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Thread Number: 91848
/ Tag: Classified Ad Finds
Sears Best Kenmore dishwasher |
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Post# 1163759 11/12/2022 at 18:53 (529 days old) by pulltostart  (Mobile, AL) |
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| Post# 1163768 , Reply# 1 11/12/2022 at 21:22 (528 days old) by Repairguy (Danbury, Texas) | ||
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Post# 1163779 , Reply# 2 11/12/2022 at 22:51 (528 days old) by bradfordwhite (central U.S.) |
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1983-84ish.
Not a fan of this control panel. I like the one before this best. The TOL before this one had the same body but a different control panel with all electronic buttons.
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Post# 1163789 , Reply# 3 11/13/2022 at 03:26 (528 days old) by chachp (North Little Rock, AR) |
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This post has been removed by the member who posted it. | ||
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Post# 1163832 , Reply# 4 11/13/2022 at 16:44 (528 days old) by CleanteamofNY ((Monroe, New York) |
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Post# 1163838 , Reply# 5 11/13/2022 at 17:04 (528 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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Seers best Kenmore dishwasher ?? 
Sears should’ve never put the Sears best label on this machine, it was just cheesy dishwasher one of the worst on the market at the time. In the 80s.
Usually when the Sears best label appeared on something it was truly the best you could buy anywhere for almost any price but it was a total joke on their D&M Dishwashers. John L | ||
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Post# 1163841 , Reply# 6 11/13/2022 at 17:05 (528 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD) |
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For a "Sears' Best" that is a POS top rack. | ||
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Post# 1163853 , Reply# 7 11/13/2022 at 18:13 (528 days old) by bradfordwhite (central U.S.) |
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ohhhh The nasty twins have arrived from MD. lol
It's almost as if you have something personal against Kenmore dishwashers. There are LOTS of junky appliances in the world under every name brand. Many have been posted on this site over the years yet we rarely hear you kicking off about them.
Well, what ever your issues, you've been around long enough to know that surely there will be yet more postings about 70s/80s Kenmore dishwashers going forward.
Perhaps:
Will you be able to contain yourselves? It really seems to get your blood boiling. Maybe you should seek help for your issues? We wouldn't want you to have a heart attack over this. I can't speak for anyone else but rest assured that I have no ill thoughts toward you when I post Kenmore dishwashers in the future. | ||
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Post# 1163875 , Reply# 8 11/14/2022 at 03:52 (527 days old) by goatfarmer (South Bend, home of Champions) |
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Post# 1163969 , Reply# 9 11/15/2022 at 14:00 (526 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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D & M dishwashers
Built from the late 50s until WCI bought D&M and did away with this awful product.
Yes I have a thing against D&M dishwashers I fixed hundreds of them removed and recycled hundreds of them and even installed quite a few new ones back in the day. Based on my extensive experience and the experiences of hundreds of owners of these machines that I dealt directly with I will conclude that this was the worst major appliance ever sold in large numbers in the United States. I cannot think of a single part of these machines that was of high quality or lasted a particularly long time. The only thing I can say in their defense is they did wash dishes they wash dishes about as well as a basic GE or waste king dishwasher of the time ( which is not saying a lot ) They were never anywhere in the league for a quality of a GE High Point whirlpool KitchenAid or Maytag. BW I will continue to share my experiences with the products I have worked on we would like to hear about your experiences but you can leave all the emotional shit out if you don’t like my facts. John L | ||
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Post# 1163996 , Reply# 10 11/15/2022 at 19:02 (526 days old) by CleanteamofNY ((Monroe, New York) |
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Post# 1164003 , Reply# 11 11/15/2022 at 21:07 (525 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!) |
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Genuine FOMOCO
This was at an estate sale down the block from us. Banished to a corner of the basement workshop, missing lower rack. This ghastly upper rack design has to earn at least a dishonorable mention in the D&M lineage.
Have had several through the years, still have a 74 Kenmore Roto-Rack. While some D&M designs were better than others, what kid wouldn't love the Roto-Rack, I mean... water spraying, lights, and it moves! I can still see the clear demonstrator at Sears, the top rack spinning endlessly. | ||
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Post# 1164026 , Reply# 12 11/16/2022 at 06:34 (525 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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D & M DW
Hi Greg, your Philco even has the inner door panel Rusting through from the inside like they would do, lol
The only DNM dishwasher we saved is at the museum, it’s a brand new 240 V 1966 lady Kenmore dishwasher that Keven found, even though it’s never been hooked up and is in a climate control building the finish on it continues to deteriorate because the materials were so poor used in the manufacturing of it. We will hook it up for demonstration purposes at some point, and it will be fun machine performance wise it may be pretty good compared to other machines of its era, just not a machine I would ever won in my kitchen to be cut the floor. John L | ||
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Post# 1164032 , Reply# 13 11/16/2022 at 09:51 (525 days old) by petek (Ontari ari ari O ) |
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Post# 1164037 , Reply# 14 11/16/2022 at 10:11 (525 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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240 V Kenmore dishwashers | ||
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Post# 1164040 , Reply# 15 11/16/2022 at 10:56 (525 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD) |
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If I am not mistaken, the Kenmore machines did not have insulation on the tub so they took a lot of energy to heat the water to 180F. It is sort of surprising that Sears demanded so little from D&M, but then their Roper-made electric ranges were not stellar either. | ||
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Post# 1164051 , Reply# 16 11/16/2022 at 15:11 (525 days old) by reactor (Oak Ridge, Tennessee-- ) |
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D&M
As I have mentioned previous times, we had the Modern Maid version of this D&M machine from 1968 to 1973. Other than the color scheme the interior was virtually the same, only the MM didn't have the utility basket on the upper rack.
