Washing clothes on the rocks, from a painting by Tintorreto (1573)
My washing machine broke about six weeks ago. I kept getting an error code relating to faulty draining, but not wanting to trouble Martin with it while his father was so ill I set about fixing it myself. I had saved up for a new bedroom carpet and I was blowed if I was going to spend the money on a new washing machine instead.
It's been quite a task, and has taken some time but finally I got it working on Friday and it was nothing to do with draining at all despite the error code. However, over the weekend after it was fixed something clicked in my head related to a passage I had once read in one of Janet Luhrs' Simple Living newsletters.
In one of the early issues is an article by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez on True Wealth, and he said something that really hit home with me. He said:
"The idea that our wealth resides in our skills is important. Maybe some guy feels only two inches tall because his wife says "Honey the faucet's dripping." and all he can do is pick up the phone and call the plumber. He doesn't know how to pick up a screwdriver and fix it. He just doesn't know. His grandpa knew. When something happened to the car, grandpa just got out and fixed it. And the grandpa who could fix anything was a hero for that boy. Now the boy has become this poor schlump who drives back and forth to work every day, and he can't put in a faucet washer or jiggle a toilet handle so it works."
I married someone with skills and a desire to learn new skills when needed, and I've been determined to learn how to do basic repairs and maintenance on things myself. I know some members of my family (the excessively opinionated ones who need their rude noses tweaked) thought I should have married a doctor or a lawyer and have lots of money and nice cars and holidays, but I couldn't care less about that. I knew I wanted a man who was capable of fixing things. There are some out there who believe (my father for example) that doing these things yourself is fine when you have no money, but really when you are earning a good wage you should be paying someone else but that makes no sense to me. Being able to fix things quickly saves time and money - it translates into hours of your life extra that you don't have to work or because you can save the money. And with the economy being the way it is, being able to have a go at fixing something before tossing it or calling an engineer out when it could be something very small is truly moneysaving (except gas appliances - leave those alone!).
And so to our washing machine, and my determination not to buy a new one.
I drained the water out, then took off and cleaned all the pipework to the pump from the drum and from the pump to the outside.Nothing much came out, apart from the two 'rocks' below. The filter was clear. Tested it, still didn't work.
This dropped out of the pipe leading from the drum.
I then ordered a new pump from an internet spares shop for £30 + postage. It was simple to fit, but the machine still didn't work. Hmmmm.....I had to start considering perhaps it was something that had blown on the circuit board that managed the pump electrics, which was Martin's territory as he's good with electronics and soldering.
But Frank was in hospital and unwell and I didn't want his attention diverted. The spin function still worked, so I put the machine onto bricks, took off the hose from the main drum and slid a roasting tray underneath the drum outlet so I could spin the stuff I was handwashing (the easy stuff like underwear and T-shirts etc), while my mother-in-law let me wash the rest in her machine when we went across there every Sunday. After a few weeks of considering my options and searching the net for information, I came across a forum thread where someone had an spotted an error code relating to the heating element flick up on her machine for a second before being replaced by the drainage error code.
So I put everything back together and run a short wash, sitting there in a chair watching the digital display. And there it was - after 18 minutes it tried to drain, couldn't and the heating element code flicked up and was instantly replaced by draining error code.
So, I ordered a heating element for around £30 + postage. After watching a video on youtube, the element was reasonably easy to replace (I had to ask Martin to get it out eventually as it needed brute force on the seal). What came out of there was quite shocking.
That 'fluffy gunk' was wrapped around the element, which itself was coated in a tick layer of limescale
We had to slide the end of the hoover into the element housing and get out all sorts of stones and nasty fluff, which didn't seem to have made it to the main filter of the machine. We put it back together and gave it a test. For the first time in weeks the machine started draining. I still have no idea why we got a draining error code as a result of the heating element though.
So we spent about £70 on fixing it instead of getting an engineer out or spending £350 we had saved on a new machine, and on Saturday we went and ordered the carpet we wanted for our back bedroom.
I am a very happy bunny right now. Fingers crossed right now that nothing else breaks on it.
