Washing Machine Repair Man

Why have I blipped our washing machine? Because I have been fighting with it for most of the morning.

It began when I went to empty it. The door was still locked, which is not a good sign. It usually means that the filter is blocked and the machine hasn't emptied. The only way to empty it is to get a shallow baking tray and unscrew the filter so that the water can trickle out. It normally takes about twenty or thirty trayfuls to do this, so there I was, down on my knees for the next hour.

The filter was horribly clogged, so I cleared it, put it back and put the load on to rinse. At the end of the cycle the door wouldn't unlock again, so I repeated the emptying process. This time when I'd finished, I shone a torch up the pipe and there was a two pence piece, which was too big to get down the pipe into the filter and was blocking the far end.

I got a long file and pushed it back to be greeted by a rush of water which it had been holding back. Desperately, I managed to get the filter back in and then continued to empty it.

When I finished, I had to pull the machine out so that I could get to the back. It won't come all way out without disconnectng the water supply, so I had to squeeze myself into the small space behind the machine and under the stairs. I had thought on and taken the screwdriver set in with me, so I could get the back plate off and I located where the emptying pipe went into the filter pipe. Unfortuately it was fixed with a wire clip and I needed pliers to get it off, so I squeezed myself out and went up to get some.

They worked, and I got the pipe off and extracted the two pence piece. All I had to do was get it back together. Getting the sleeve back onto the pipe was easy. Getting the fixing cliip back into place not so easy. Now that it was off the pipe, the two parts which needed squeezing together were too far apart for the jaws of the pliers. Add this to the fact that I was working at arm's length at the bottom of the inside of the washing machine so that I couldn't see what I was doing and that I was twisted into a small space in a position that my knees and legs really didn't want to be in and I was lying on a wet piece of carpet. a I'm sure you can imagine what an unpleasant experience it was.

Eventually, I got the clip back on and hopefully it is firmly fixed in place. It did survive a wash this afternoon. I took the opportunity to take up the carpet that the machine was sitting on, as it was still wet from a soaking it got a few weeks ago. It is now sitting in our back porch, smelling damp, but drying out.

Not a good morning.