Kenmore Series 80: Ode to My Washing Machine

I don't have a lawn mower or a hair dryer or microwave or a cell phone, but a piece of technology that I do appreciate is a washing machine. I have in my apartment a Kenmore Series 80, my first washer, and I love it. Laundry is a chore just about no one wants to do. I think of the Magdalene laundries where unwed mothers and girls suspected of promiscuity were made into slaves, washing the linens of local businesses to make money for the Catholic Church and supposedly to scrub their souls clean. The last such laundry closed at the beginning of this millennium, only eight years ago, and I don't doubt that the washing machine was greatly responsible for these women's liberation.

I think of my own grandmother who raised seven children with an old fashioned scrub tub. Imagine doing that in today's society, when the average household needs both parents working just to pay the bills. Owning a washing machine can be as much a necessity as clean clothes.

The day I said goodbye to the laundromat attendant was bittersweet; I usually did love the time spent there, the smell of fabric softener, the steadying sound of spin cycle synchrony, the daytime soap operas and local gossip. But a personal washing machine makes things so easy. I never have dirty clothes piling up in the house. It only takes a moment to throw it in the washer, and no one else ever sees my skivvies or smells my sweaty socks.

The washer that we obtained is a Kenmore Series 80. Our landlord gave us ours to use, but it can be found it easily enough at the company's website. It is a White Kenmore 3.2 cu. ft. Super Capacity Plus Washer, item# 02628732000 model# 28732, a top loader with four load-size settings, four temperature settings, and multiple types of wash. I generally use the regular setting with cold water for everything, and it only takes about 15 minutes to get everything clean and spun nicely. It is also a fairly affordable washer, as far as washers go. Had we bought ours upfront we'd have paid about $500, but we are borrowing ours. It was used for about a year, then put into storage for a couple more, then brought out of the shed and up the stairs to us. Even with a few years behind it, and having been subjected to the heat and cold, it works just fine.

Sure, any washer could be improved upon. I would like a completely silent machine that dispenses detergent automatically and infinitely and then dries my clothes in the same compartment to save me a couple more steps. It would also be nice if it could be computerized to sense individual stains somehow and remove them appropriately like a human Magdalene girl could do. For a machine, however, it does well enough.