The washing machine incident
Feb. 13th, 2009 05:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dickensI was working from home Wednesday and heard what I thought might be the water softener starting to cycle. It wasn't, it was much more exciting than that!
The cold water hose at the back of the washer had sprung a leak and freezing cold water was spraying everywhere. The shut-off wouldn't turn and the laundry room drain was clogged. I grabbed a bunch of towels to use as a dam and called our landlady.
Fortunately she was home and she shut the water off at the main (it took her a couple tries) before any water got past the doorway (carpets...). The light fixture and ceiling continued dripping for about an hour while I first bailed and then mopped up with landlady's help.
Somehow water got inside the drum of the dryer, not the place where you put the close, that would've been easy, but some internal spot so that if you turned the drum by hand you could hear sloshing. It was dry by Thursday when I had a service guy check out both appliances. (I wasn't going to turn them on until someone with knowledge of their inner workings said it was ok.)
If I hadn't been home, we'd have had a very expensive flood.
So, learn from my experience if you like:
Check that your laundry room drain actually does what it is supposed to.
Test that your shut-off valves all turn freely.
Consider switching to steel hoses, it will apparently save $ on your home insurance.
The cold water hose at the back of the washer had sprung a leak and freezing cold water was spraying everywhere. The shut-off wouldn't turn and the laundry room drain was clogged. I grabbed a bunch of towels to use as a dam and called our landlady.
Fortunately she was home and she shut the water off at the main (it took her a couple tries) before any water got past the doorway (carpets...). The light fixture and ceiling continued dripping for about an hour while I first bailed and then mopped up with landlady's help.
Somehow water got inside the drum of the dryer, not the place where you put the close, that would've been easy, but some internal spot so that if you turned the drum by hand you could hear sloshing. It was dry by Thursday when I had a service guy check out both appliances. (I wasn't going to turn them on until someone with knowledge of their inner workings said it was ok.)
If I hadn't been home, we'd have had a very expensive flood.
So, learn from my experience if you like:
Check that your laundry room drain actually does what it is supposed to.
Test that your shut-off valves all turn freely.
Consider switching to steel hoses, it will apparently save $ on your home insurance.
