Yesterday my washing machine stopped half way through a cycle and point blank refused to do anything else. I tried all the known techniques to make the washing machine work in this situation. I switched it on and off several times. Nothing happened. I rocked it back and forth several times. Nothing happened. I used a variety of choice words to it. Nothing happened. I told it how it would be stripped down by the rag and bone man. Nothing happened. I hit it. Nothing happened. I left it switched off for 24 hours. Nothing happened.
This washer is one tough cookie!!!
I finally got the washer handbook out of the drawer and looked up the problem. The book said it was likely that the pump was blocked and gave instructions including diagrams to show how to clear it. I looked at the pictures and thought, “I can do that.”
The instructions said that I had to pull out the emptying hose. Where was the emptying hose? The pictures suggested that it was big. It wasn’t. It was so small that I mistook the end of it for some type of fastening. But having now found this emptying pipe I was confident I could use it. However the stopper of the pipe was stuck. Well I’ve been using the machine for over 11 years and I wasn’t the first tenant. To my knowledge it had never been opened.
I looked again at the instructions. They said that I would need a container to collect the ‘small amount of water’ that might leak out. The picture showed something the size of a cereal bowl. “Well,” I thought, “it can’t leak that much water if they only use a small container.”
Oh how wrong I was.
I decided to unscrew the pump cap. I couldn’t get the cereal bowl under it but, as I was only expecting a small trickle of water, I put a tea towel below it to catch the drips. Nervously I gave the pump cap a gentle turn and as I expected a tiny trickle of water appeared. This trickle soon stopped as the book said it would. Confident that all the water was gone I gave the pump cap another sharp turn and… well I can only imagine it was like the scene when the land bridge between Africa and Europe broke allowing the Mediterranean Sea to form. Eleventy billion gallons of water poured from the washing machine onto the kitchen floor. By now I had turned into a very wet crazy woman rushing around throwing towels onto the floor in the vain hope that the newly formed Kitchen Sea would be soaked up. Needless to say it wasn’t. In fact it was so deep it was trying to be tidal rising and falling at opposite ends of the kitchen.
I knew I had to get rid of the water….but how? What about the Karcher window cleaner? It sparked out at the first attempt. By now the Kitchen Sea was forming into a primeaval soup so I knew I had to do something quickly before the spark from the Karcher caused life to develop. Then I remembered the carpet cleaner. It would suck up the water. Eleven full tanks later the Kitchen Sea was reduced to a drying lakebed and finally I could get to the washing and hang it and every towel and tea towel that I have on the washing line to drip. I’d like to say dry but I’m not holding my breath.
That done I went back to the instructions which said I should remove the pump cap completely and take out any blockages. It promised (well not promised but it said) that the machine would then work. I thought about how smug I would be when I told DH that I’d managed to mend the washing machine…I wouldn’t mention the eleventy billion gallons of water or the Kitchen Sea of course.
So why aren’t I wearing a chufty? The pump cap won’t come off. I’ve tried all the known techniques (see list in first paragraph) but none work. So I’ll have to wait for DH to come home and sort it out for me.
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oh dear VQ!
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