Sears Best Kenmore dishwasher

[pulltostart]

$25 in Lynchburg, VA

 

lawrence

https://lynchburg.craigslist.org/app/d/amherst-vintage-kenmore-dishwasher/7555569248.html

 

[repairguy]

Fancy D&M.

 

[bradfordwhite]

1983-84ish.

Not a fan of this control panel. I like the one before this best.
The TOL before this one had the same body but a different control panel with all electronic buttons.

 

[chachp]

Top Rack

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">I don't think I would like that top rack.  Seems like all those loops would be a pain to load around.</span>

 

[cleanteamofny]

This was my first dishwasher back in the'80s.
The onboard heater is the bomb. Many days when our boiler system failed, it heated the water during the wash/rinse cycles like no other. All I can say It's loud compared to today's unit and it will scrub off any baked gunk if loaded right.

 

[combo52]

Seers best Kenmore dishwasher ??

Sears should’ve never put the Sears best label on this machine, it was just cheesy dishwasher one of the worst on the market at the time. In the 80s.

Usually when the Sears best label appeared on something it was truly the best you could buy anywhere for almost any price but it was a total joke on their D&M Dishwashers.

John L

 

[tomturbomatic]

For a "Sears' Best" that is a POS top rack.

 

[bradfordwhite]

ohhhh

The nasty twins have arrived from MD.  lol

 

It's almost as if you have something personal against Kenmore dishwashers.  There are LOTS of junky appliances in the world under every name brand.  Many have been posted on this site over the years yet we rarely hear you kicking off about them. 

 

Well, what ever your issues, you've been around long enough to know that surely there will be yet more postings about 70s/80s Kenmore dishwashers going forward. 

 

Perhaps:

<ul>
<li>someone from Schenectady will post about a house they just bought and they need a part for one. </li>
<li>maybe someone else will post another Kenmore dishwasher for sale.</li>
<li>maybe someone will post Sears catalog scans for those who appreciate that to enjoy.</li>
</ul>
 

Will you be able to contain yourselves?  It really seems to get your blood boiling. Maybe you should seek help for your issues?  We wouldn't want you to have a heart attack over this.  I can't speak for anyone else but rest assured that I have no ill thoughts toward you when I post Kenmore dishwashers in the future.

 

[goatfarmer]

.....like......wow.....

 

[combo52]

D & M dishwashers

Built from the late 50s until WCI bought D&M and did away with this awful product.

Yes I have a thing against D&M dishwashers I fixed hundreds of them removed and recycled hundreds of them and even installed quite a few new ones back in the day.

Based on my extensive experience and the experiences of hundreds of owners of these machines that I dealt directly with I will conclude that this was the worst major appliance ever sold in large numbers in the United States.

I cannot think of a single part of these machines that was of high quality or lasted a particularly long time.

The only thing I can say in their defense is they did wash dishes they wash dishes about as well as a basic GE or waste king dishwasher of the time ( which is not saying a lot )

They were never anywhere in the league for a quality of a GE High Point whirlpool KitchenAid or Maytag.

BW I will continue to share my experiences with the products I have worked on we would like to hear about your experiences but you can leave all the emotional shit out if you don’t like my facts.

John L

 

[cleanteamofny]

I must attest and say the top rack is not perfect because the glasses lay flat instead at an angle to prevent yibbles from collecting on top. The Mincer does the job of grinding large food waste but lacks the best filtration.

 

[gansky1]

Genuine FOMOCO

 

 

This was at an estate sale down the block from us.  Banished to a corner of the basement workshop, missing lower rack.  This ghastly upper rack design has to earn at least a dishonorable mention in the D&M lineage.  

 

Have had several through the years, still have a 74 Kenmore Roto-Rack.  While some D&M designs were better than others, what kid wouldn't love the Roto-Rack, I mean... water spraying, lights, and it moves!  I can still see the clear demonstrator at Sears, the top rack spinning endlessly.  

 

[combo52]

D & M DW

Hi Greg, your Philco even has the inner door panel Rusting through from the inside like they would do, lol

The only DNM dishwasher we saved is at the museum, it’s a brand new 240 V 1966 lady Kenmore dishwasher that Keven found, even though it’s never been hooked up and is in a climate control building the finish on it continues to deteriorate because the materials were so poor used in the manufacturing of it.

