passatdoc
Well-known member
Hi all,
A neighbor of mine is house-sitting a house for a year. It had been occupied by renters for over a decade and was in shambles. The landlords did not have a lease and it took a year of legal action to get the people evicted. Oddly enough, this is on a street of homes worth $500,000 to $1 million. The owner did not have enough free cash ($100K minimum) to repair the house sufficiently to be able to rent or sell it, so he asked my neighbor to house-sit FREE for a year. This allowed my neighbor to rent his house for a year while spending virtually nothing for his own housing for a year. The rent collected covers his mortgage, taxes, and part of his homeowner fees. The owner of the delipidated house just sold a large commercial property and now has liquid funds to being renovating the house, where my neighbor has lived since the end of November 2010. The plan is for him to move back here after the one year lease on his own home (next to mine) expires. The owner of the delapidated house didn't want the house sitting empty, which is why he offered my neighbor the chance to live in it for free for at least a year.
Anyway, when he moved in, there was a pair of rusting machines (Kenmores maybe) in the garage. Dryer finally stopped working. The owner of the house, who just sold his commercial parcel (last use was as a Land Rover dealership, closed about four years ago), said there were some unused, abandoned machines at the property that they could have for free. Turns out they were KitchenAid-branded, TL and gas dryer. I will try to take a pic and post it so those of you who are model experts can figure out the vintage. I found the model/serial number sticker inside the dryer but could not see a date of manufacture. It did say it was made in St. Joseph, Michigan. Was that Whirlpool??
The washer seems to have some advanced controls. There is a pre-wash cycle. I didn't find an extra rinse option, though possibly some of the cycles have an extra rinse included. Water level control is infinite. There were four or five wash-rinse options, including one you don't see very often today: Hot-Warm. It had Hot-Warm, Hot-Cold, Warm-Cold, Cold-Cold, but I don't think I saw a Warm-Warm. There may have been a Cold-Warm, but I don't know what I'd use that for except maybe woolen things.
Dryer had normal, perm press, timed dry, and air fluff cycles. There were four heat settings, including Extra Low, Low, Medium, High. Both appliances worked right off the bat, no repairs or adjustments needed. We don't what the appliances were doing in a long-closed car dealership. Perhaps they were used to launder towels for detailing/cleaning cars. Or perhaps the owner or a friend of the owner just used the dealership for storage.
At any rate, I'd only see KA front loaders (now discontinued) that looked like rebadged Whirlpools/Bauknechts. I'd never seen an older KA TL model and never knew they existed. They seem sturdy. My neighbor says they are noisy, but they seem to work well.
Next time I am over I will try to snap some phone camera pics to share.
A neighbor of mine is house-sitting a house for a year. It had been occupied by renters for over a decade and was in shambles. The landlords did not have a lease and it took a year of legal action to get the people evicted. Oddly enough, this is on a street of homes worth $500,000 to $1 million. The owner did not have enough free cash ($100K minimum) to repair the house sufficiently to be able to rent or sell it, so he asked my neighbor to house-sit FREE for a year. This allowed my neighbor to rent his house for a year while spending virtually nothing for his own housing for a year. The rent collected covers his mortgage, taxes, and part of his homeowner fees. The owner of the delipidated house just sold a large commercial property and now has liquid funds to being renovating the house, where my neighbor has lived since the end of November 2010. The plan is for him to move back here after the one year lease on his own home (next to mine) expires. The owner of the delapidated house didn't want the house sitting empty, which is why he offered my neighbor the chance to live in it for free for at least a year.
Anyway, when he moved in, there was a pair of rusting machines (Kenmores maybe) in the garage. Dryer finally stopped working. The owner of the house, who just sold his commercial parcel (last use was as a Land Rover dealership, closed about four years ago), said there were some unused, abandoned machines at the property that they could have for free. Turns out they were KitchenAid-branded, TL and gas dryer. I will try to take a pic and post it so those of you who are model experts can figure out the vintage. I found the model/serial number sticker inside the dryer but could not see a date of manufacture. It did say it was made in St. Joseph, Michigan. Was that Whirlpool??
The washer seems to have some advanced controls. There is a pre-wash cycle. I didn't find an extra rinse option, though possibly some of the cycles have an extra rinse included. Water level control is infinite. There were four or five wash-rinse options, including one you don't see very often today: Hot-Warm. It had Hot-Warm, Hot-Cold, Warm-Cold, Cold-Cold, but I don't think I saw a Warm-Warm. There may have been a Cold-Warm, but I don't know what I'd use that for except maybe woolen things.
Dryer had normal, perm press, timed dry, and air fluff cycles. There were four heat settings, including Extra Low, Low, Medium, High. Both appliances worked right off the bat, no repairs or adjustments needed. We don't what the appliances were doing in a long-closed car dealership. Perhaps they were used to launder towels for detailing/cleaning cars. Or perhaps the owner or a friend of the owner just used the dealership for storage.
At any rate, I'd only see KA front loaders (now discontinued) that looked like rebadged Whirlpools/Bauknechts. I'd never seen an older KA TL model and never knew they existed. They seem sturdy. My neighbor says they are noisy, but they seem to work well.
Next time I am over I will try to snap some phone camera pics to share.
