Drain Pump

If you read Kayla’s blog you may have previously been introduced to our washing machine.  If not here is a summary it took us a month to figure out what the letters on all the dials mean.  The shortest cycle that we have found is 2 hours long so we hope that means our clothes are extra clean and during the spin cycle it vibrates all the way across the room.  I was browsing online and I learned that if your wash cycles are long, clothes are coming out really wet and musty smelling it could be a sign that the drain pump needs to be cleaned out. 

 Well I thought hmm that could be our problem, then continued browsing on the Internet.  The following day Kayla put in a load of laundry and when the 2 hour cycle finished the clothes were soaking wet so I was determined that it needed to be done immediately. 

So I pulled up that page on the Internet and got to work.  That is when I ran into the first hurdle of the mission.  I wasn’t strong enough to twist open the cap where the drain pump is.  So I went in search for the perfect tool.  I tried several things before I found it.  It was actually a nutcracker.  So I started to loosen the plug and that is when it happened.  All sorts of grayish blue liquid started to gush out everywhere.  I yelled help because the pan I had was already full and the water was nowhere near done. 

Kayla came to the rescue with the dustpan, which was used as a water director into the bucket.  You see most drain pumps have a hose but ours doesn’t.  When the water was done gushing out.  I pulled out the filter.  I think I was the first person to ever do this.  It was caked it lint and who knows what else.  Kayla said it smelled like a dead cat.            

I cleaned it out and put it back together and now the wash cycles are still 2 hours, but I think it vibrates less and our clothes have not been soaking yet (knock on wood).