my washing machine is broken

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yeah, for a while it was kind of acting strange. like instead of making a beep beeping noise when it finished, it would just make a tweet tweeting noise, which served the same purpose, but sounded a mite sickly. An then it started to stop all the time, like on the spray rinse cycle an then it would stop before the spin cycle. Now it washes but it won't empty and there's all this dirty old water in it and possibly some socks, an I have all this saturated, half-washed clothing in the bottom of the shower.

What do you do? Do you call a washing machine repair shop? Do you call the landlady?

― rainy (rainy), Monday, 21 October 2002 04:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You fill it with eggs and hope noone notices

― Mike Hanle y (mike), Monday, 21 October 2002 04:07 (twenty-three years ago)

does it belong to the landlady? if it does yep give her a call.
my old washing machine did this, and we eventually got it going by repairing the drive belts underneath, cost us $30. but my ex did it, i wouldnt have had a clue.
good luck.

― donna (donna), Monday, 21 October 2002 04:09 (twenty-three years ago)

mine is too :(

as i am going home to mum and dad's 2moro i can do the student thing but it is not ideal

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 21 October 2002 08:26 (twenty-three years ago)

So is ours - and good news Tom/Arshmonkay - our landlady is proving strangely enough to be a cockfarmer and now refusing to fix it as she claims we broke it. The door is knackered. We are going to have to call out a washing machine repair geezer and no doubt PAY THROUGH THE NOSE grrr my nose is fucked up anyway.

― Sarah (starry), Monday, 21 October 2002 08:39 (twenty-three years ago)

Sounds like a problem with the pump.

If you're feeling brave there should be a jubilee clip usually under the machine which connects the drainage hose to the pump. If you can prise it open (you may need pliers as they can be quite stiff) it will drain the water which is in the machine , then you'll be able to see if there's anything blocking the pump, a penny piece could be enough to screw it up. Then reconnect and see if the cycle works again.

Failing that it's probably the drive belt as Donna says.

Failing that call a plumber.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Monday, 21 October 2002 08:41 (twenty-three years ago)

mine goes round and the go-round stages but no water will appear in it

i looked in the filter but it was fine (fine = ew ew ew but only in very small quantities)

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 21 October 2002 08:44 (twenty-three years ago)

mine is too :( I tried to handwash some stuff but it made my hands cold and pink/purple.

― ducklingmonster, Monday, 21 October 2002 17:52 (twenty-three years ago)

As I live in an apartment, I have to use the laundromat down the street. Half of those machines are fucked up. I always end up finding at least one load in a washer that has stopped & is still full of water and having to fish out the clothes (with hot water up to my elbows! yuck!)...

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Monday, 21 October 2002 18:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Haha "jubbly clip".

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 21 October 2002 21:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Dan.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 22 October 2002 05:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Billy is OTM. If it won't spin and won't drain, the likelihood is that something is jamming the pump mechanism. You can drain it by force of gravity by running the hose along the floor into a bowl, then the door should unlock. It may even spin like this, if you feel like switching it back on at that point in the program with the hose still on the floor.

This happened to me recently - it was a 5p piece and a couple of rubber bands gumming things up. Repair engineer only charged for labour costs (30 quid) and regaled me with hilarious tales of his mad mates following England U21s abroad in early 80s Poland. Well worth the cash.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 22 October 2002 21:59 (twenty-three years ago)

bad news, there were two hairclips jamming up the pump, like you all said. My landlady is really mean, she will make me pay for it.

― rainy (rainy), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 02:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Ugh, stink. :-( I'm glad I didn't meet this landlady of yours when I was there, she sounds like a bit of a case!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 03:25 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

BROKEN AGAIN with exactly the same problem as Rainy's, up above.

Mike, what hose?! Strumpfen?

Buggerybollocks. I KNEW I was too happy that we had a tumble dryer thing.

NEVER FEEL HAPPY KIDS.

― Sarah (starry), Friday, 28 November 2003 14:37 (twenty-two years ago)

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/aimeelack/images/washing%20machine.gif

― Sarah (starry), Friday, 28 November 2003 14:42 (twenty-two years ago)

eight months pass...

