Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Close Encounters of the Washing Machine Kind


At the beginning of the summer, worried about the ongoing drought in North Carolina and the state of our well, we gave in and bought a water conserving washing machine. Our family produces a lot of laundry, and I had continual nightmares of our well running dry.

This new front loading washer has the benefit of being able to hold more clothes than our old washer could hold. At the same time, because it is a front loader and it's not sitting up on a platform, it's harder to see into. So sometimes it's harder to see if it's full.

Just in case you ever wondered if it would matter if you put too much laundry in a front loader, let me answer that for you.

Yes.

It does matter.

What, you might ask, could possibly happen? Funny you should ask. Let me show you.




Exhibit #1: The pants formerly known as Russ's nearly new Levis. Now sporting a dime sized hole just below the waistband.






Exhibit #2: Jason's brand new first time through the laundry jeans. Now with an inch wide separation of waistband and pant.



You may be wondering--if there were pants harmed in the running of this overly full load of laundry, was there any damage to the washer? Again I am one step ahead of you.

When we opened the washer door we were greeted by inches of gray fuzz. Unfortunately no picture of this fuzz exists, because I was first too busy hyperventilating to grab the camera, and then, when it became apparent that we weren't going to be able to wipe it all out, too busy persuading Russ to go and get the vacuum. Which he did.

After the gray fuzz was all gone we could see the damage wrought by the jeans. First, denim colored streaks all around the gasket. The gray gasket. The denim streaks are on an area that used to be flat, but now slopes significantly. As in worn away by the blue jeans!!!! Second, large indentation on the bottom of the entire gasket. I'm not sure I have any hypothesis here. And finally, a nice beveled edge on the inner gasket, which was previously perfectly flat.

No wonder there was a lot of gray fuzz--we're missing a lot of gasket!

I hope it keeps working. Because I'm just not sure this situation is covered by the extended warranty...

5 comments:

  1. "We have the same kind of washer and had to replace the gasket for wear due to overloading. It was covered luckily. Also be sure not to put too much soap in it. It only requires a miniscule amount. The repairman said too much soap can get back into the gaskets and corrode them. Just a heads up. It's tempting to overload the machine because it holds so much, but in the end not worth it. Even after it eccentricities, I like it because it wrings the clothes drier than our old machine.

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  2. I love my front loader. I've really packed clothes in there before. I'm sorry yours was, um, damaged. I'd look into the extended warranty. I hope it continues to work for you. Please don't judge all front loaders from this experience... mine is sensitive to criticism. Wait, I just won't mention it!

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  3. PS don't you think it's time you had a link list where you linked to your darling blogging daughter?

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  4. Ok, Jen--when you say just use a little bit of detergent, how much? I usually use 1/4 of the measuring cup that comes with the HE detergent. Does that sound excessive?

    Amy, please tell your front loader that no offense is intended... ;)

    Cindy Lynn, some day your link will come. :)

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