help needed for washing machine..think ive broken it

stopthespends

hi all

i think ive brioken my washing machine!!

on my last day at work (nurse at hospital) i got egg and floured as is the nhs tradition!!! well they completely covered me in egg flour icing suger soup and beans...nice lot eh! hehe

i decided (stupidly) to wash the uniform ...i guess i should have just binned it!! and since the last few days my washing machine isnt spinning or draining properly also the washing smells musty.

ive run it on an empty cycle on 90degrees and it didnt have any water left in the drum so i thought id cured it. however ive just done a load and its sodden agin....any ideas???? please help..... thanks

greenbee

Try cleaning out the filter

stopthespends

hi.. thanks for the response...ive cleaned the thinkgy behind the flap at the bootom...is that the filter???

im thinking i may need something to clean the pipes out...any ideas?

sarymclary

Hi,
I'd check your pipes. If there weren't any major lumps going into the machine I'd have thought the water would have diluted it, but if you didn't scrape the excess off, then there's a chance it has caused a blockage.

If the pipes are OK, I'd do another hot wash on empty, and maybe a solution of vinegar going through it might help. Biological washing powder has enzymes in it to breakdown bacteria and food stains, so it might help to put some of this in to wash it through. I also wondered if it might not be OK to put a dishwasher cleaning tablet into the machine? they don't foam up, but do a good job of cleaning.

southernscouser

Add milk, lemon juice, and sugar. Spin on high temp until brown on both sides. Yummy.

stopthespends

thanks that sounds worth a try!!

would the dishwasher tab go in draw or drum?

stopthespends

hahaha very funny!!! now im hungry and have smelly clothes...

nanokitten

You've probably got a bit of egg shell in your pump, if your not brave enough to take the back of and have a look I'd do a hot wash with lemon juice as southernscouser suggested or vinegar or calgon. Do this separatly to a biolgical powder wash as they will counteract each other. It may be that some other foreign object has got in there (as a nurse you should be familiar with this!) we get hair grips in ours (and once a locker key!).
as well as the filter check as far up the pipe as you can reach, If you machine drains to under the sink you could unscrew the pipe connection and see if the pipe is blocked. happy hunting.

nesssie1702

You could also do use soda crystals in an empty wash - a number of folk use this to clean out dishwashers and washing machines

geordie_joe

louley wrote: »

i decided (stupidly) to wash the uniform ...i guess i should have just binned it!! and since the last few days my washing machine isnt spinning or draining properly also the washing smells musty.

ive run it on an empty cycle on 90degrees and it didnt have any water left in the drum so i thought id cured it. however ive just done a load and its sodden agin....any ideas???? please help..... thanks

Sounds like the pressure valve is blocked. This is a device that prevents the drum spinning too fast. When the drum spins it increases the pressure in the valve and when the required pressure is reached it stops the drum spinning any faster.

If the valve gets blocked the washing machine "thinks" the drum is spinning at speed already, depending how much pressure is in the valve. So when it reaches the spin cycle the washer doesn't make the drum spin very fast.

Example. If your drum normally spins at 1200 rpm, but the pressure trapped in the valve is the same as it is when the drum is spinning at 1150 rpm then the washing machine will only make the drum spin at 50rpm.

There is nothing wrong with your pump, it pumped the water out when you did the 90 degree wash with no clothes in it. What it is not doing is spinning the water out of the clothes, therefore the drum isn't going round fast enough.

Don't get anyone out to fix it, they will simply take the top off, pull the pipe of the pressure valve and blow down it. At this point the washing machine will be fixed, but they will then fit a new timer and say "I've fitted a new timer and the machine is working fine now, that's a small fortune you owe me."

Often if you leave the machine the pressure will go down slowly and after a few days it will work fine again. Sometimes it works once then you have to wait ages for the pressure to go down again, but sometimes when the pressure drops it releases whatever is causing the blockage and the machine works perfectly after that.

if you can, leave the machine for a few days then put it onto spin and see if it spins fast enough. If it does, try it a couple more times. If it spins properly you are probably Ok. If not you will need to find the pressure valve, it often a round white plastic thing attached to the side of the machine which you can get at if you remove the top. You need to pull out the hose that is attached to it and blow down it, hard.

Butterfly_Brain

I had the same problem this weekend just doing school uniforms and the blasted thing died on me. Lucky for me my friend's hubby is a washing machine engineer and came to my rescue it was the pump and after removing 2 x2ps a sock and a screw it works fine