Interesting note about Perm Press / Wash & Wear in Kenmores
Sears catalogs sometimes mentioned back in the 60s and 70s that they had engineers constantly testing and deveoloping their machines. That seemed overplayed to me, but there is actually evidence that they accomplished some things in replacement timers that were or are available for the belt-drive washers.
My point - Wash & Wear / Perm. Press changed a lot in Kenmores over the years, and may have as well in WPs, I'm not so sure. In Kenmores though, I remember the two partial drains, slow-agitate cold-water refills in our '61, and the much less amusing non-agitate refills in our '74. I don't recall the agitate speed in that machine during cool-down (we don't use Perm Press much at all).
One thing I can say for certainty however - most of the original timer numbers for belt-drives have been revised and sub-over to newer or different numbers. This can sometimes alter a machine's "personality", For example, a 1973 18-lb large capacity machine originally used a timer that was shared and used mostly with a standard capacity model. The big-tub was really just a variant of the regular one. The original timer allowed only a 2-minute drain. That doesn't leave a lot of idle time on a full tub, especially in the 18-pounder. This was followed by a four minute first spin and a 6-minute final spin (Normal cycles). The original timer for those machines subs now to a differnt timer, which has some altered sequences - a 4-minute drain and a 2-minute first spin and 4-minute final spin. Total cycle time doesn't change, but the new timer improves the drain period for the big machines, and lessens wear and tear on spin bearings (which was an issue in high-mileage pre-1978 machines).
Other changes have been made to timers, some of which even got "announced" to owners in the form of a little instruction sheet packed with the new timer. In the late 70s, a new version of one very common timer came packed with an announcement stating that one of the original two cool-down sequences in Perm Press had been eliminated, as testing had determined that the 'new' single-cool down cycle was virtually as effective and saved water.
Appnut mentions that large capacity machines had a 4-minute drain by the mid-70s. While this is true, the standard capacity machines that used the same timers did also. The timer in my 'green beast' is the same timer that was used on probably half the machines made from 1976 thru 1986, and has a 4-minute drain. To accomodate the various pumps and capacities during that time, the timer has to accomodate the biggest machines with the slowest pumps.
I recently found a new timer for my '61 model 70. It too has a sub-over part number. The machine doesn't need a timer that I know of, but I have it for when or if it does. It would be interesting to see if the wash 'n wear cycle has been altered in it too!
Gordon
