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Thread Number: 42207
How did this Lady Kenmore work? |
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Post# 621271 8/30/2012 at 07:17 (4,250 days old) by bajaespuma  (Connecticut) |
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 From all the pictures and ads I've seen on this machine, it looks like the user made cycle selections by pushing the large keys, setting the water level and then what? I'm led to believe from all the literature, that the dial somehow mechanically turns itself to the correct setting (in the fashion of the Maytag A906, but here, we get to watch the dial move)and then the user pulls out the knob, as usual, to start the whole kit and kaboodle on its merry way?
Or is it all window dressing? Is the real control the dial and are all those keys just appliance placebos? 
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Post# 621274 , Reply# 1 8/30/2012 at 07:28 (4,250 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut) |
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For example, if you want a "Pre-Wash" it would seem that the user has to push the "Pre-Wash" key and then select a main cycle key and then what? Does the machine automatically advance the dial then to the correct setting or does the user simply do what you'd do on a conventional machine and manually move the dial to the "Pre-Wash" setting and then is the point of the Supreme TOL is that you get to push pointless buttons as well?
I'm asking because on an earlier TOL, with no keys, everything seems to happen, no surprise, on the dial.
And please, don't misunderstand me, I'm not picking on Kenmore here, I've had the same question about GE "Clothes Conditioners" where for many years the TOL's had NO buttons, everything was set on one dial, and then, in one year's model change, the TOL's were given a whole row of buttons, choosing options that had been, on earlier models, set on that one dial.
On this beautiful, slightly earlier model, the programmed cycles are labeled on the panel, with a few toggles for water level, cold water and extra rinse, but, unless I'm mistaken, all those fancy cycles are selected by the user turning the control dial to the corresponding letter and letting 'er rip. 
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Post# 621275 , Reply# 2 8/30/2012 at 07:29 (4,250 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut) |
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Post# 621276 , Reply# 3 8/30/2012 at 07:31 (4,250 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut) |
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GE TOL dryer, the very next year (same dial, same settings, same control panel {for the most part}) now, buttons!).
And yes, now the Air Freshener control has degenerated to pushing the bare butt-end of the freshener cylinder into the hole in the control panel where it got to gunk up a lot more of the works and simply got sucked into the dryer airstream. What a disappointment: 
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Post# 621286 , Reply# 7 8/30/2012 at 08:19 (4,250 days old) by DADoES (TX, U.S. of A.) |
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 Reference this picture posted recently in another thread. This is a mechanical control system requiring user participation to set the timer ... no automatic, rapid-advance timer motor is involved. Ten of the buttons (the first five from the left on each row) are connected to a spring-loaded pin mechanism. The actuator arms can be seen coming across to the right side, and the ten pins in the triangular mechanism. The appropriate pin is activated when a cycle button is selected. The user pulls out the timer dial, which presses the selected control pin against the metal disk. Turn the timer and the activated pin drops into the appropriate hole in the disk to lock the timer at the correct starting position for the selected cycle. Press the timer to On, which moves the metal disk away from contact with the pin so the timer isn't locked and can advance through the cycle ... and away it goes. Heavy Duty, Custom Care, and Optional Second Rinse are cycle modifiers and do not have a control pin. Selective Dialing releases all the cycle buttons, and thus also releases all the pins so the timer can be turned freely to any position. 
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Post# 621300 , Reply# 9 8/30/2012 at 09:13 (4,250 days old) by Kenmoreguy64 (Charlotte, NC) |
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Lock-stop timers, rapid advance Kenmores, etc.
These lock-stop Kenmore mechanicals are indeed VERY mechanical, just as Tom said. The control panel in my 72 Lady K, when I had it off the machine for cleaning and a bit of work, was so heavy that I would estimate that if you dropped it, it would hurt your foot (seriously). Most Kenmore panels from that point forward would probably be hurt by your foot in the same scenario.
