Clothes Washer Broke Part I: Time to Bust Out the Drill.


So my clothes washer broke last night. Took my clothes out and they were soaking. The damn thing never spun up. I fixed my dryer a month or so ago (I'll post something about that later), but this time I'd resigned myself to calling someone to fix it. I had no clue why it wasn't spinning up and washers are super complicated. Plus they're filled with water, and I don't futz with plumbing. I learned that the  hard way. I was taking my clothes out when I noticed the drum was still filled with water. It's a front loader so it wasn't obvious at first. So I had this thought, what if the drain pump is broken. So I broke out the drill and popped the cover off.




I've never seen the inside of a washer before. It's kind of cool. The bottom of the drum is in a "tub" that's supported by a "shock" system for when it violently shakes back and forth during spin mode. The drain pump is in the bottom right, attached to a big tube connected to the bottom of the tub.







I found these circuit diagrams inside the washer. The dryer had similar diagrams too. I thought it was weird at first like someone had just stuffed them in there, but I'm starting to think it's standard practice. I'll break down the diagrams later.






I still wasn't sure why the drum wasn't spinning up, but I had a theory that it couldn't reach top speed if it was full of water. I don't have a pump, so I used a towel to remove the extra water (yes it was a pain). I couldn't get it all out, but I tried starting the spin cycle anyway and it worked! I did one more test by running the final rinse and then during the final spin failed to reach top speed again. The water failed to drain and the pump was making a weird sound, so I went ahead and ordered a new one from Amazon for a Kenmore 417.42142100. I got the $20 one instead of the $70 one. Hope that wasn't a mistake. I'll find out on Wednesday.

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