My washing machine will spin. It even drains some of the water. I just keep running cycles, hoping that it'll all drain. Sometimes the water is clean and sometimes it is dirty. Obviously, there's something wrong with the drain, but why does it drain a little and not a lot?

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 20:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a similar problem and I'm pretty sure now it's not the motor or drain lines but the control head that tells things what to do. It will skip the final spin usually, leaving me with a tub of wet clothes, but I've learned to twist back and forth the mass of wires leading to the main control knob and it will eventually kick in and finish. I had to detach the top part to get to the wires. Any injury resulting from attempting my solution is the user's responsibility.

― nickn (nickn), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 22:24 (twenty-one years ago)

You're much braver than I am. Ain't no way that I'm gonna start twisting wires on that thing.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 22:38 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

ours has just blown up. woo. i knew it was too old and fucked to attempt a 95-degree wash, but i tried it anyway. halfway through, there was an enormous fucking bang. then a pause. then another gigantic bang. then the frantic scrabble of me ripping the plug from the socket.

o well. at least there's a launderette at the top of the road :(

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 3 September 2005 20:17 (twenty years ago)

what's a 95 degree wash?

― Orbit (Orbit), Saturday, 3 September 2005 21:00 (twenty years ago)

I think that's when you set the machine for warm wash or something.

Enormous fucking bangs usually mean one of two things: The transmission's life cycle has come to a glorious end, or the wash load was simply too far off balance. If it's a case of the former - Fuggedaboudit. New machine time.

― jim wentworth (wench), Sunday, 4 September 2005 01:45 (twenty years ago)

a boil-wash, basically. to try to get rid of dubious stains on white T-shirts that i'm kinda sure were the washing machine's fault in the first place. (no, i don't know how that could happen either. but fuck it, i'm blaming the washing machine anyway.)

the load certainly wasn't off balance. it's been a bit leaky and temperamental for a while anyway: i'd been planning on getting a new one. i guess this has just forced my hand somewhat.

still. rats' cocks. washing machines aren't cheap.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Sunday, 4 September 2005 10:37 (twenty years ago)

rocks and the river could be effective, if the river wasnt the thames (im assuming yr one of the london massive)

― anthony, Sunday, 4 September 2005 11:12 (twenty years ago)

glasgow: so the clyde. i fear my clothing would disintegrate on contact :)

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Sunday, 4 September 2005 11:21 (twenty years ago)

Check the classifieds. Sometimes there are good used ones for a fraction of the cost of new. Mine cost $125 US and it's been fine for 3 yrs. Occasionally folks buy newer, more efficient machines and just give the old ones away to make room.

― jim wentworth (wench), Sunday, 4 September 2005 15:00 (twenty years ago)

This thread was started at a very bad time in my life. I am much happier now, and I know a lot more about laundering clothes. My laundry rules for stain-free clothes and washing machine health:

1. Never use fabric softener, it is a total scam and can stain clothes if added prematurely to the wash cycle. Unless you wear clothes made of hessian, how much softer do they need to be?

2. Check all pockets before loading clothes. One tissue or one hair pin can ruin your life. Underwire bra wires can also escape and stage a lose-lose battle in the washing machine pump. Use a special washing bag for delicates. If something does get stuck in the pump, the washing machine repair people will only charge about $25 dollars to fix it.

3. Wash black clothes with only black clothes, white clothes with only white clothes. Other colours with similar colours.

4. Dry your clothes outside rather than in a tumble dryer. It saves electricity and makes the clothes lovely and fresh.

― rainy (rainy), Sunday, 4 September 2005 21:44 (twenty years ago)

If only you'd heard of Calgon......

― JTS, Monday, 5 September 2005 15:02 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

the ILX search is now so fucked that i cannot for the life of me find the other washing machine thread (the one in which i bitched wildly about comet). however, hurrah (i think): our new washer-dryer is now plumbed in and seems to be working.

it took me and the plumber a painful hour to get it set up. still, get in: clean pants again.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Monday, 10 October 2005 13:02 (twenty years ago)

hurrah

Your Washing Machine!

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Monday, 10 October 2005 15:51 (twenty years ago)

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