This lock-stop arrangement was used in a number of Lady Ks - 1962 thru 1974, as well as a number of 800 models and even a 1961 70 series. As to rapid advance Kenmores, there were only a few that I am aware of and I've only seen one many years ago. The 1961 Lady Kenmore is a RA, but I don't think, from what I've read, than anyone has seen one? It was in the Fall/Winter Catalog 1961. There was a RA or two before that too in the high end but I think that was it. The 1962 LK/800 and all future Ladies Kenmore were lock-stop timer models until 1976 when even that feature was done away with for manufacturing complexity reasons. Gordon | ||
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Post# 621326 , Reply# 10 8/30/2012 at 11:54 (4,250 days old) by RevvinKevin (Tinseltown - Shakey Town - La-La Land) |
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I came across this 1959 Lady Kenmore washer in San Diego about 3 years ago, it has the rapid advance timer. I had a chance to play with it a little before it was sold and shipped to Maryland, if I remember correctly Bygted bought it.
Anyway, here is a very short video starting the washer where you can hear the timer advancing.
Kevin
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Post# 621346 , Reply# 11 8/30/2012 at 14:13 (4,250 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut) |
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Thanks to all of you; I get it. A very elegantly engineered | ||
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Post# 621573 , Reply# 12 8/31/2012 at 11:38 (4,249 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut) |
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One potentially annoying follow-up question: If one selected "Pre-Wash" and "Enzyme Soak" and "Optional 2nd Rinse" and combined them with the "Delicates" cycle, how would that work? Does the dial go from the pre-wash and enzyme soak and advance around to the Delicate cycle on the other side of the dial and then advance to the "2nd Rinse" portion of the dial?Or are you required to do it manually?
Or would it not let you make that kind of selection with the "Delicate" cycle? My LG won't, but it is all controlled digitally/electronically. 
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| Post# 621577 , Reply# 13 8/31/2012 at 12:34 (4,249 days old) by cycla-fabric (New Jersey (Northern)) | ||
You could have a soak and prewash but the machine would stop at the end of prewash and you would have to change the cycle to Delicate, let that run through the Delicate cycle, then manually advance the timer to 2nd rinse. The timer dial you show is the normal cycle, with the modifiers of soak, prewash, normal cycle wash and 2nd rinse. The timer dial will not advance all around to the other parts of the dial on its own.
Doug | ||
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Post# 621580 , Reply# 14 8/31/2012 at 12:48 (4,249 days old) by DADoES (TX, U.S. of A.) |
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Automatic progression can occur only per the sequence arrangement on the timer. Second Rinse only follows the Normal cycle, and buttons that trigger/lock on it. An extra rinse can be garnered manually with the Selective Dialing button and setting the timer to the appropriate position in the desired cycle. Likewise, Enzyme Soak and Prewash function only in connection with Normal. Enzyme Soak includes Prewash by default. Prewash "locks" the timer at that point, skipping the Soak section, and proceeding on through Normal. Any of the 10 buttons that have trigger points are mutually exclusive ... pressing any one releases the other(s), so Enzyme Soak or Prewash can't be selected with any other cycle ... they are cycles unto themselves. To run a soak or prewash with Delicate or Wasn-n-Wear/Perm Press, one could start the process on the appropriate setting and monitor the machine's operation, manually reselect the other cycle when the Soak and/or Prewash periods are done, before Normal gets going. Or, use the Custom Care button to get Ex-Low agitation speed on Normal (with Soak/Prewash) for running a delicate load. | ||
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Post# 621658 , Reply# 16 8/31/2012 at 21:17 (4,248 days old) by appnut (TX) |
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I could be completely wrong but .. It seems to me that at some point very late in the LK Keyboard control panels that the two major cycles--PP & Normal, the whitesa & color fabric buttons all started at the maximum point on the wash (12 & 14 minutes respectively) so that the automatic detergent dispenser could be utilized. What I'm trying to say is that those 4 major buttons simply selected the wash water temperature (hot or warm) and the rest of the cycle automatically included the proper agitation and spin speeds as well as rinse (warm on normal and cold on PP). This aslso allowed a slight variation for the enzyme soak or pre wash cycles. As the dial progressed into the normal cycle after enzyume or prewash, the Whjites button provided a hot wash and the color button provided a warm wash. As I"m still kind of beating around the bush, I think the approach was the user selected the enzyme soak cycle. Started the machine and hten pushed the respective cottons fabric button. If this was never the case then all this LK