Performance wise, it certainly had good scrub-ability and cleaned pots and pans very well. The problem was little nibblets of food wastes that sometimes resided on the curved bottoms of glassware. After drying at 180 degrees these baked on very nicely. As Larry mentioned, having a rack designed to tilt glassware would have helped. Other than this we had no problems with the top rack design. It held a lot of dishes. My sister and brother-in-law had the D&M Kenmore with the roto-rack, and never experienced the nibblet problem, probably because the centrifugal force flung the particles off the glasses top. They liked their Kenmore. The only negative comment I recall them saying was that the roto-rack sometimes got out of balance and banged when the dishes weren't loaded correctly in the upper rack. The D&M Modern Maid was the first dishwasher in our family, so we had nothing to compare it to. My mom really enjoyed just having a dishwasher. If I recall correctly, rust out was the cause of failure for both our machine and my sister's. Rust out shouldn't happen in only five years. My dad replaced our Modern Maid with a General Electric Americana. Now we had something to compare the Modern Maid/Kenmore/D&M design to. My mom exclaimed about our new GE, after a couple of uses, "I never thought a dishwasher could be so good!" The D&M dishwashers did the job...so much better than having to hand wash dishes. But there were better options out there. | ||
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Post# 1164066 , Reply# 17 11/16/2022 at 20:00 (525 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD) |
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Did you ever read the ratings Consumer's Union gave the D&M family of dishwashers (Kenmore, Gaffers & Sattler, Kelvinator etc.) noting that rust appeared in the sump before the testing period was over? | ||
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Post# 1164084 , Reply# 18 11/17/2022 at 00:40 (524 days old) by chetlaham (United States) |
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240 V | ||
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Post# 1164099 , Reply# 19 11/17/2022 at 10:00 (524 days old) by reactor (Oak Ridge, Tennessee-- ) |
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220/240 volt
The D&M dishwashers were 110/120 volts across the board with the exception of one Kenmore model, which Sears offered for a time, that operated on 220/240v to achieve a higher wash temperature. The extra voltage was for the larger heating element. The rest of the dishwasher (timer, main motor, solenoid) operated on 110/120.
This post was last edited 11/17/2022 at 10:21 | ||
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Post# 1164116 , Reply# 22 11/17/2022 at 14:08 (524 days old) by reactor (Oak Ridge, Tennessee-- ) |
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220/240v Sears DW
I doubt if the dishwasher was that big of a seller, Tom, for the reason you have given. One would have to run a new line to build that dishwasher into their kitchen. It might be OK if someone was building a house where they could customize their kitchen circuitry.
I wonder if anyone ever installed it using their prexisting wiring? All they would need to do is to use the ground line for the neutral and the black and white lines for the two hot legs. It would be simple to add one breaker and put the previous neutral (white) line on the new breaker. The ground line would then become the neutral. In most residential panels the ground and neutral are connected together at the box anyway. Of course, since ground line is now uninsulated, that would prohibit it from being as a neutral per the NEC regulations, but when did that ever stop anyone. | ||
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Post# 1164146 , Reply# 23 11/17/2022 at 21:20 (523 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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230/240 V lady Kenmore dishwashers
Yes I’m sure these were not big sellers Barry, I only ever saw three of them in my career.
The one that I have that I got from Kevin in Long Beach that’s in the museum. And we removed one in 1976 that was a 1969 model installed a new Maytag reverse rack dishwasher in its place. That was easy to do we just didn’t use the one hot wire when we hooked it up the Maytag that is. That dishwasher I stripped the 240 V 2400 W element out of it and, I ended up using that element in a porcelain tub 18 inch DNM dishwasher that a friend put in his office where there was no water heater and that 2400 W element would heat the water up amazingly fast running the dishwasher on cold water. I also saw a Lady Kenmore up in Vermont about 35 years ago a friend was looking for a house and I noticed that the old DNM dishwasher said 180 on the high temperature cycle. John L | ||
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Post# 1164151 , Reply# 24 11/17/2022 at 22:59 (523 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!) |
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I took these pics in 2015 at John's, note the double element.
