When we moved to our house almost 4 years ago, we bought a Frigidaire Front Loader washing machine from Lowe’s. It was on clearance, so we found a great deal on it. What we didn’t know when we bought it, is that the filter can get clogged easily and cause your washer not to empty all the water out, thus leaving you with a non functioning washing machine. Some of you are probably thinking that you had no idea that there even was a filter! Let me just say, neither did I!
The first time our washer quit draining, my husband fixed it for me. It took him several hours! He had a horrible time getting the hose clamps back on. Finally, he just replaced the clamps with some easier to use clamps that didn’t require any special skills or tools. That made the fixing of the machine so much faster!
The other day, I realized that our filter must have clogged again because once again, the washer would never empty completely of all the water. My husband had a lot of stuff planned to get done that day and I could tell when I told him about the problem that he wasn’t too eager to get it done. He would’ve squeezed it in, so that he could stay having clean clothes, lol, but….it would’ve been a big stress in his life that day! After seeing the look of anguish on his face, I decided to give it a try and see if maybe, just maybe, I could actually do it myself!
This is the view of the rubber boot still installed under the washing machine:
As you can see, there were 4 clamps to remove. Since my husband had previously switched the clamps to ones you could remove with a screwdriver, my job wasn’t so hard.
I started by pulling all of the wet clothes out of the washer and putting them in a trash bag. I then set the trash bag into a laundry basket so that I could move them without ripping the trash bag. Next, I got a cup and bucketed the water left in the tank out of there, to minimize the amount of water that leaked out once the boot was removed. After that, I ran the spin cycle one more time to drain any more water out that would go.
Once the spin cycle was done, I got out my handy tools and started pulling all the hose clamps off of the rubber boot. I didn’t have a flat head screwdriver in the house, so I even used a butter knife to get this job done! Once the hose clamps were loose, out gushed some water. I kept a couple of towels on hand in order to sop up any water that had made it’s way onto my floor. I looked into the boot and this is what I saw:
Ewww, a super full of who knows what filter! So this is what happens when you let 6 year old’s do the laundry! 🙂
I pulled the filter on out and found this:
Yep, that is pretty bad! No wonder, no water could drain! Inside, I found candy wrappers, money, beads and rubber bracelets! Not to mention all the fuzz, grass and hair! Once I cleaned it all out, it was ready to be reassembled.
I placed the filter back into the rubber boot and began reassembling it all. The most important thing to remember is to get the hose clamps back on tightly. Make sure you push the fittings as far as they will go before you screw the clamp down. I ran a test wash to be sure it was all going to function OK and it worked perfectly!
I called my husband to tell him how I had saved him some work that day. He was super relieved that he didn’t have to do that when he returned home. He was also super proud of me.
Later though, he said, “I’m so glad you know how to do that now”, with a sly grin on his face. Uh oh, what did I get myself into?!
Dee Johnson says
My front loader (GE) has a filter that just unscrews in the front, behind the front plate. We were cleaning it out so much, we just left the plate off to be able to access. I have 8 kids, so we had to clean it out several times a year. It is an older machine and is not working correctly, so we will be looking for a new one. I thought they all had the easy accessible filter. I’ll make sure I buy one with the easy clean-out like my old one. 😉 Now that I think about it, since I started making my own liquid laundry detergent about 2 years ago, I haven’t had to clean it out as much. I wonder if the detergent has anything to do with it (or maybe the fact that I have an older child do the laundry).
Sidetracked Sarah says
Hmmm, I don't know. We finally replaced this machine after many different things went wrong with it. We went back to a top loader due to the cleaning it out multiple times!
Emily says
It looks like a dead frog 😀
~ Your most greatful neice… Joyfull, Emily <3
Sidetracked Sarah says
lol Emily, you're so silly. 😉 You just wish YOU could clean it for me!
deirdre says
this totally happened to me and i think everyone should know about it! saves hundreds to keep it clear (even though its a stinky job!)
Sidetracked Sarah says
I totally agree! I'm glad to know I'm not the ONLY one this has happend to! 🙂
Lesli says
Wow, I am very impressed too! How brave of you, I'd be afraid of breaking the whole thing. That will save you a ton of money on repair people!
Sidetracked Sarah says
Well, it helps that I had watched my husband do it a couple of times first! LOL. Thanks for your kind words!
Connie says
I am impressed too! I'm not sure if I'd figure out how to do that with our front loader! But I actually did know it could happen. I worked at a laundromat/tanning salon for a lot of years and we had 6 triple loader washing machines. This would happen all the time since people never checked pockets (though I don't either, ha!) or half the time would just toss an entire basketful in and have a bunch of junk in with the clothes. The majority of the time, I just had to help my boss do the job as his "assistant" but there were a couple times I had to do it myself when he was out of town. It was amazing all the junk you would find in there! Great job doing it all by yourself – saving money and saving your hubby stress! : )
Sidetracked Sarah says
Yes, I'm afraid that since we allow smaller children to start a load of laundry, it probably happens more than if I were the one doing it every load. We have gotten much more strict about checking pockets though! Still some things make their way through. I think the first time, we had several dollars in change in the filter, now we only get less than 50 cents.
Debra says
I am impressed too, great Job! I feel so good when I save the household money and fix something that surprises even myself. That was an Inspiring morning story, somehow I have more energy to get what I need to get done today. Thanks!
Sidetracked Sarah says
awww, you're so sweet. Thanks for the encouraging words!
ladysown says
well done! 🙂