stuff the pre wash or enzyme soak advancing into the normal wash was a bunch of hogwash. Thus rendering our 800 far superior f0r flexibility. Because I could be quite messy at times, this was the progress oin my laundry with the 800 most times. Enzyme soak using Axion. I selected the option that was soak only vs. soak & wash. then at the end of the enzyme/prewash cycle and spinning stopped. I'd manuall move the timer to the PP cycle and start it. I'd already loaded all needed dispensers with product when I began the initial load and just had to return to the mahcine to start the PP cycle. Or after an enzyme soak that rogressed into normal, not ALL loads that had been soaked like that still neededed a hot water wash that followed to finish the cleaning process. Sometimes ya wanted warm water wash. All very flexible withg our Kenmore 800 as far as I"m concerned. Incidentally Ken the Enzyme Soak and Prewash agitation periods were all gentle speeds. The 2 minute spin at the end of these cycles was normal speed. | ||
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Post# 621719 , Reply# 18 9/1/2012 at 07:01 (4,248 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut) |
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Dig, by all means, dig | ||
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Post# 621738 , Reply# 20 9/1/2012 at 09:58 (4,248 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut) |
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It amounts to quibbles. But I had to know. To be fair, this Lady Kenmore is a hell of a lot more flexible (if that's what floats yer goat) than a dictatorial TOL like the Maytag A906. I always thought the A906 would've been the perfect machine for people I knew who couldn't have given a sh*t about doing laundry and were clueless when it came to using an automatic washer.
Another thing I very much like about this machine is the dispensers are intelligent; they'll dispense bleach and softener at the correct points in whatever cycle(s) you choose. One would, however, have to return to the machine to add detergent if one were using the Soak and/or the Pre-Wash. Unless, of course, as I plan to, one replaced that wonderful Vari-Flex agitator with, say, a Super Surgilator (a black one with a chrome top) and threw a centrifugal dispenser on top of that.
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Post# 621743 , Reply# 21 9/1/2012 at 10:39 (4,248 days old) by DADoES (TX, U.S. of A.) |
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The unit of your leading pictures (and some earlier and later years) does have a powdered detergent dispenser which triggers (as Bob references in #621658) at start of the Normal cycle wash period. So one *can* run an unattended Soak -> Prewash -> Normal cycle with all additives dispensed automatically ... add Soak/Prewash detergent directly to the tub at the start. | ||
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Post# 621751 , Reply# 22 9/1/2012 at 11:43 (4,248 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut) |
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Oh. I thought it just dumped into a flume of the self-cleaning lint filter. The one on my Wards/Norge was a bit lame; a solenoid diverted some of the inlet water into a dispenser flume, but because it was only part of the water going into the machine it's not strong enough to wash all of the powder into the tub. Good to know! Can't wait to get this machine; I just hope it's in good working order. I don't need another "project" right now; just slow-paced instant gratification. | ||
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Post# 621753 , Reply# 23 9/1/2012 at 12:11 (4,248 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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Lady Kenmore Magic Yes Ken you will love this machine as it was the ultimate in automatic performance, This is why I was never much of a fan of MT and many other brands such as SQ as they were not sophisticated enough for may tastes. And the performance of things like the SC lint filter on the washer and the big fast Soft Heat dryers were without equal in their day. | ||
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Post# 621765 , Reply# 24 9/1/2012 at 12:42 (4,248 days old) by appnut (TX) |
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powdered detergent dispenser which triggers (as Bob referenc Why do I even bother to go into the detail from my own experience to answer a question the poster had asked when all my efforts aren't even paid attention to. Now you understand one of the reaosmns why I withdrew a few months back. No attention heeded. I know this souinds aweful, but it gets discouraging. And I agree with you Ken about the 906. Only the regular cycles have a choice of two water levels. The rest none. And the maximum wash time is the only option, no ability to vary wash time at all. But on the surface it sure is one spiffy washer. And there is a way to get the 2nd rinse automatically on the above LK. One simply selects the custom care option to give one the delicate agitat4ion speed. And use the normal cycle buttons & water temp options as needed. Wow, that ocmbinatoin yields up to 5 buttons being pushed for one cycle and I think Ken likes pushbuttons. | ||
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