My aunt and uncle put this machine in their house when they built in 1992.
It was a good performer, nice and quiet and is pretty much the same as the Dishlex machines starting with the Mark 7 from the late 70's. They continued this design up until the late 90's when it was replaced with the Global series. Very little changed in that time with the exception of the detergent dispenser. A timer from one of the last Dishlex machines of this design will still work in a Mark 8 from 1980.
On theirs, the Membrane touchpad was replaced numerous times in the 10 years they had it, certain cycles would stop being available unless you wiggled the membrane just right. (These are still available) What finally killed it, was the pump bearings, at the time it was $450 for a new pump.
They had the matching oven and gas cooktop, it was all black and shiney and very unusual for an Aussie kitchen at that time.
If it is one of the early ones, the Water heater is hidden under the grey filter, and the dry element is a rectangle at the back of the tub. Assuming that it has both in a 110v arrangement. These machines were best connected to hot, as the water heating element was only 900watts. Filling at 60degs, you'll complete a full cycle in about an hour, from cold it stretches out to 90-120mins.
These machiens also have an overflow protection of sorts. If it's plugged in, but the machine is off and the water level reaches right up to overflow level, it'll turn on and start draining until the pressure switch resets. Quite a nice feature on a machine that old.
Its based on a great machine, Mum's Mark 8 from 1981 is still going strong today, with a couple of new hoses and a new pressure switch in that time.