We will hook it up for demonstration purposes at some point, and it will be fun machine performance wise it may be pretty good compared to other machines of its era, just not a machine I would ever won in my kitchen to be cut the floor.

John L

 

[petek]

Never knew of 240v Kenmore dw's. Where they for export to overseas US military bases etc.?

 

[combo52]

240 V Kenmore dishwashers

We’re an option on the Lady Kenmore model from 1965 through nine.

They gave a real 180F main wash and last rinse with the main pump running, this was the hottest wash and rinse of any domestic US DW and the only one that met health dept standards for commercial use.

John L

 

[tomturbomatic]

If I am not mistaken, the Kenmore machines did not have insulation on the tub so they took a lot of energy to heat the water to 180F. It is sort of surprising that Sears demanded so little from D&M, but then their Roper-made electric ranges were not stellar either.

 

[reactor]

D&M

As I have mentioned previous times, we had the Modern Maid version of this D&M machine from 1968 to 1973. Other than the color scheme the interior was virtually the same, only the MM didn't have the utility basket on the upper rack.

Performance wise, it certainly had good scrub-ability and cleaned pots and pans very well. The problem was little nibblets of food wastes that sometimes resided on the curved bottoms of glassware. After drying at 180 degrees these baked on very nicely.

As Larry mentioned, having a rack designed to tilt glassware would have helped. Other than this we had no problems with the top rack design. It held a lot of dishes.

My sister and brother-in-law had the D&M Kenmore with the roto-rack, and never experienced the nibblet problem, probably because the centrifugal force flung the particles off the glasses top. They liked their Kenmore. The only negative comment I recall them saying was that the roto-rack sometimes got out of balance and banged when the dishes weren't loaded correctly in the upper rack.

The D&M Modern Maid was the first dishwasher in our family, so we had nothing to compare it to. My mom really enjoyed just having a dishwasher.

If I recall correctly, rust out was the cause of failure for both our machine and my sister's. Rust out shouldn't happen in only five years.

My dad replaced our Modern Maid with a General Electric Americana. Now we had something to compare the Modern Maid/Kenmore/D&M design to.

My mom exclaimed about our new GE, after a couple of uses, "I never thought a dishwasher could be so good!"

The D&M dishwashers did the job...so much better than having to hand wash dishes. But there were better options out there.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Did you ever read the ratings Consumer's Union gave the D&M family of dishwashers (Kenmore, Gaffers & Sattler, Kelvinator etc.) noting that rust appeared in the sump before the testing period was over?

 

[Chetlaham]

240 V

Did these models have any 120 volt equipment inside them or was everything straight 240 volts?

 

[reactor]

230/240 volt

The D&M dishwashers were 110/120 volts across the board with the exception of one Sears Kenmore model which operated on 220/240v due to achieve a higher washing temperature. The extra voltage was for the larger heating element. The rest of the dishwasher (timer, main motor, solenoid) operated on 110/120.

 

[reactor]

220/240 volt

The D&M dishwashers were 110/120 volts across the board with the exception of one Kenmore model, which Sears offered for a time, that operated on 220/240v to achieve a higher wash temperature. The extra voltage was for the larger heating element. The rest of the dishwasher (timer, main motor, solenoid) operated on 110/120.

[this post was last edited: 11/17/2022-10:21]

 

[estesguy]

Reply #17

That was my first and only experience with a Sears/D&M, thats who I was told made it, back in 1975. I installed one in my first house, that I added a dishwasher to, that had none before. The first thing I noticed was hairline cracks extenting out from screw heads in the porcelain holding the motor assembly in. These cracks were already showing signs of rust. Out it came and back to Sears. I installed a Kitchen Aid Imperial in its place, whatever model it would have been back then.

 

[circlew]

If the motor, etc. operates on 120 volts, the machine would require a 120/240 volt 3-wire circuit (with neutral). As dishwasher circuits are usually 120 volt 2-wire, new wiring would have to be installed if replacing an existing unit. They might have sold better if the machine was all 240 volt, as the same 2-wire cable could likely be used, requiring only a new double pole breaker in place of the original single pole (assuming wire is of sufficient size for load).

 

[reactor]

220/240v Sears DW

I doubt if the dishwasher was that big of a seller, Tom, for the reason you have given. One would have to run a new line to build that dishwasher into their kitchen. It might be OK if someone was building a house where they could customize their kitchen circuitry.

