Sandiana Jones: Legend of the Leaking Washing Machine

We bought a new washer and dryer at Lowes when we got married. Actually, maybe my mom bought it for us . . . she's cool like that. They were not the fanciest, but they did the job, and that's what mattered.

Not long after I started cloth diapering Annalee in 2009, the "small load" setting stopped working on the washer. That was unfortunate because I usually washed the diapers on the small load setting. But I didn't want to mess with it, so I just used the medium setting from then on.

For the last year or so the washing machine has been leaking every once in a while, most often when we overload it. Steven and I took the front off of the machine to see where it was leaking from. Mom came over when I was pregnant to help me figure it out. We finally realized that there was no leaking hose (darn, that would have been too easy). The problem was that it was overfilling and leaking out the overfill hose, like it was designed to. Unfortunately, I don't have a drain in the floor of my laundry room!

I decided to ignore it some more, because that always works so well. Lately, though, it's been leaking no matter what I do. I figured I had three choices: buy a new machine, call a repairman (the cost of which is ridiculously close to the cost of a used machine), or fix it myself. Now, I don't know the first thing about fixing washing machines, but YouTube does! I watched a quick tutorial and then Steven and I gutted the monster.

We were able to take apart everything but the spanner nut in the bottom of the wash basin, for lack of a spanner wrench. However, we discovered this lovely air pressure hose attached to the water level sensor.

It had what looked like some kind of black metal device in the end. I looked up parts all over the internet, but couldn't find a hose with that device. Upon closer inspection, we realized that there was no device inside, only crud. Steven sprayed it out with the garden hose. Then we soaked it in bleach and went after it with pipe cleaners from my craft box. (We took this picture when it was almost clean--there used to be a whole lot more black gunk!)

Later, Nathan and I put the machine back together. We only ended up with two extra parts when we were done. (Um, they weren't important, right?) We ran a test load, and, EUREKA! Washing machine fixed. I only hope my victory doesn't turn sour like it did in the Dishwasher of Doom, when I had to buy a new one a few months later.