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Leaky washer

5Cent

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
12,291
212
North Central Ohio
Currently washing clothes in our washing machine in the garage:tantrum:

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Getting ready to leave this morning and as I am finishing up loading our 2 boys in the truck, my wife yells that the washer is leaking. Sure shit enough, as I walk into the utility room there is an 1/8" of water covering 75% of the floor. Thankfully she shut it off as soon as she saw the water. Definitely not how I wanted to start my weekend. The weather isn't cooperating for the things I need/want to get done and now everything is going to have to be put aside until this is resolved. My wife does most of the laundry on the weekend, so 4 loads are waiting.....

I was able to put my immediate anger aside and just unplugged the machine and we cleaned up the water. We finished our trip and when we came back I moved the washer to the garage. Removed the back panel while it was standing up, started looking for the leak source. After drying everything off, I was able to narrow it to the drain pump. The impeller housing where 2 outlet tubes attached was cracked.

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A couple of hose clamps and a few bolts and the pumps easily removes. A few screws to separate the pump from the black housing and I had my broken piece. Inside I found something I thought was pretty funny given my last name and the phrase "nickel and dime ya to death". This machine is 7yrs old and this is the first issue, but it was our fault.
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Next focus was how do I fix quickly so we can get some laundry done and not bother with going to a laundry mat lol. 2 layers of silicone later and we are back in business until a new housing or pump arrives. Until then, we're washing clothes in the garage.

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"J"

Git Off My Lawn
Supporting Member
56,761
274
North Carolina
Good work Adam.... Always nice when you can fix it yourself lol.... Some years ago we had an issue with ours and I was on the road and had the wife call out the company we bought it off of as I thought it was still under warranty and the guy disassembled it and found a cap from a syringe in the pump.... He actually wrote it up as a warranty repair and did t charge us lol.... The wife checked her pockets better afterwards.... She's a nurse and it was in her pocket lol....

Did you find a housing on line???
 

badger

*Supporting Member*
The mud we use on firebrick is terrible on those plastic pumps. I replaced a few before I started gooping them up and J'd be back in business. I went as far as moving my old washer right next to my sump hole and let it leak.
 

MK111

"Happy Hunting Grounds in the Sky"
Supporting Member
6,551
66
SW Ohio
Good thing it wasn't worse like leaking when your not home. And to think the nickle matches your forum name. I'd be changing your forum name to 1000.
 

Jackalope

Dignitary Member
Staff member
38,841
260
Good stuff brother. Try some of they epoxy called plastic weld. I fixed a foglight bracket on my old Harley F-150 with it once and was damn impressed with it's strength. I epoxied a 6 inch long piece of flat 1/8 in thick plastic back together and it held like new.
 

RedCloud

Super Moderator
Super Mod
17,381
193
North Central Ohio
Looks like that nickel was in there for awhile lol.

Glad you got it back to working for the time being. I hope the new part comes in quickly and you can get the washer back in the house buddy.
 

5Cent

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
12,291
212
North Central Ohio
Dale, I like your thinking! Sad to say this is not the first time I have had a washer in the garage. When living in the pole barn at OU, that's where our washer and dryer was located. It has never crossed my mind until now the benefits of having these units outside, or in the basement by a drain. Just having room to work on them would be nice, without having to wrestle the thing into the garage!

Adam, that coin has been in there for about 2yrs. We would randomly hear it bounce around when it became unwedged, but could never locate it. I would have put $ on it that it was a bolt, washer or nut of some kind lol.

MK, my last name is Nickle, hence my forum names. It's always funny to run across people like Cotty who think I like 50Cent or the likes.

Rick, I wanted clean clothes. Necessity always wins!

Posted this so if others run into an issue, the takeaway is these things are not that complicated. Had I blown my gasket and just said I'll call soemone to fix, it would have been hundreds of $'s. I was able to locate a new pump (includes the impeller housing) for $60.:smiley_cheers:
 

5Cent

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
12,291
212
North Central Ohio
The replacement pumped arrived yesterday. Swap out took 10mins, washer is back in its spot in the house. Im happy happy happy!

Hope this thread convinces another DIY'r and shows how simple these units are to work on. Grab a wrench and save yourself a few hundred $'s.