Washing Machine Woes

Ever since we had that Arctic deep freeze, the washing machine has been rather cantankerous.

Today it's been the most cantankerous ever.

Right now, I have a small pile of wet clothes in the washer sitting in a small puddle of water. I cannot get them out because the door is locked shut. No amount of finagling has been able to open up the seized door.

I was able to get the door open earlier. And when I did, I transferred a partial load into the dryer.

The reason why I transferred only a partial load was that the clothes were soaking, sopping wet.

The dryer has been running for over 3 hours now, trying to get those clothes dry. I'm afraid that it may take another 2 - 3 hours.

The reason for the washing machine's extreme misbehavior has been that the drain pipe is either frozen or clogged. Given that the problem started when we had that awful cold snap and that the weather has turned cold again, my guess is that the drain pipe is frozen.

(Though with all the animal hair that is found in nearly every load of wash, I would not be surprised if enough of it accumulated to create a clog in the drain pipe.)

I tried pouring a boiling solution of water and vinegar down the drain pipe in hopes of thawing out the ice and possibly loosening up whatever clog there may be.

No such luck.

All day long I tried running the just the rinse, spin, and drain cycle. But after so many minutes the machine would flash the same error code that it's been flashing all day" "F 02," meaning that a "Drain Problem" is present.

So what do I do now?

Do I call Roger the plumber again?

I cannot get my clothes out. And that means if they are trapped in the machine in a puddle of water, they will start smelling in about a couple of days.

At least I did manage to "rescue" part of the load, even though it means that it will take several hours for it to dry. But at least we'll have some clean clothes to wear in the meantime. Having packed away most of our clothes, we don't have all that many clothes available to wear.

There's always going to the laundromat. And that would certainly be cheaper than calling a plumber.

I cannot help but think that the Imp of the Perverse has had its hand in this washing machine calamity. After all, now that we're selling the house, now is the time for more problems to pop up.

I am going to have to think this one through and figure out what would be the most appropriate course of action. If I could do it without having to incur additional costs, so much the better.

But something tells me that my resourcefulness is somewhat limited in this situation.

And for the time being, that dastardly machine will remain unplugged.