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Post# 1164761 , Reply# 25 11/24/2022 at 14:42 (517 days old) by Unimatic1140 (Minneapolis) |
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D&M 11+ Years Later
So I have had my 1965 Lady Kenmore D&M dishwasher installed in my kitchen for well over 11 years now. I use it normally about 4 times a week. It has no rust build-up nor have I needed to do much repairs. The racks are still nearly in pristine condition. Earlier this year I had to rebuild the water valve but that was the first repair since I started using it. Every few years I need to remove the mount and take something out that shouldn't have gone in the dishwasher and is being thrown around loudly by the macerator. I do realize that the earlier models like this were probably built much better than the later models in 1970s and beyond.
I never find any bits of food left over, the only exception is the occasional bit on a piece of silverware but that only happens if it is cupped next to another utensil. Of course this happens in any dishwasher I've ever used. Centrifugal force throws any bits on the top rack off and I love not having to clean any filter. I do not pre-rinse or even scrap much and the D&M takes care of removing all the food. I really do love this dishwasher. Here are pictures of the interior after 11 years of use, I took these picture this week... | ||
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Post# 1164763 , Reply# 26 11/24/2022 at 16:22 (517 days old) by reactor (Oak Ridge, Tennessee-- ) |
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Nice machine, Robert.
Love your modifications to add a tub light and door window to allow you to see your machine in action. The D&M machines were really not as bad as some are making them out to be. I wish some of the AW members would learn not to to view the world in gross generalizations and communicate with overt, and often false, exaggerations.
Those turquoise racks are nice. The later mustard yellow racks that Sears used were not as attractive, at least in my opinion. The one nice thing Modern Maid did with the D&M machines was to color coordinate the racks and tubs. My family's Modern Maid had a "Robin's Egg Blue" porcelain tub with complementary Marina blue racks. It was quite striking. Too bad they used off-white silverware baskets and detergent dispensers, though. Thanks for sharing the pictures, Robert. I can't imagine how much time and pabor you put into the modifications of your machine! | ||
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Post# 1164766 , Reply# 27 11/24/2022 at 16:54 (517 days old) by peteski50 (New York) |
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D & M | ||
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Post# 1164786 , Reply# 28 11/24/2022 at 20:59 (516 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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The last year of a somewhat OK DNM dishwasher
Was 1966 after that they really cheap and gasket and tub design and the baffled inside the door and the door panel started to rust out and the dishwashers leak down the sides they were a mess after that.
Our family‘s first dishwasher was a 1966 TNM middle of the line Kenmore dishwasher it required about 10 service calls in this many years. Three warranty calls in the first year, new motor new inlet valve, pump had to be rebuilt inner door panel rusted out and had to be replaced, the ball bearings fell out of the Roto rack and jammed the pump up. Other than that it was sure better than not having a dishwasher it did clean the dishes reasonably well in spite of not having a filter the Roto rack gave better water patterns and you never got that stuff on the tops of things I will say that for it but of course it didn’t hold near as much. John | ||
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Post# 1193283 , Reply# 29 11/9/2023 at 16:12 by HobartHero (New York) |
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Found Another Almost New Like This
I found a different one just like this in almost new condition. Figured it would be a good one for my vintage collection which is primarily vintage KA machines with a couple Whirlpool, Maytags and a NIB 1989 GE 1100. I think I’ll probably pick it up in the next week or so. Don’t care about the quality as it won’t be used really.
-Shannon | ||
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Post# 1193284 , Reply# 30 11/9/2023 at 16:21 by DADoES (TX, U.S. of A.) |
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Post# 1193285 , Reply# 31 11/9/2023 at 16:39 by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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Sears lady Kenmore dishwasher | ||
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Post# 1193288 , Reply# 32 11/9/2023 at 16:49 by HobartHero (New York) |
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Never used | ||
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Post# 1193289 , Reply# 33 11/9/2023 at 17:21 by CleanteamofNY ((Monroe, New York) |
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Shannon, That dishwasher is suitable for that period of time. Please scrape plates, pots, and pans before loading to reduce the yibbles on the top rack. This model is known for leaving fine food waste where cup bottoms are concave. The great thing about Sears Best is that it will heat the water in both pre-wash and main-wash, plus the rinse cycles. Our boiler in our building would fail in the wintertime, and I would load the dishwasher and let it rip. Everything came out clean. It's loud and powerful! This post was last edited 11/09/2023 at 22:44 | ||
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Post# 1193291 , Reply# 34 11/9/2023 at 17:48 by HobartHero (New York) |
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Expensive Unit
Can’t believe these were over $519 in 1983! That’s over $1,600 after adjusting for inflation.
-Shannon
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| Post# 1193293 , Reply# 35 11/9/2023 at 18:28 by Repairguy (Danbury, Texas) | ||
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Post# 1193297 , Reply# 36 11/9/2023 at 19:41 by peteski50 (New York) |
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Kenmore! | ||
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Post# 1193337 , Reply# 37 11/10/2023 at 15:44 by HobartHero (New York) |
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It’s Home! | ||
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Post# 1193359 , Reply# 38 11/10/2023 at 21:27 by appnut (TX) |
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Post# 1193411 , Reply# 39 11/11/2023 at 13:26 by reactor (Oak Ridge, Tennessee-- ) |
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Nice find! | ||
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