Steve-Gyrofoam Visits The Mighty Plains

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

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Wow...all this and great food too!

Greg and Steve:

Fantastic, Fantastic, Fantastic!! It looks like Spring Break was great fun for you. All I can say is "C'mon Omaha!!"

Steve: Glad to see you enjoyed cooking on Greg's range. We all expect you to turn out some delicious treats in June! :-D

Venus
 
Hi Greg, wonderful pictures. Looks like the Kelvinator is running beautifully now, can't wait to see it. I've never seen the blue dasher cap before, its very rare!

Congrats on the dishwasher too, should I get the "Acme Modern Appliance Launcher" ready for that silly Whirlpool tall tub dishwasher?
S2.gif
 
Wow! You guys had fun!

Greg,
Thanks for sharing all of the great pictures!
I can't get over how fantastic the GE Combo looks. I also did not know that you were the one to get it. It is beautiful! Man, now you have just about every combo except the Lady Kenmore. Steve is great at detailing the machines. He is so precise on getting them showroom clean!
Give us a run-down sometimes from a consumers point of view of the washing ablility of your combo's.
You are one lucky guy!
Glad you both had such a good time.
Thanks again for the pictures of your visit!
Brent
 
Thanks for all the great comments and congrats - yes, we do have a bit of a space issue, which is nothing new, but I removed a wall in the basement between the south room and the "middle room" which is where the GE combo and several dishwashers will go. Not only space for a few more appliances, but LOTS more room for our conventioneers!

The Maytags will need a considerable amount of work, but fortunately, I have quite a few of the parts I'll need for cosmetic restoration - panel glass, new top, etc. that came with them and I have a very good source for the other parts I might need locally as well. Now to find the time! I'm just so excited to have them "back" again, the restoration work will be a piece of (chocolate fudge pound) cake!

Here is a pic of the KDC-14 interior - just MINT! I've been running it nearly every day and have yet to find anything not perfectly clean. Since this was a gravity drain machine, I wired a pump from a Whirly "World" portable washer in series with the motor. Since the motor and new pump are running through the whole washing/rinsing cycle, we get the added benefit of the pump carrying away any water that may run out the overflow tube - in left front corner of tub. The power of the circulation pump is incredible and the sounds of the water blasting the dishes sends chills down your back - these cast iron wash arm machines were the most powerful dishwashers Hobart-KitchenAid made. I was skeptical of the short wash cycle, 6 3/4 minutes, but so far everything has been spotless.

3-31-2005-00-14-13--gansky1.jpg
 
gravity drain

"Since this was a gravity drain machine, I wired a pump from a Whirly "World" portable washer in series with the motor. Since the motor and new pump are running through the whole washing/rinsing cycle, we get the added benefit of the pump carrying away any water that may run out the overflow tube - in left front corner of tub."

So is there a solenoid that opens when it's time to drain? Of course, in a normal situation the water would drain into a pipe that went through the floor under the machine, so how do you have it set up? Does it drain into a pan of some type that the WP pump then sucks the water out of?
 
wall removal

"I removed a wall in the basement between the south room and the "middle room"

Hopefully it wasn't a "load bearing" wall, that could be a big pain to comopensate for :-)
 
Love that Kitchenaid

Greg,
I was able to see your dishwasher when Steve first found it.
I could not get over how great the shape of it was for it's age. Interesting to think it traveled so far, and now it is in your kitchen, back to life. I bet he is happy.
Brent
 
Added pump to KDC14

The drain valve solenoid energizes closing the valve during wash and rinses to hold the water in the machine, otherwise the valve is open allowing water to drain. Since the pump is wired in with the motor and the motor runs through the entire cycle, the pump is constantly running. It's connected right to the drain valve outlet where the 1 1/2" drain pipe would normally be. I was afraid that I would be able to hear the pump humming away while running but it's really not noticeable. We mounted the pump on a hard foam pad so it won't make noise. There is a little sucking noise (like a solid basket washer) at the end of the pump out phases, but that's a very short time and kind of a cool sound for a vintage machine.
 
Load bearing wall...

Not a load bearing wall at all, in fact, it was in the house when I bought it separating the orginal laundry room from the other areas of the basement. When I decided to remove it for more space two weeks ago, I found it wasn't even secured to floor - only the ceiling and side-wall so it really came down easily. It's nice to have it gone, more open space and much more dramatic when you come down the basement stairs!
 
The excitement is building...

Can't wait to see these beauties in person at the convention!!

3 more months...3 more months...
 
constantly running pump

That's different, wiring the pump to run with the motor. I probably would've wired it to run only when the drain solenoid is activated. Do you think the pump can deal with running "dry" most of the time? I know the seals in some pumps don't tolerate that well.
 
You can't wire the pump to the drain solenoid. It would only pump when the machine was supposed to wash/rinse. In other words- the solenoid CLOSES when energized.

Ed
 
solenoid

Oh, OK, got it. Would only work if the solenoid OPENED the drain when energized. But there's still the issue of the pump running "dry", and there's no way to know if it can deal with that until failure. So this will be a sort of "test" of the pump's longevity under these conditions.
 
KDC-14

As Jon said - "My what nice racks you have!" That machine looks mint. It is interesting that it retains many of the features of the KD-12 series, but picks up new ones. The machine doesn't have the side rails of the KD-12 with the start switch and operating light, has the racks of the KD-14 series, but retains the cycle dial and cycles of the KD-12. Plus, of course, the fabulous chrome handle of the "Classic" KitchenAid. You have a winner!

Fred
 

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