WK sold these by the thousands to consumers who had a GE or Frigidare  machine that had rusted out because of the plastisol tubs that they used. It was by far their best selling point it was just to bad that it was such poor durability machine, the pump and motor assemblies were just never very good. And then when some consumers started to notice rust spots on the inside of the tank they were never any happier, as only the inside door panel was a good quality SS. The tank was only plated steel and would rust in some situations, WK replaced these tanks by the hundreds under warranty [ charging the consumer a hefty labor fee in most cases for a machine that wasn't going last that long anyway ] we used to see these replaced rusty tanks piled up on the loading doct at our appliance distributor in the 1970s - the 1980s.  

These are from a vintage I've never even seen. Thanks for the scans!

And John, as always, thanks for the real-story. What a pity; it seems that 1969 was a year that the evil, dirty bean-counters started to insinuate their control over the product and, ultimately, sabotaged what should have been a great brand. Greed in the form of defective steel. During World War II this kind of underhanded manufacturing would have earned the CEO's of Norris Industries a healthy jail sentence.

But not in Bush/ Cheney America. Gelt uber alles!

Our 910 lasted from 1969 until 2002.  I remember one service call on the motor/impeller.  It replaced a Hotpoint - you can see the place for the start button on the panel to the left of the WK.

That is one bizzare cover photo!  Point Lobos Attacked By Waste King; Film at 11.

I can attest after living with the 1985 Thermador version of this machine that the "whisper quiet" claim is pure nonsense.

We had the non SS interrior Model 910.  My dad installed it the day MLK was assasinated.  Why do I remember?  Because I was able to stay up all night if I wanted to playing with the dishwasher since school was cancelled the next day.  Ours lasted from April 1968 until somewhere around 1972. It was replaced with a RotoRack model 7214.  What did the Waste King in?  One was a defective water valve which dripped/leaked on the outside of the machine where it came into the machine.  The side where the valve entered the machine was near a wall which butted up to our dining room.  Little did we earlize the leak ended up putting rusty rmmnants of water on the floor which apparentl seeped onto the carpet of the dining room.  when it was truly discovered it was too alte, carpet had been damaged--it's how I remember it.  Secondly was the timer.  I don't remember what happened, but something caused my dad to have to get into the timer of the dishwasher.  The little timer dial was under a plexiglass/plastic type of little cover and was inaccessable.  Originally, the timer was set up like this:  Moved at 1 minute increments.  At about the 50 second mark was a prelude to upcoming events.  That being at the end of dry, the machine shut off.  To start the machine, you held down the start button for about 5 to 10 seconds until the timer was about to advance to the next increment.  That same 50 second point was when the timer was delayed until the 162 degree temp in the final rinse of  Fully Cycle.  thirdly, ju7st before it would drain, it paused for that 10 seconds, timer moved, and reversed motor to drain.  Well, my dad didn't put something back correctly, I don't thinnk he realized how the timer executed those funky situations.  Consequently, after he put it back together again, the  timer only did it's thing on the full 60 second mark.  Meaning, when you wanted to start the machine, you had to hold the start button down for the entire single increment untill the timer moved again, then you could release the start button.  Conversely, when Rinse & Hold was used, at the end of the water circulation period, the machine stopped as in essentially finishihng the cycle.  No drain period was executed.  (Before my dad took it apart, it would drain after the water circulation period for 50 seconds and shut off.  To start up the machine to complete the rest of the cycle, ya held the start button in for about 5 seconds).  Thus, the machine sat there with a tub full of water for however long my mom kept adding dishes until she was ready to run it.  then she'd hold in the start button and it would drain before the next fill period.  (Confused??)  Naturally it sitting with water started affecting the gasket.  I am not sure if that helped contribute to the carpet damage in the diningt room, but could have.  My mom never liked the fact she couldn't move the timer knob around so she was glad to get the Kenmore. 

Great scans and a great picture, Peter!  How have we not seen this before?? 

Looks like a Westinghouse range with self-cleaning oven.  Was that the stepped cooktop?

It was actuallly in another thread January 5 or 6th of this year. 

On the 910, keep in mind each "phase" time I mention includes a 1 minute drain and 1 minute fill 

Prewash, rinse, and wash were each 6 minutes long, the first post rinse and first sparkle rinse were 3 minutes each.  The ifnal sparkle rinse consisted of fill, about a 5 or 6 minute pause and heat the water.  If 162 degrees wasn't reached by that 5 or 6 minutes, then the timer stopped until the temp was reached.  Then circulate for 1 minute, drain for one minute, pause for one minute, another pump out, and then the heater would turn on for dry.  If you notice on Fine china, the space for the 2nd sparkle rinse is blank.  That segment of time on the dial consisted of "sitting" during the last fill increment, then it started drying with the heater turned on, then went through the timer segment where it would be circulating, but the heater was still turned on, then the heater would be turned off and final pump out, and then dry again.  Drying on Fine china wasn't nearly as good as full cycle.  On cookware that "soak rinse" was the 7 minutes on the timer that during full cycle wouold be used for heating water and the rinse circulation.  Then there was no heat added during the segment on the timer for dry.  I heard m mom comment to one of her friernds, who didn't use dry cycle, that she wished she could turn the machine off once it started dry cycle but she couldn't get to the timer.  I told her she could use the cook ware cycle and end up with no heat dry, but she dind't like that long 7 minute last sparkle rinse.  So she largely left it on fine china unless someone was sick in the family or for some other reason she wanted the sani-heat.