photo from flickr's SunfoxDuring the peak of our hosting marathon a few weeks ago, our washing machine stopped working. It would complete the cycle, but it never seemed to spin, and the water wasn't being drained. Our first reaction was to plan on buying a new one - but this was our old-world reaction, and we weren't in the old-world anymore. Plan B would be to call an appliance repair person, but we quickly scratched that plan out, as anyone would charge us the hour travel each way on top of the actual work.
So, with that DIY advice manifesting itself as our only viable option, I started Googling our machine's symptoms. It didn't take long to find some simple, clear instructions: the impeller is likely blocked, so open it up and remove the blockage. With the confidence borne of internet-backed knowledge, I opened the machine up, and found a yarn needle (bigger than a sewing needle) in the impeller. I removed it, and the machine has been working well since.
(I'm purposely glossing over the less impressive parts of the story, like where, when I detached the hose from the pump, gallons of water came gushing out, missing my far-too-small catch basin, and running over the floor... and how Joanne spent a good 15 minutes in the crawl space mopping up the water that had made it's way down there... and as I lay there in the puddle of water at the bottom of the washing machine, reaching under it to work with the pump, I suddenly recalled the first part of the article I'd skipped over as irrelevant about unplugging the machine before all work because "electricity kills". Next time will go much more smoothly. I swear.)
I'm going to wring as much life as I can out of this washing machine.
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