Kenmore Dryer Question

Tim -

There was a small but fairly common line of these machines, which had lighter colored woodgrain on the top of the panel, fake woodgrain on the front, and silver instead of gold trim and font painted on the fronts. They used the same chromed knobs.

These models were made from early 1982 or so to the end of the belt-drives. The earliest I've seen was fall 1982 produced, and latest was summer 1986 in washers. There was also a late 1970s machine of the same appearance, but I am unsure of its origin. More on that below.

Initially I had no idea where these machines came from, as they were not typically available on the Sears retail sales floor. The 1980s models were offered as rebate incentives by Toyota, in the manner of "Buy a Corolla and get a Kenmore 400 washer dryer pair", or "Buy a Camry and get a Kenmore 70 washer dryer pair" type thing. I remember this in several newspaper ads from 1984/5.

The rub in this case was the machines offered to Toyota's customers were NOT the retail models in a Sears store. For the 1980s models, there were two 400 series machines. Both were single speed, three cycle models with and without self cleaning filter. The other model was a well featured 70 series with infinite water level, five temps, two speeds, bleach and softener dispensers, etc. The odd part is that both had full porcelain tops when the store equivalents of these had the DynaGuard polyester tops and lids (or painted tops) AND they had Penta-Vane agitators, even the very nice 70 series. Nothing offered through Toyota had a DA agitator. To get that you had to be a Sears retail customer.

The model numbers of these machines began with 110.824xxxxx, whereas most of the retail belt-drives by this time were 110.823xxxxx or 110.822xxxxx. These are known as 1984 models, but they were designed in 1982/early 1983 but used '84 numbers to separate the models and stock numbers.

What is still a mystery to me is the late 1970s version washer of the same appearance that I've seen three or four times. My washer buddy/mentor had at least two of these in white which were standard capacity, and were of late 1970s vintage. Perhaps this is when the program began with Toyota, but I have not seen one of these (they had gold straight vane agitators but were otherwise very similar to the machines I described above) in many years. I have not been able to locate a model number that would explain these machines, or even what year they hailed from. I'm sure the mystery will solve itself at some point.

What you have in your photo Tim is one of the 1980s matching dryers. There were a couple models with the plug door that had timed cycles only, and others that had auto termination drying. These were standard capacity 5.9 cu. ft. dryers and were matched to the 400 series large capacity washers. The 70 series nicer washer had a 6.8 cu. ft. dryer to match which had the easy-loader 'wide mouth' door.

Anyone have any other info?

Gordon


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Post# 539003 8/23/2011 at 13:22 (4,622 days old) by macboy91si (Frankfort, KY)
Checkrate/Likes What kind of control panel is this? Is this before the "classis" center dial KM or just after or some sort of special edition? Thanks -Tim

Post# 539058 , Reply# 1 8/23/2011 at 16:50 (4,622 days old) by KenmoreGuy64 (Charlotte, NC)
Checkrate/Likes *Early to mid-80s special editions, of sorts...* Tim - There was a small but fairly common line of these machines, which had lighter colored woodgrain on the top of the panel, fake woodgrain on the front, and silver instead of gold trim and font painted on the fronts. They used the same chromed knobs. These models were made from early 1982 or so to the end of the belt-drives. The earliest I've seen was fall 1982 produced, and latest was summer 1986 in washers. There was also a late 1970s machine of the same appearance, but I am unsure of its origin. More on that below. Initially I had no idea where these machines came from, as they were not typically available on the Sears retail sales floor. The 1980s models were offered as rebate incentives by Toyota, in the manner of "Buy a Corolla and get a Kenmore 400 washer dryer pair", or "Buy a Camry and get a Kenmore 70 washer dryer pair" type thing. I remember this in several newspaper ads from 1984/5. The rub in this case was the machines offered to Toyota's customers were NOT the retail models in a Sears store. For the 1980s models, there were two 400 series machines. Both were single speed, three cycle models with and without self cleaning filter. The other model was a well featured 70 series with infinite water level, five temps, two speeds, bleach and softener dispensers, etc. The odd part is that both had full porcelain tops when the store equivalents of these had the DynaGuard polyester tops and lids (or painted tops) AND they had Penta-Vane agitators, even the very nice 70 series. Nothing offered through Toyota had a DA agitator. To get that you had to be a Sears retail customer. The model numbers of these machines began with 110.824xxxxx, whereas most of the retail belt-drives by this time were 110.823xxxxx or 110.822xxxxx. These are known as 1984 models, but they were designed in 1982/early 1983 but used '84 numbers to separate the models and stock numbers. What is still a mystery to me is the late 1970s version washer of the same appearance that I've seen three or four times. My washer buddy/mentor had at least two of these in white which were standard capacity, and were of late 1970s vintage. Perhaps this is when the program began with Toyota, but I have not seen one of these (they had gold straight vane agitators but were otherwise very similar to the machines I described above) in many years. I have not been able to locate a model number that would explain these machines, or even what year they hailed from. I'm sure the mystery will solve itself at some point. What you have in your photo Tim is one of the 1980s matching dryers. There were a couple models with the plug door that had timed cycles only, and others that had auto termination drying. These were standard capacity 5.9 cu. ft. dryers and were matched to the 400 series large capacity washers. The 70 series nicer washer had a 6.8 cu. ft. dryer to match which had the easy-loader 'wide mouth' door. Anyone have any other info? Gordon