Brother KH588 and Genie 710 knitting machines: same or different?

Brother KH588 and Genie 710 knitting machines are both standard gauge (4.5 mm) knitting machines manufactured in Japan. Both feature 200 needles and are capable of patterning using semi-automatic needle selection performed by 8-push buttons.

This website states that these machines are the same but my experience is somewhat different as I had a chance to work on both machines. Below is my assessment.

Brother KH588

The machine and all associated assesories are blue in color. The end-caps of the machine case and the lid are metal. The machine comes with lace carriage, cast on combs and extension rails. The handle on the carriage detaches (screws on) and when not in use, is stored separately in the lid on in the tool box.

The pattern center features 8-push buttons, set-lever (the one that moves the needles after the corresponding buttons are pushed), reverse lever (to determine whether the operator wants to bring forward the needles that are selected or those NOT selected), slide dial (the knob helping the knitter to shift the needle selection by 1-8 positions without pushing/unpushing or selectin/unselecting the needles) and MC change lever.

The shapes of the table clamps is typical for older models – with two wide screws, one of which is attached to the main bed.

Brother KH588 comes with laying-in thread feeders (two metal pieces laying next to the blue claw-weights in the picture to the left). They are used for weaving. They are inserted under the knobs between the knob and the sinker plate. See the images below.

Picture below shows part of the pattern center for the KH588: 8 push buttons , reverse lever and a slide dial.

The pictures of the MC change lever (shown below) features the N and MC positions also accompanies by the open and black triangles, which helps if you get a machine with Japanese writing for all main functions on the main bed and carriage.

The KH588 machine I worked on had all words written in Japanese (see the picture below). Next to it is a carriage from Brother KH588 released to English-speaking market. Unlike some other Brother machines, including some 8-push buttons ones, holding cam levers (marked on the bottom side of the carriage as I, II and III) are moving horizontally along the low side of the carriage. On many machines these cam levers are on the side. The carriage also has a change knob (on the top right-hand side of the carriage). This knob chooses normal, weaving or fair-isle knitting.

Brother KH588 can knit with KR586, KR587 and KR710 ribbers according to this chart.

Genie KH710

Genie KH710 is white/brown/orange in color scheme and some with all the same assesories (lace carriage, extension rails, cast-on combs). The laying-in feeders did not with the standard setup for Genie KH710. The table clamps for this machine are of newer design: they simply slide into the main bed slots and then screwed on to the table.

Genie 710 has 8-push buttons, reverse lever, slide dial and the MC lever.

Carriage for Genie 710 featuring a change knob, foldable handle, set levers moving horizontally along the length of the carriage.

Genie 710 is very similar to KH588 and I will not explain in this post the purpose of the main levers and buttons as I did for KH588. I also have a dedicated post to KH710 specifically.

So, the summary of the differences:

• Genie 710 did not come with the laying-in yarn feeders and KH588 did
• Genie 710 is white and brown/orange in color and KH588 is blue
• Handles for main and lace carriages screw on in KH588 and are permanently attached in Genie 710 but can be folded
• End-caps for the main bed case and for the lid are plastic in Genie 710 and are metal for KH588
• Table clamps are of different shapes: KH588 has clamps that screw on to the main bed and table clamps for the Genie 710 slide into the main bed to hold it to the table
• KH710 is a bit newer model than KH588 judging by its computability with ribbers and newer table clamp design.

If you discovered other differences I did not mention, please message me so we can update this information. I would also appreciate if you message me if you found this article useful.