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jasonl

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It's unbelievable the night and day difference between the good ol' Frankenmore and the new Kenmore Oasis...

Water consumption:
The Oasis precisely measures the water to the load size, assuring proper turnover and cleaning.

The Frankenmore fills ALL THE DAD GUM WAY to the top, draining the water heater and everything.

Wash action:
The Oasis has a computer controlled wash plate that uses varied speeds to create a reverse rollover.

The Frankenmore oscillates at 65opm and the Rotoswirl pulls clothes down with every stroke.

Noise:
The Oasis is very quiet, with it's electronic whirring and pump hum. Barely audible outside the room.

The Frankenmore is a Kenmore.. Woowoowoowoo.. Grind-click-clunk...pssshhhh... drowns out the Oasis completely. You can hear it all over the house.

BUT they both have one thing in common.

THEY'RE BOTH FUN!!!!

Yay for Kenmore!
 
THATS IT!!!!

Thats the sound I remember from my Grandma's 1977 Whirlpool when it agitated woowoowoowoo...man I loved that sound!!!!

I remember the other sounds too: start of agitation was a machinery moving sound, followed by a CLUNK as the tranny engaged. The other sound was when it shifted into spin and the sound of the clutch engaging, followed by the sing of the belt...
Ok I'm adding a B/D Whirlpool or Kenmore to the "wish list" of dream machines!
The others on the list are a Frigidaire set, a Maytag 806 set, and my current Maytag 608's...

Thanks for that memory Jason!
 
Bring on the BD's!

These machines are not for the faint of heart or the water supply-challenged! I have seen them in action and...whoa!!

Don't know about the rest of you, but a tub full of water and suds, aggressive agitation, and lots of clunking make for some clean laundry! I'm still not convinced that those new-fangled washers that use a thimble-full of water and and eyedropper of HE detergent can really get anything clean!!
 
Retromom Is Right

Retromom,
I had the GE Harmony, Kenmore Oasis, and a Kenmore HE frontloader and neither cleaned nearly as good as my traditional toploader. Needlesstosay, I renturned all three sets.

Currently, I have a SpeedQueen set. Also, I had a Maytag set, a Kenmore set (direct drive), two Kenmore portables (belt drive and direct drive), and a Kelvinator portable washer. The belt drive washers always seemed to clean much better than the direct drive washers. I believe because of the long-stroke agitation. However, all the traditional washers cleaned much better than my HE washers.
 
Sorry I Don't Have Any Pics

Jasonl,
I am sorry but I don't. My mom purchased that washer when I was in middle school. I hated it. At that time, I wanted her to buy a Hoover twin tub washer but she wouldn't. I didn't understand why when I did all the washing.

The Kelvinator washer rolled to the sink and it had this lever in the back that you had to step on to let the washer down and it, supposedly, stayed in place.

I hated this washer because it was loud and I didn't like the wash action; but it did clean our clothes. The tub would index like the Frigidaire washers do. The clothes would circulate but at a very slow pace. The agitator had 4 big vanes at the top and bottom, and the tub had a big lint filter in the back that water, barely, flowed thru.

I never told anyone about this but after the warranty expired on this washer, I, purposely, broke it. I didn't think of how much money my mom would have to use to purchase another washer. I just wanted to get that POS out of our kitchen. She ended up getting a Whirlpool compact washer. That washer was grrrrreat. Over time that one malfunctioned and I purchased her a Kenmore compact washer (direct drive) that she kept until she moved into a house, and now she has my old Kenmore Super Capacity set.

She still doesn't know I broke her washer; but I do remember her being upset about spending the extra money to get another one. However, I did make it up to her.
 
Kelvinator was one of the many brandnames that had the IMMENSELY successful WCI/Franklin portable washer. There was a set of these on eBay a couple of years ago. Other names I've seen these under include Tappan, Hamilton, GE (long after the Hitachi version), White-Westinghouse, and Montgomery Ward.

This design, along with the Skinny-Mini cabinet, was also incorporated into the WCI-made 24" stacked sets; Kenmore, GE, and Frigidaire among them.

They're fun to use (especially the recirculating-filter-equipped version because it sounds just like an old Westinghouse TL), but I can't imagine doing laundry for a large family in one! That has to be the absolute smallest tub ever to be put in a portable automatic. Of course that huge agitator that took up half of the already limited tub space didn't help either, but it least it thrashed the load around enough to get it clean. When we went to the Cayman Islands in July of '05, there was an 80's WCI/Frigidaire Skinny-Mini (with the angel-wing agitator and recirculating filter) in the laundry closet. During the whole week we were there, I took over the laundry and was washing 3-4 loads PER DAY. That's how small that tub was! It did provide for some good entertainment, though, when not at the beach...

--Austin
 
I love the sounds of a BD Kenmore, too. I remember the 'haRUMPH, haRUMPH' sound our preggers Roto Swirl made when set at a medium-ish water level; The quiet waterfall sound of the lint filter recirculating; That and the sound of it switching into spin....ah, memories.
 
Sorry, but have to conform

Sister called yesterday to tell me about her new Oasis. Kids(lets make it short) sick in bed.

She was up at 3 AM doing a load of (lets say soiled) bedding.

Selected Bulky setting. She said there was not a trace of anything disturbing. Ok, now I agree, they can clean.

Steve
 
I've got to agree with retromom. Maybe it's just our tried and true washing habits that we've been used to for years but I'll stick with a tub full of water and more than a thimble full of detergent.

Dick_S.
 
Confession

I recently tried to break the nearly 20-y.o. Maytag helical drive at the family's vacation home. I put solvent in the motor bearings and let a little water into the tranny via the agitator shaft seal (using a paper clip), to no avail. I've been trying to get my mom to get rid of this machine, which puts 40 gal. of water into the septic system with each load, and replace it with a Duet. Unfortunately, the machine survived without so much as a burp, so I guess we'll have to play out time.....by the way-I think the Duet cleans much better than the old Maytag, and doesn't put holes in my t-shirts either.
 
John, I'm sad to hear you abused such a machine. I'll admit, I really didn't like my LK Shredmore, but I was mostly kind to her. Now that the Frigidaire frontloader is here, she's sitting in my garage. Not sure what I"m gonna do with her. Her significance is she was the very first Direct Drive Lady Kenmore.
 

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