Schuetz Family

Well. First things first: We’ve had twins. It’s obviously been a long while since I’ve posted. If you know us, and know that we have twins, you’ll chuckle and understand why nothing’s been posted for like 2.5 years(!). If you don’t know us, and didn’t know we even existed until you surfed here, then you haven’t missed anything. If you know us, and didn’t know we had twins, well, surprise!

So anyway. Twins. (Boy and Girl, in case you were curious). With a 3-year-old son as well. That spells L-A-U-N-D-R-Y. And we’ve had this really cool front-loading washer/dryer combo since we moved into this house in 2002. Super efficient, super quiet, etc., etc. Kenmore Elite HE3t or something like that. Very good. Except that the washer keeps getting this F09 code, interestingly only on the delicate cycles (which is most of the kids’ and Andrea’s clothes). So I always figured it had to do with the Woolite we use, which isn’t High-Efficiency Washer “compatible” (that is, it makes too many suds). Every time we get the error, we hit pause, then start again and it finishes up in a few minutes.

Then tonight, it breaks completely. Wouldn’t work at all. It wouldn’t drain, wouldn’t spin, wouldn’t do anything. I pulled the power and plugged it back in, but couldn’t open the door (it locks when it’s got water in it — a good plan, I’m sure you’ll agree, unless you’ve got the kids’ only clothes for tomorrow trapped in it, just screaming “DRY ME!” at you). (I’ve also got a touch of the flu lately, so I might have been imagining that last bit). The really crazy bit? I’d hit “Drain and Spin” and the first thing it does is dump more water into the tub. Crazy. Anyway, it’d just sit there, and you could hear the pump humming really loud, like it was jammed.

So we convinced it to release its hostages, wrung them all out quickly over the sink and got them into the dryer (where they’re still going strong). Then I dragged the wet-vac from the basement (I’ve GOT to get a lighter wet-vac!) and cleaned the tub out. (also, the blasted wet-vac leaked. Again, I’ve got to get a new one.) Then I popped the bottom panel, stuffed towels all over the place, and eased open the little filter canister next to the pump.

Water streamed everywhere (good thing for the towels). Screwed it shut. Wrung out the towels, put ‘em back. Came to a toll, paid and went — no, wait, that’s a different song. (flu again). Drain, wring, repeat. Eventually, I realized that I should have (1) unscrewed the pump assembly so I could lift it up an inch, (2) put a flexible cutting board (thin sheet of heavy plastic) under it to make a trough, and (3) drained it directly into a low tupperware container. Maybe next time. (maybe this tidbit will help YOU!)

So now I’ve got the pump, and drain hose, drained. Goop inside (technical term for, well, goop. Icky stuff. Hasn’t been cleaned in a while). I know people who’ve found coins, pen caps, and small waterfowl in this filter trap, but we only had goop. Then I reached into the impeller chamber, and hit paydirt — something soft, squishy, and completely filling the opening.

After about 5 minutes trying to pry it loose with my little finger, I removed the entire pump assembly, popped off the hose clamps for the inlet and outflow, and took it into the kitchen, where I pulled an entire color-fast sheet out. (Essentially, this little piece of magic sucks up loose dyes from your washer load to keep colors from bleeding onto other clothes. Think dryer sheet, but for the washer. Andrea loves ‘em.) That entire thing, maybe 4×6″, was wrapped all around a pump chamber about the size of a silver dollar and maybe a half-inch thick. No wonder it was jammed.

Now, I’ve got the pump cleared (and cleaned for good measure), and it takes me another 15 minutes to get the bloody hose clamps back in place, but it seems to have held. I hook the pump wires back up, plug the thing into the wall, and run a rinse / spin cycle to make sure it works. It does, but it’s kind of loud, probably because the pump has to get all the air bubbles out first (we’ve had this issue with cat water fountains whenever we cleaned them — the pump would make crazy noises and even pulsate for a while before it got fully cleared and just ran smooth). So I think that’s normal. And apparently the computer thought so, too, because it completed the cycle with no errors!

I’ll try a full cycle tomorrow and hopefully it’ll work for real.

Now, I really oughta go to bed. But first, maybe I’ll post something about the pictures I just put up, too….