"Unused" 70's Brown Lady Kenmore elec Dryer

[stricklybojack]

Hmm, I'm new at this. Dryers like this seem to be pretty steady state through the years design wise. What differentiates them at this point: reliability, features, brand loyalty, rarity? All of the above no doubt, plus cool colors of course.

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/ssd/app/4649204360.html

 

[akronman]

Whirlpool/Kenmore

some of the pro's here will be able to tell you the exact year, that dryer appears to me to be likely 70's ish----the woodgrain was a 70's thing. If we had a picture of the control door up, to see all the controls, some one here could tell you the EXACT year and let you know exactly how the controls and dryer work.

Whirlpool, who also built all Kenmore dryers, came out in 1966 with one of the all time most reliable, easy to repair, efficient designs of dryers ever. If the lint filter is located on top, like this, and pulls out about 18 inches or so, then it's one of the 50 year run excellent dryers, parts are easily availabee, the drum size can vary from damn large to HUGE with the extended back, buy it up! The blower is high-powered and can live with a longer run of exhaust piping than many other brands, too. And the filter, while you need to empty it of lint BEFORE or AFTER every load, doesn't get filled up HALFWAY THROUGH a blanket or load of towels, like many other brands.

The console on this design is called "garage door, " and it's a Lady Kenmore, the uppermost line. And the garage door makes it semi-unique and more collectable. There are also tons of less expensive Kenmore models with fewer options, but all of them carry the same mechanical, long-lasting, easily repaired, efficient design. Unless someone beat it to hell or let it rust in a damp basement, Whirlpool and Kenmore dryers are great workhorses.

I wonder, but don't know, if all Lady K dryers automatically came with the extended back for the largest drum available, since Lady K was always top of the line. Even if it's a standad size 70's Kenmore/WP drum, it's darn bigger than lots of the competition.

Um, I have a variety of brands of dryers that I use routinely, but I personally have found all my WP/Kenmore to be the BEST. I bet you figured out my prejudice by the first three paragraphs.

 

[ovrphil]

Maybe I'm picky, but why wouldn't someone want to cover a never used appliance? If it's worth selling, wouldn't it at least be worth cleaning for a picture? to quote some members here, "wtf?" And..if you can stick one photo up there, why not show another one or two while you were inconvenienced? Ok, back to our regularly scheduled program.

 

[danemodsandy]

EWWW!

Five minutes with a bottle of Windex and a roll of paper towels would have made this look like a much more trustworthy deal and much more like it was worth $200. As it is, my valuedar is screaming "Fifty bucks TOPS."

Five minutes.

Some CL sellers really want you to take a leap of faith.

 

[danemodsandy]

It Occurs to Me....

That this dryer is very close to the one Dave and Iola Brubeck touted in a Sears ad of the '70s. The ad is below, originally posted on AW by Ken bajaespuma.

The CL dryer is a bit later than the Brubecks' - the plastique door handle is the clue.

 

[bajaespuma]

I agree. And because it's older I expect that it's got a larger drum. Other than that, AFAIK, they're practically identical.

 

[kenmoreguy64]

The dileo on the dryer

The dryer is a 1972 model, standard capacity. It was built in the calendar 1972 time frame also I'm nearly certain.

The machines in the ad I believe are 1970 models. The 70s and 71s had the vertical woodgrain pattern on the garage doors, which you can see on the washer. Then 1972 got the swirled texture which you can see on the dryer for sale. This was a 1972-only detail.

Looking at the dryer in the ad, the faceplate of the console is cream white with bronze-colored bezels. For '72 the faceplate was cabinet color matched, and the bezels had a hard to describe textured looking pattern of geometric objects which were colored a subtle mint green on a grayish-tan background. I will dig up a pic for a follow-on reply in just a moment...

The large capacity versions did not appear until the 1974 models. These retained the cabinet color console faceplates, but had black bezels for the controls in the console. Their garage doors reverted to a woodgrain pattern, but it was a horizontal grain instead of vertical.

The dryer for sale has a 1972 door handle. This handle with the anwing-like shape to it was revised in early 1973 to a flush handle that was used for several decades. I would like to know why this handle was so short-lived, but it was used only about a year in production.

Gordon

 

[akronman]

Hey Gordon

Excellent info! I'm still hoping for Stricklybojack to get this machine and get us pics with the garage door open, I'm betting on all the bells and whistles available. Or maybe all the buzzers and knobs?

As delightful as this machine is, and I'd gladly take the washer and dryer with garage doors as a cool conversation piece and TOL machinery, the garage door idea is a bit over-the-top, ain't it? Few others ever hid the controls. Wonderful fun for a collector, for sure.

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Trying to describe the console graphics details...

Here are two pictures of a 1972 Lady K washer of mine.

Notice the brown basic console structure vs. the cream white of the 1970/1971 models. Also the funky art pattern in the bezels.

The did the same thing on many of the 1972 and 1973 models, including on my 1972 700 series machine and the 1973 Kenmore 800.

G

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Mark -

Thanks! No need to wait on pictures of the for-sale dryer, I found a thread with exactly what you're looking for, even the correct color.

Enjoy!

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?52562

 

[akronman]

Gordon

Thanks for the link----THE EXACT DRYER AND COLOR was at an estate sale yesterday, NOT FOR SALE. All Appliances stay, dammit. But I sure took a look anyhows. And it still had the SEARS BEST sticker on it.

How did the LINT light work? Did it light up when a sensor felt some backpressure?

 

[kenmoreguy64]

Mark -

These machines seem to still be out there in decent quantities for 40+ year old units. This says to me that they, one - made a lot of these, and two - were great, well-built and reliable machines, but we knew that already didn't we?

I don't quite get some home sellers. Do they think that leaving decades old appliances behind is going to help sell the house? For us it might, but unfortunately for most buyers today, old appliances like that are just a hassle for the buyer to have to get rid of, and probably don't do a thing for the home value.

I've been thinking the dryer for sale here would be great to match up with my washer, but for $200 and all that yuk on it? Hard to decide, even at half the price...

On the lint alert - you're exactly right. Many other models with a lint alert had a whistle like piece that sounded like a tea kettle boiling when air was diverted through it due to too much lint and lack of flow through the screen.

G

 

[stricklybojack]

Thanks for the responses

I have already left San Diego until next summer, back to our tiny major appliancesless apartment here in NYC...that is unless a student-sized refrigerator counts. Nice one though, a 'U-Line'.

 

[goatfarmer]

<blockquote>
Thanks for the link----THE EXACT DRYER AND COLOR was at an estate sale yesterday, NOT FOR SALE. All Appliances stay, dammit. But I sure took a look anyhows. And it still had the SEARS BEST sticker on it.

 

 

</blockquote>
It might be worth leaving a note with the people running the sale that you are interested in the W/D, should they change their mind, or when they sell the house.