Westinghouse Dishwasher

[electronicontrl]

I'd pass

You aren't missing much.
When I was a college student I lived in an apartment with Westinghouse appliances in harvest gold from the early 1970s. The dishwasher had no buttons. It was BOL. The interior was the same as in the picture. The only way this dishwasher would turn out clean dishes was if the dishes were clean when loaded. I was thrilled to have a dishwasher. It was a fun toy and we pre-rinsed everything thoroughly! But today I would pass on this model.

 

[Chetlaham]

I think people tried to hard. Why not just use an air dry? Why not just have a Kitchen-Aid Style solenoid?

 

[Chetlaham]

* I meant heated dry, my bad.

 

[combo52]

Reply # 20

OK, what's a KA style solenoid ?

 

John L.

 

[Chetlaham]

KA Solenoid

One of these:

https://www.repairclinic.com/PartDe...MIjJ232_Gm7AIVFo7ICh0syg76EAQYAiABEgIkNvD_BwE

Design the the pump with two output ports- one for the wash arm the other for the drain valve.

 

[combo52]

Reply #22

The idea of the WH DW in question was to build an inexpensive DW, adding a 2nd pump and this type of drain valve does not go along with that goal.

 

The DV pictured was the worst DV KA ever used of the 3 popular types KA used over the years, they were prone to leaking at the shaft and clogging.

 

John L.

 

[Chetlaham]

No second pump, just one pump with two outgoing ports designed such that the drain port always has water pressure on the valve when running. Ditch the fan and air channel.

 

[Chetlaham]

And yes I know the valve does not require water pressure to stay shut, just that the pump as pictured in this thread does not produce enough water pressure on the drain port unless the flapper is totally blocking the wash arm port.

 

[neptunebob]

I was right!

The simplest thing Westinghouse could have done then was to source a D&M dishwasher for their lineup.  Perhaps they didn't want to admit to a mistake?

 

[combo52]

Westinghouse Switching To A D&M DW In 1970?

This would not have been a good idea for many reasons, WH was struggling in the late 60s to remain competitive with GE, WP etc.

 

They had a workforce they needed to keep working, because of Union benefits it was expensive to just fire workers.

 

Switching to a poorly built D&M design would have reduced their profit  margin and D&M very well may have been unable or unwilling to build DWs for WH anyway.

 

This WH design was only built for about 4 years, as soon as WCI took over WH major appliances they quickly modified this DW in an attempt to upgrade it but the WCI DWs that followed for the next decade were loaded with problems and generally mediocre performance.

 

I have kept one 1971 WH DW for the museums wall of DWs because of the interesting engineering that went into this short lived product, we are also keeping one 1966 D&M LKM 240 volt DW [ thanks Kevin B ] but because of space limitations we are not interested in a bunch of WCI & D&M also runs.

 

John L.

 

[neptunebob]

Agree with you that the D&M was poorly built...

But I remember in the 70s when us kids bought dishwashers for our parents that the GE had that awful plastic and seemed to be flimsy and the Whirlpool felt cheap too and the Kenmore D&M actually felt more solid for the same price.  I knew it would not last long (none did and we always bought an MA and put the repairman's kids through college) but I actually felt better with the Kenmore even with all their flaws.  Oh, and they rusted and were noisy and guzzled energy but I could not be without a dishwasher and they did clean the dishes squeaky clean.  A KA would be twice the price that as a young person I did not afford.  Like I said, oh what we put up with back then.

 

[combo52]

70s US DWs

A middle of the line KM-D&M DW would have cost around $239, A KA KDI-17 would have cost about $359, after you added in 5 years of a MA @ $19.95 per year the KA was far cheaper and would have easily lasted another 6 years where as the KM may have been ready to be replaced.

 

Like SQ laundry today it is almost always cheaper in the long run to buy durability.

 

John L.

 

[tomturbomatic]

One point in the Kenmore's favor was the upper level wash system which increased loading flexibility.