I wonder if anyone ever installed it using their prexisting wiring? All they would need to do is to use the ground line for the neutral and the black and white lines for the two hot legs.

It would be simple to add one breaker and put the previous neutral (white) line on the new breaker. The ground line would then become the neutral. In most residential panels the ground and neutral are connected together at the box anyway.

Of course, since ground line is now uninsulated, that would prohibit it from being as a neutral per the NEC regulations, but when did that ever stop anyone.

 

[combo52]

230/240 V lady Kenmore dishwashers

Yes I’m sure these were not big sellers Barry, I only ever saw three of them in my career.

The one that I have that I got from Kevin in Long Beach that’s in the museum.

And we removed one in 1976 that was a 1969 model installed a new Maytag reverse rack dishwasher in its place. That was easy to do we just didn’t use the one hot wire when we hooked it up the Maytag that is.

That dishwasher I stripped the 240 V 2400 W element out of it and, I ended up using that element in a porcelain tub 18 inch DNM dishwasher that a friend put in his office where there was no water heater and that 2400 W element would heat the water up amazingly fast running the dishwasher on cold water.

I also saw a Lady Kenmore up in Vermont about 35 years ago a friend was looking for a house and I noticed that the old DNM dishwasher said 180 on the high temperature cycle.

John L

 

[gansky1]

 

 

I took these pics in 2015 at John's, note the double element.  

 

 

 

[Unimatic1140]

D&M 11+ Years Later

So I have had my 1965 Lady Kenmore D&M dishwasher installed in my kitchen for well over 11 years now. I use it normally about 4 times a week. It has no rust build-up nor have I needed to do much repairs. The racks are still nearly in pristine condition. Earlier this year I had to rebuild the water valve but that was the first repair since I started using it. Every few years I need to remove the mount and take something out that shouldn't have gone in the dishwasher and is being thrown around loudly by the macerator. I do realize that the earlier models like this were probably built much better than the later models in 1970s and beyond.

I never find any bits of food left over, the only exception is the occasional bit on a piece of silverware but that only happens if it is cupped next to another utensil. Of course this happens in any dishwasher I've ever used. Centrifugal force throws any bits on the top rack off and I love not having to clean any filter. I do not pre-rinse or even scrap much and the D&M takes care of removing all the food. I really do love this dishwasher.

Here are pictures of the interior after 11 years of use, I took these picture this week...

 

[reactor]

Nice machine, Robert.

Love your modifications to add a tub light and door window to allow you to see your machine in action. The D&M machines were really not as bad as some are making them out to be. I wish some of the AW members would learn not to to view the world in gross generalizations and communicate with overt, and often false, exaggerations.

Those turquoise racks are nice. The later mustard yellow racks that Sears used were not as attractive, at least in my opinion. The one nice thing Modern Maid did with the D&M machines was to color coordinate the racks and tubs. My family's Modern Maid had a "Robin's Egg Blue" porcelain tub with complementary Marina blue racks. It was quite striking. Too bad they used off-white silverware baskets and detergent dispensers, though.

Thanks for sharing the pictures, Robert. I can't imagine how much time and pabor you put into the modifications of your machine!

 

[peteski50]

D & M

My experiences have not been bad either. I had a 18" kenmore in a apartment once it worked beautifully. I knew others that had other Kenmore models and they had no rust or no real problems either. I knew someone that had a 1970 caloric and it was a super DW! Later on they did cheapen everything!

 

[combo52]

The last year of a somewhat OK DNM dishwasher

Was 1966 after that they really cheap and gasket and tub design and the baffled inside the door and the door panel started to rust out and the dishwashers leak down the sides they were a mess after that.

Our family‘s first dishwasher was a 1966 TNM middle of the line Kenmore dishwasher it required about 10 service calls in this many years.

Three warranty calls in the first year, new motor new inlet valve, pump had to be rebuilt inner door panel rusted out and had to be replaced, the ball bearings fell out of the Roto rack and jammed the pump up.

Other than that it was sure better than not having a dishwasher it did clean the dishes reasonably well in spite of not having a filter the Roto rack gave better water patterns and you never got that stuff on the tops of things I will say that for it but of course it didn’t hold near as much.

John