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In this case, you can drain the machine, one pail of
water at a time, by cutting the end off the rear drain
hose and letting the water pour into a bucket. (You
should have several containers lined up so you don't
have to set the drain hose down and go looking for
another container). Beware! If your washer is hooked up
to the U-bend in a sink, removing the drain hose means
that any water down the sink will end up on the floor!
So, don't pour the water from the pail into the sink.
Once you have the water out of the machine and can work
with the hose, replace the hose in the drain, and let
the machine spin out the water. If your machine hasn't
been recently installed, either the pump isn't working
or there's something blocking the drain. Some washing
machines have a pump, filter and drain hose that can be
accessed with relative ease, but others don't, and
you'll probably need a repair person to fix what ails
them. Some machines have a lock on the door that can't
be opened as long as there is water inside the machine.
If you can find a way to drain the machine, then you can
open the door and access the pump filter if there is
one. Some washers have a filter at the front of the
machine, and others have it behind a panel at the bottom
of the washer. If you aren't sure about the location of
your machine's internal organs, the owner's manual
should help you out. (You do have the owner's manual,
don't you?)
You may be one of the lucky washer owners whose
washer comes with a water pump filter that rests behind
a flap. Lift the flap, and you may find a small drain
hose. Unstop the hose and drain the water (slowly,
painfully) into a pail or (if you're lucky) a floor
drain. This may take awhile because the container you
drain into may not be very deep if the hose is close to
the floor to start with. Gravity requires that the hose
aim down to get maximum drainage, and you may not have
much room in that direction unless your machine is up on
concrete blocks.
If your machine doesn't have a drain hose, you'll
have to drain it from the pipe at the back of the
washer. The advantage here is that the drain is usually
higher than the front pump filter drain hose would be:
the draining will go faster until the water level falls
below the height of the pipe. Remember, if you're
draining the washer from the hose that's been connected
to a waste water pipe, make sure you aren't going to
dump the drained water down any connected sink, or
you'll get a flood.
If you try to drain the washer by means of any hose
and there's little or no water coming out, you may have
found a blockage. Socks are famous for blocking
washers—they're small enough to get sucked into a hose
but too big to work their way free again. At this point,
you'll either need to take the pump filter apart (if you
know about things like that), or call someone who knows
about things like taking pump filters apart and get some
expert assistance.
Fix Washing Machine from Bad Smells
You may have a washing machine that does its job,
but gives you trouble when you aren't using it. It
smells awful—mildewed, sulfurous, nasty. It may even
make your clothes smell bad when they're washed, but
more likely you'll notice the stink when the washer is
sitting empty. The good news is that even when your
washer smells bad, it's probably not going to be a
mechanical issue, and you won't need the washer
repairman or a plumber to fix it. Isn't that nice—you've
just saved a lot of money!
If your washer has been recently installed, you will
need to rule out the possibility that it wasn't plumbed
in correctly. Bad plumbing can cause the washer to fill
with nasty old water that should have drained out the
sewer pipe. A good installation should include a
warranty so that if that turns out to be the problem,
the installers should fix the trouble at no cost to you.
(If they try to renege on the warranty or guarantee,
don't waste time arguing: call the Better Business
Bureau and file a formal complaint). Incorrect plumbing
can cause the waste water from the washer to re-enter
the machine after it should have left the building. You
can check for this possibility by looking at the washer
when it hasn't been running. If it has water seeping
into it when it's off, you have a problem with the waste
water running back into the appliance and a plumber
should some out to remedy the situation.
It's possible for some well water to create bad
smells in the washer because of minerals in the water.
Washers with a well water problem will probably smell
sulfurous, like rotten eggs. It will be the same smell
as the water from the tap. If you haven't already had
problems with stinky well water, you should get a
plumber to rule out the chance that sewer gas is the
real culprit. If your washer is in a room where a toilet
seal or sink trap has failed, the smell that seems to be
coming from the washer may in fact be coming from a
waste water pipe or a clogged vent. Sewer gas is
dangerous: if you think there's a chance that you're
smelling sewer gas, open the window (if there is one),
leave the room, and call the plumber.
The more likely scenario is that your washing machine
was running fine and developed a bad smell somewhere
along the way of its normal functioning. This is common
if you use inexpensive powder soaps that don't really
dissolve the way they should when they hit the water.
Some cheap soaps won't dissolve in cold water, and some
really cheap soaps also won't fully dissolve in hot
water, which transforms the soap into a sticky mass.
Powdered soaps can be the worst—you'll probably have
found that sometimes you get lumps of soap in the
laundry after the rinse and spin cycles are completed.
This is a great clue that the soap is also not
dissolving in the washer. It may be caking up somewhere
around the drum or in the various seals and pipes of the
washer.
If your soap is caking up on your clothes, or if you
need a hot wash to dissolve it, it's worth paying a
little more money to get a decent laundry detergent that
will dissolve in cold water (saving you hot water
charges) and wash completely away in the rinse.
Sometimes, all you need to do to get rid of the bad
smell in the washer is to start washing with a better
detergent. In a few loads of laundry, the old soap goo
will be washed away from the nooks and crannies of the
washer and the stink will wash away with it. (If you
want to hurry things along, do a load of wash on the
hottest setting and with no clothes in the washer).
If there's a chance that the smell in your washer
comes from more than bad soap, you may want to do a
serious wash cleaning. Lots of really grubby laundry
(like washing farmer's or mechanic's clothes) can leave
dirt and oil in the washer. It can build up in places
where you can't reach to wipe it out, and create a
stinky environment). If you don't have a septic tank,
you can wash through a couple of cycles using laundry
bleach and hot water: this will help wash away the
accumulated dirt.
Other odor problems can come from not using the
recommended amount of detergent for a load. If you use
too much laundry soap, it can build up in the washer: if
you don't use enough, you may have dirt and oils from
clothing staying inside the washer at the end of the
cycle. Follow the directions on your laundry detergent.
If you want to use cold water to save money and
energy, you may find that hard water prevents your
clothes from getting as clean as you'd like. There are a
few detergents out now that are made especially to
dissolve and wash well in cold water. It may be worth
trying one of those more specialized detergents.
Vinegar is a long-revered cleanser, and it has the
added benefit of being harmless to septic systems. If
you don't want to put bleach into the sewer or septic,
buy a gallon of cheap (usually about $1) white vinegar,
and do a load of wash using hot water to clean out the
washer. If you hate the waste of a whole load of
laundry, it wouldn't hurt a bit to send through a load
of sheets, dish towels, clothes or anything else you'd
like to give some extra cleaning. The vinegar will act
as a natural bleach and clean out the washer at the same
time.
Whatever special cleaning wash you decide to use, do
a special load of wash every week or two for the purpose
of keeping your washer clean. If you're using the
correct amount of a good detergent, periodically doing a
wash in hot water, and not overloading the machine, a
problem with a smelly washer should be permanently a
thing of the past.
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