Before we leave the world of our island laundry equipment, I would like to offer some tips for folks in a similar situation: trying to re-install the door gasket on an LG front-loading washing machine.
My washer was badly damaged by being moved (by professional movers!) without the shipping bolts installed, so I had to take the cabinet off to get to internal springs and dampers to repair them. You should be able to do the gasket without undressing the washer nor laying it down, but this gives a good view of the gasket:
I ended up watching a number of YouTube videos and reading some forums. Everyone agreed on one thing: reinstalling the gasket is much harder than removing it. The rear of the gasket slips over a lip on the plastic tub, while the front of the gasket slips over the edge of the huge hole in the metal front of the washer. In both cases, though, once the gasket is seated it is held in place by a spring-loaded circular wire. The problem is that the act of putting the wire over the gasket inevitably pulls the gasket out of its seat. Frustrating.
LG’s solution is a $75 special-purpose plier. That’s great if you have the $75 and a month or so to wait until it’s delivered. If, instead, you don’t have money to throw at a single-use tool and you have dirty laundry piling up that can’t wait a month, you’ll need to find another way.
The videos I watched tended to labor over simple, obvious things such as removing screws, then completely skip over or fast-forward through the parts about replacing the gasket (while often acknowledging that it’s difficult). Weird, and I can only imagine that the folks were too frustrated to get good video and too shy once they’d achieved success to undo the gasket so they could record its replacement. Here are the things that I found really helped:
lubrication
You can lubricate stuff with liquid laundry detergent. That seems fairly safe: a washer that could be damaged by exposure to laundry detergent is probably a lost cause. So…
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lubricate the lip on the plastic tub with a little detergent before you try to seat the back rim of the gasket; that will help you feel when the gasket seats
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lubricate each retaining wire before reinstalling it; if not lubricated, they’ll tend to just drag the rubber lip of the gasket, obscuring the grove into which you’re trying to slide the wire.
inside-out
While you’re trying to seat the back of the gasket, push the front of the gasket toward the inside of the tub to turn the gasket inside-out. That gives you easy access to the part of the gasket you’re trying to seat. Push against it with your thumbs until it pops into place under your thumb, then work your way around until the gasket is seated full-circle. Turning it inside-out also gives you good access to the groove where you install the rear spring wire.
locking pliers
You’ll need a good pair of locking (“Vice-Grip”) pliers. Adjust them so that they grip the loop of the spring tightly (nearly completely closed), then open them and set them aside (but in easy reach!). Start to the left of the spring (probably reverse this if you’re left-handed) and hold the spring with your right hand while you push the wire into the groove on the gasket with your left hand, working around counterclockwise until the (lubricated!) wire is too tight to get in the groove any more, about ⅔ of the way around the gasket. Now stabilize the spring with your left hand and use your right hand to grab the right end of the spring with your locking pliers. You can then pull to the right with your right hand, and open up the wire circle enough the it will now fit around the rest of the gasket. I thought for sure I’d need another person to then tuck the wire into the slot, but in my case (it felt really lucky), the lubricated wire slipped easily into the groove and I could slowly release the tension on the spring. (It’s good I was able to do it on my own, as by that point I’d tried so many unsuccessful strategies that I was frustrated and irritable and unfit to interact with other human beings. I hope this column will help you to avoid such a grisly fate.)
Once you’re done the back of the gasket, you can then pull the gasket back toward you so that it isn’t inside-out anymore. Slip it over the rim of the front panel of the washer (much easier than the back one). Again, lubricate the front spring wire, hold the spring in place with your right hand, work the wire into the groove with your left hand until you’ve run out of wire, then switch hands and use the locking pliers to stretch the spring and get the wire to slide into the groove (with the help of a friend if necessary).
I hope this information helps somebody, but mostly I put it here so my future self doesn’t have to kick me for not documenting how I solved this problem.
—2p
PS: I was able to wash, dry, and fold two full loads of laundry while HA was at an appointment this morning. She’s been going to the laundromat and doing all the laundry because I had so much to do around the house, so it felt good to be able to help out. I also enjoyed the best view I’ve ever had while folding laundry.