R.I.P. 1978 KM dishwasher

[kenmore1978]

Well, the city hauled away the empty tub, rusty racks, and outer door panel of my 1978 KM electronic dishwasher today (sniff). I stripped ALL the parts off of it yesterday (it had a Westinghouse motor!). Roommate was bugging me to do something with it, it has been sitting on our front patio for some months now.

Hard to believe that it's gone when I remember unpacking it from it's cardboard box back in the day. I still have the portable version of it, and will probably fix it someday when I get the cash for a new motor relay board and timer. In the meantime, if anyone needs a part for their D & M machine, let me know and if I have it and feel I won't need it for the portable, I'll send it to you free. Gotta keep this stuff going.

 

[retromom]

No more KM?

Jaune:

Sorry about the KM. These things have a way of popping up again. Keep the parts! I'm optimistic for you ;-))

Venus

 

[kenmore1978]

Well, it's rare that one actually has an appliance from birth to death, usually people move or give stuff away before it actually dies, or if it does die the whole thing goes and it's not "parted out" for re-use on sister machines.

 

[rickr]

D.O.A. Kenmore

Well Juan she has a nice full life,you have my utmost sympathy. However if you send the old Lady to the scrapper,we might have to put you on probation!! LOL How is your washer doing? Can you find a donor machine out there to rebuid yours?

Best wishes,
Rick

 

[kenmore1978]

'78 LK washer

My original thought was to somehow find the tool, tear it down again, and replace the spin bearings, but on second thought, I see machines of that era on the scavengers trucks around here all the time. So, I'm thinking of buying one off one of them, and just exchanging the entire mechanism, depending on if the spin bearings are still good in the donor machine (which they probably are, most KM machines that are "curbed" I find to have seized pumps 8 out of 10 times). Would be easier to just transfer the new parts I've put on this machine on the donor machine, and just disconnect the suspension rods and lower the whole thing into the LK machine.

 

[lavamat_jon]

Replacement

Juane,

Just interested, what did it get replaced with? Sad to see such an old appliance friend go (especially when its to the scrap man), especially one that works so well for an owner over it's life. Try and find a dishwasher on the market today that would last 27 years. I think the only one you can get now with the same sort of quality is Miele... your lucky to have a cheap dishwasher last 5 years now, at least here in the UK with loads of cheap imported plastic Italian appliances.

My sympathies go to you,

Jon

 

[kenmore1978]

replacment for '78 KM dishwasher

The KM lasted for 27 years because I kept repairing it all that time. While still under warranty/service contract, the timer, lower impeller, and heating element were replaced. After I started maintaining it myself, it went through:

another heating element
2 sets of racks
drying blower
2 inner door panels
4 door springs
lower spray arm
door gasket

It's replacement is a 1988 WP TOL electronic model that a friend found on the curb, a probable "remodeling" victim, since it worked perfectly, only bad thing was racks were starting to rust, which I coated with rack repair fluid.

The KM had some features that I miss on the WP, like being able to modify wash times on the cycles, a digital minute countdown to end of cycle, and progression lights that showed where in the cycle the machine was. It also had that 70's fake "burled woodgrain" on the door control panel that I sort of liked.