Washing machine help.

Mutton_Geoff

elsien said:

So a starting point would be to shorten it? 

You can't shorten the top, it's the bit at the bottom. Although neatly done is a bit of a compromise. Can you get a running hosepipe to poke down the pipe and flush through?

elsien

Yes, I can try that. 

macman

So if it drains OK into the bucket then you don't have a fault on the washing machine or drain hose (not an outlet pipe), you merely have a blockage in the standpipe part-the rigid upright section, ot further downstream of that Try clearing that with some hot water, degreaser and maybe an old coat hanger wire. Flush it through until it drains properly to the drain discharge point. If some water and soap scum is sitting in that, then it may have frozen in the current cold weather.

grumbler

macman said:

So if it drains OK into the bucket then you don't have a fault on the washing machine or drain hose (not an outlet pipe), you merely have a blockage in the standpipe part-the rigid upright section, ot further downstream of that

So far there are no any grounds for coming to this conclusion.

If there were a blockage, water would overflow at the top of the grey pipe - and this isn't the case.

grumbler

Mutton_Geoff said:

The U bend looks too long to me, the water trapped in the long upright pipe will be level with the bottom of the outlet pipe, if that's 40mm pipe, then you've got at least 120mm of water standing (recommended is 75mm).

Personally, I don't see any problem with this.

Mutton_Geoff

grumbler said:

Mutton_Geoff said:

The U bend looks too long to me, the water trapped in the long upright pipe will be level with the bottom of the outlet pipe, if that's 40mm pipe, then you've got at least 120mm of water standing (recommended is 75mm).

Personally, I don't see any problem with this.

The problem is lack of demountable waste trap to easily remove sludge, hair, paperclips etc that all end up in there. By increasing the stand of water in the vertical drain, there is less room for the drain water before the pipe overflows and some machines do have quite efficient drain pumps that might cause that to overflow.

I would also pull the condensate pipe out and remove the boss so have a good poke around and clean out that home made U bend.

elsien

Thank you all. 
In the meantime my car has also gone kaput and I'm meant to be going away tomorrow.
I will try the various suggestions and report back next week.

elsien

Update. Washing machine now functioning again.

Turned out to be where the pipe into the outside drain is too close to the drain cover and the fluff (probably from the dog bedding) had gathered over time and partially blocked the end of the pipe. Which just shows how sensitive the pressure sensors must be. 

Thanks for all the help and suggestions, they were appreciated. 

Mutton_Geoff

elsien said:

Update. Washing machine now functioning again.

Turned out to be where the pipe into the outside drain is too close to the drain cover and the fluff (probably from the dog bedding) had gathered over time and partially blocked the end of the pipe. Which just shows how sensitive the pressure sensors must be. 

Thanks for all the help and suggestions, they were appreciated. 

My garage drainpipes used to do that with leaves until I chopped the ends off and fitted a shoe. Alternatively, if space is tight, chop the end of the pipe off at a 45 degree angle so rubbish clears away.