1961. This was almost like putting men on the moon to come up with this product.

John

 

[maytag85]

Another thing that’s interesting is people (the general public) think washer dryer combos are newer technology when in reality they have been around since about the early to mid 50’s. Even more amazing the engineering that was involved in making these early combo units. All the solenoids and electromechanical parts in these combo units (really any machine that uses solenoids) almost reminds me of the complexity of a jukebox. Really amazing what was able to be accomplished many years ago.

 

[tomturbomatic]

One of John's older brothers took the parts list from John's mid 60s Lady Kenmore combo and counted up 1600 parts in it which was the same as a VW Beetle. It probably weighed less, though.