Last night, I was nearing the edge of "enough" clean clothes. Time to break down and do laundry again. As I discussed in my previous water post, I had done some creative plumbing to allow both the washer and the cat genie to drain properly. It was a disaster. I had removed the drain tube for the washer, leaving the cat genie drain in place. (No, I didn't run the washer without replacing the drain tube - nice try) While putting the drain tube in place, it cracked. Given that the tube is at least 20 years old, I'll give it that. No laundry last night.
Today I stopped by the hardware store and purchased some new plumbing parts, and a new tube. I set up the new plumbing parts, and attached the tube. It looked good. I started a load of wash and noticed a quickly growing puddle coming out from below the washer. Crap! I unplugged the washer, and moved it out of place to find a good deal of water coming out of the back of the washer where the new drain tube attaches. It turns out that on this model (I can't speak for others) there is a pump to pump water out when draining, but there is no valve to keep the drain closed while it's filling. The system relies on the tube running higher than the water level of the washtub before hitting the drain (thus explaining why the drain tube is a good 4 feet off of the floor, rather than a more attractive 2 feet off of the floor.)
When fitting the tube, I noticed that the end was too big and too loose fitting. Fortunately the tube is tapered every inch and a half, so all I had to do was cut off the first larger ring, and it fit better. Apparently I should have cut off the first two rings. So here I am behind my washer with a tupperware dish (the only thing I could find that holds water on short notice) catching water as it drains out of the back of the washer and throwing it out the window onto the plants. All the while, I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do next. Dejavu. I let it drip for a bit and run into the kitchen to look for something to plug it with. A cork? About 1/8th of an inch too narrow. My thumb works well, but It's hard to do any work with one of your thumbs plugging a leaking drain tube.
I grabbed a small towel and stuffed the drain for a while. In the meantime, I needed to cut another ring off of the drain tube, and with pliers make the spring loaded clip smaller so it would hold the tube in place. It's amazing how hard it is to use tools when your hands are covered in soapy water.
Well, now it's fixed (again) the plumbing is working brilliantly and not backing up. The floor of the sunroom is wet again, but I figure that as hot as it has been back there in the afternoon, it will be dry in no time tomorrow.
Sigh. At least I got a couple of loads of laundry done tonight.
Cheers,
Duane
