I notice that when the machine goes from drain to spin, there is no pause. It just shifts into spin and starts spinning. The Kenmores I have known usually stop the motor and then kick into spin.
Belt drive Whirlpools and Kenmores don't have a need to stop the motor between drain and spin except when changing motor speeds. There's a momentary pause set in the timer cams when it rolls over the increment from high-speed drain to low-speed spin. Or low speed agitate to high speed drain.
I don't know if I remember this well.......but it seemed like just before that glorious shifting sound between neutral drain and spin.....the Kenmore's timer seemed to take a little more time to shift into spin than the Whirlpool. My imagination?
Neal
Since Kenmores are manufactured by Whirlpool I don't think there could be a difference since the timer in the Kenmore is a Whirlpool part. One difference between the older standard capacity WP/KN and the later large capacity ones is that the large cap ones needed a little longer drain period to completely draing before spinning. The timer for the LC had a little extra drain time built into them. You may be comparing an older Kenmore 16lb cap to a later Whirlpool 18lb one. Also the newer model WP/KN's had a longer drain period no matter what the capacity. I think because then they could use the same timer on both 16 and 18 lb machines.
My machine has to hold 16 lbs. The tub was smaller than large-capacity Whirlpools (no holes towards the top; Whirlpool had these), but larger than standard-capacity.