Today i'm actually proud of myself. I'm good with wood, textiles, gardening, trees etc. But metal, machines, electronics don't come natural to me at all. I learned to take care of bicycles or chainsaws because I had to but those scary household machines never. Until today. The machine stopped midway, full of water and clothes. Panic ensued. I already saw myself forced to buy a new one. After mere 20 years!

But mommy raised not quitter, so i took the stuff out, drained the water (without flooding the bathroom!) and had a look at that debris catcher thing and the lye pump. Both a bit dirty but easily cleaned and the pump's screw still moved. After looking into the waste tube I put everything together again and run an empty cleaning cycle. At first everything seemed fine but coming back from a short nap the machine was full of water again. So rinse and repeat it is.

This time i watched a few videos on how to dismantel the machine to get to the inner tubes. I had a hard time finding something since i've apparently got a rare top loader model. Luckily i watched one vid with a guy looking at the lye pump with a flash light instead of just feeling for coins or buttons with my fingers. So back down on the belly it was.

Lo and Behold! There was the culprit! A bloody rubber band had wrapped itself around the screw. Not nice. At all.

Being the good hoarder i am, it wasn't difficult to find some long hooks (spare bike spokes) to fish it out. Doing it was though. But with a good amount of patience and some luck (and an astonishing lack of cursing) i managed to untwine it and ease it out, without leaving anything stuck around the screw. (Funny thing is I don't use any white rubber bands, ain't got a clue where it came from.)

All in all it took me "only" two hours. But I fixed my first washing machine!

I hope you enjoyed my little Saga of "The Washing Machine and The Rubber Band" and I wish you at least the same amount of success for your own projects. Be they voluntary or not.