I went to my favorite thrift store last week to see if Ed had anything new and as I turned the corner in his major appliance room, I saw this on a hand truck that had just come in from a house he had emptied:

I have a pink A700, but you can't have too many Maytags with bleach dispensers, "Cups of Kindness", tub and panel lights, and I just love the multi-colored cycle dial on the A-702, so I bought it. Problem is, I just had surgery not 2 months ago and I'm not allowed to do anything close to wrangling vintage appliances so I had to wait a week to borrow my buddy Rick and his truck to drive back up to Middletown and pick the thing up. While I was there, I spied, with my little eye, something interesting poking out from under a moving blanket on the loading dock while I was waiting for Ed's helpers to find and load the Maytag...

At first, Ed's helper, Charlie said that it was a dryer, and I ignored it, but then upon closer inspection...

Just like my color-keyed 1970 model but obviously a little older. So, of course, I had to get a money "looksie":

"OH MY!".

Charlie, who earns his pay, let me know that they had just brought this out of some elderly lady's home and that "she took real good care of it". What you're not seeing here is all the literature that came with the machine in a plastic bag (you'll see it sometime later), and the bittersweet measuring cap for the agitator. Darryl posted pictures of a machine like this some time ago. Anyway, I guess I got lucky, and any information on this sweet little Lady Kenmore will be appreciated. I guess it's the grandma of the color-keyed machine but a little too early for the Vari-Flex agitator, bittersweet or white. I'm looking forward to hooking this up and watching it do it's thing. I like the old metal handle on the lid and the metal, not plastic detergent dispenser lid. I wish it had one of those lint filters with the brush, but you can't have everything. The stops on the dial seem to work in coordination with the cycle keys and apparently it has an extra-slow speed for the Woolens cycle.

Now all I have to do is wait for my other buddy Max to show up, either this afternoon or tomorrow, to unload these two machines from Rick's truck and wheel them into the basement.

Man, some of you guys are really living right! Nice score!

x2.  That is just phenomenal.  Congratulations on exquisite finds!!

A 1966 Lady Kenmore Washer, that the best condition I have seen one of these great washers in in at two decades.

The self-cleaning filter in these washers was not only far more effective than the clean-it-your-self brush filter but a lot nicer to use. The idea of having a washer that can automatically wash your really dirty clothing twice, add bleach at the correct time and even rinse twice and add the softener in the last rinse is just way too great a washer to make you clean a damp lint lint filter.

Great find indeed, oh did you get some other washer as well, LOL.

Because I'm going to echo what others have said.  WOW Ken, what awesome and phenomenal finds, CONGRATS!!!   You couldn't have scooped up two better or more beautiful machines!

I look forwarding to hearing how your "first tests" go!

Kevin

Congratulations on both machines!  What a way to recover from surgery.

lawrence

We were going to send flowers, but thought you'd like these better ;-)

Good vibes from all of us here for finding more of these gems- congrats on the great finds.

Congrats on your new finds Ken! They seem to be in great condition. The white porcelain in the LK's tub still looks shiny (I haven't been so lucky with white porcelain tubs). 

Yeah, thank you everybody. I'm well enough to go thrifting (actually, shopping in Big Box and Grocery stores where I could lean on a shopping cart whilst strolling and find a seat somewhere was a prescribed form of physical therapy before I could do little else), but these beauties are still outside in the truck waiting for a couple of hunky guys (!) to come and wrassle them onto a hand-truck and into the basement.

John, if it weren't for your brilliant primer on the virtues of the Kenmore I wouldn't have given these machines a second look, but I have to report that even the back of this machine has very sophisticated, sturdy connections for drain hoses and the other necessary utilities. I still wonder, however, why those damn Whirlpool people needed to enclose a standard capacity washing machine in a 29" wide cabinet( LOL; ducks and ambles away carefully).

They are both in fact remarkably clean and I'm going to work VERY HARD to restrain myself from disassembling them for examination and cleaning and rendering them inoperable. As it is, I'm fighting the temptation to remove the Agitator from the Maytag; the last time I pried one of these out of the tub, it's rubber spline slipped out of its hole in the bottom of the agitator and no force seems to be able to re-insert it.

Oh, and while I'm on this subject, can you Sears/Whirlpool people tell me if there's a way to stop the agitator from spinning around freely so I can unscrew the agitator cap? There are two or three alternate agitators in the collection that I want to try out on this machine!

Wow Ken, both are in amazing condition.  Congrats on the great finds!

If you let the Kenmore agitate then shut off the machine, the transmission is engaged and you can un-thread the cap.  Be careful though, sometimes those Roto Flex agitators can be a real PITA to pull off.

Ben

Appliance therapy.

Hi Ken, Why the 29" wide cabinet on all standard size WP built non bolt down washers, I guess so it matched the 29" wide dryers which needed the extra width for a decent size drum, it took MT until about 1997 with the introduction of the Neptune's to have a washer and dryer in the same size cabinet.

Yes a 27" wide cabinet would have probably worked in WP built BD washers, although I always felt that MTs DC washers would have been better in a wider cabinet and a wider tub so the clothing could turn over better with less fabric damage.

To remove the agitator cap in the KM I just put my left foot on the agitator while standing in front of the washer to hold it while unscrewing the agitator cap. These Roto-Swrirl agitators tended to get stuck to the agitator shaft due to rusting of the shaft. You may need a few gallons of boiling water slowly pored over the top of the agitator to get it off, and you may need some even more aggressive measures to get it off in one piece. Just don't pull by the fins.

John L.

I don't have anything against self-cleaning lint filters, per se, but I live in a town without sewers where all of us have difficult septic systems built on ledge that the town actually pumps out once every couple of years. When I moved in, I consulted a septic systems engineer for advice and two of the things he said that were relevant to appliances was to not install a garbage disposer in the kitchen sink (I think they're great to have), and to avoid washers that flushed lint down into the system. In both cases particles from both float from the septic tank directly into the leaching fields where they clog them up. I suppose I can put one of those little screens over the drain hose opening.

Plus, lint filters are one more fun thing to futz with.