POD Kenmore pairs

[tomturbomatic]

Only the 6 temperature dryer for $134 in electric is mentioned as having the sunshine lamp. All of the gas dryers were 37,000 BTUs. Interesting water level notation of 2 to 10 pounds sounds like the lower end of capacity claims from other manufacturers, Norge, etc., in future years.

 

[mrb627]

Lady-Kenmore Combo

Interesting that the LK Combo at the bottom of the page requires a 240 / 50 amp service. Wonder if they sold a lot of these back then to homeowners that didn't have that large service ready to go.

Malcolm

 

[peteski50]

Kenmore!

Is this from 58 or 59?

 

[tomturbomatic]

By moving a wire and taking a heating element out of the circuit, it would operate on 30 amps, but drying was slower. The gas combos had the burner on the bottom left side. The burner operated to heat water on the HOT setting, actually holding the timer until the water reached 120F and for MEDIUM, it filled with warm and heated it. The burner was next to the U-shaped porcelain outer tub. Eventually the intense heat of the burner operating during drying damaged the porcelain, leading to rusting of the tub and eventually, leaking. When installed on wooden floors, the gas burner charred the wood after disposing of the linoleum floor covering. People were sort of shocked when the machine was moved and they saw what it had done. They did not smell the wood charring since the blower was sucking the smoke through the machine and sending it outside.

 

[appnut]

tom, what you described above is what caused the demise of the combo next door in about 4 or 5 years at the most. Hot was only heated to 120? If that was "hot" what was "medium's" set temp? Didn't know that about "medium". I don't remember the neighbor using medium, but then again she wouldn't let me hang around it very long. I just remember that big ol a$$ burner kicking in to heat hot when she did whites and when it dried.

 

[tomturbomatic]

The timer was held until 120F, at which point the timer motor started, but the heating continued to raise the temperature during the wash portion. The sump of the machine only held 3 gallons over what was needed to saturate the load. It was not just the burner being next to the tub that heated the water, but also the hot air being pulled through the cylinder with the tumbling laundry and the wash stream. The heating did not take long with the 37,500 BTU burner. Most domestic gas water heaters use a 40,000 BTU burner for tanks up to 50 gallons. The electric version heated the water with an immersion heating element that was of a wattage equivalent to an element in an electric water heater. It was good that these combos had water heating ability because unless they sat next to the water heater or had just finished drying a load, there is no way that 3 gallons of hot water would stay hot with all of that cold steel to heat up.