One of the uh… hardships… we’ve endured since moving to paradise is not having a washer and dryer. We have to drive down the mountain and do our laundry at the laundromat. With quarters. Lots and lots of quarters. (At least Luna the Big Dog™ gets to go and get lots of stranger love from the other denizens of the laundromat.)
We do own a washer and dryer. They are relatively new, and they came with us on the boat. However, when they were delivered we didn’t have anywhere near enough electric capacity to operate them. They went in to the new garage, which has yet to be plumbed or wired.
Tired of HA or me (mostly HA has taken on this burden) having to go into town to do laundry — and use unclean energy sources when doing so — I contrived a scheme whereby I could run a garden hose to the washer, and then use a very long 220 volt 50 amp extension cord to run from our car charging plug at the house to the laundry conveniences in the garage. That should let us do laundry while we wait for the plumbing and wiring of the garage. We’ve been waiting for the cords and necessary adapters to be delivered.
We’re only short one adapter now, so today I decided to start getting everything set up. I opened the washer and… ugh. The rubber gasket around the tub (it’s a front-loader) was all distorted. I tried to straighten in out, but it wouldn’t go. I thought I probably needed to remove the shipping bolts but… uh, oh… the shipping bolts were never put in.
I was still in denial and thought that if I removed and re-installed the gasket, all should be well. I found several YouTube videos that purported to show how to do it, but they all would conspicuously fast-forward through the most critical part (re-installing the gasket’s retaining spring). I finally found a video that didn’t do this hand-waving. I’m generally not a fan of video tutorials, but I found a truly exceptional one:
Tricks from a Non-Pro * Removing, Cleaning, Replacing the Rubber Gasket on Front Load Washer
One of her suggestions is that it isn’t that hard — and saves a lot of trouble — to disassemble the washer, where the hand-waving videos all implied that wasn’t necessary. Once I had the top off the washer, I could see that it had been roughly handled (likely turned on its side or upside-down) without the shipping bolts, and the tub springs had come off. Had I succeeded in re-installing the gasket without disassembling the washer, it would all have been in vain.
I think hope just getting the springs back in place will fix it. We will see.
—2p
addendum 2024-12-30
I got the springs re-attached, only to discover that one of the dampers (“shock absorbers”) is also damaged. Next year, I’m going to see if I can repair the damper itself or just replace it (they seem to be commonly available for about $10).