The cold warwater emergency has been averted and warm water was restored yesterday evening. My hunch that the heating elements in our less than three years in service immersion couldn’t possible be burnt out and in need of replacement proved to be correct. Rather, the flaky theromsatic control of the heating elements had failed. This is the second time in five years I have experienced a thermostat failing. Thankfully our immersion is huge and has two elements, an upper and lower, so I decided that it might be woth swapping the upper theromstat with the lower. I suppose I could have just switched from sink to bath to see if the water heated up, but that would have been way too simple. I turned off the immersion electricity supply at its trip switch. Then I went upstairs and played around with the water cocks to figure out what cock controlled the water flowing into the immersion. I learned that the hot water flows out the top and the cold water flows in the bottom. I hadn’t really thought about the water flow through the tank before, so learning this, I came to the conclusion that the sink element must be at the top of the tank. I removed the two silver caps from the immersion tank. Underneath the caps lie the thermostat. I unscrewed the wires, remembering to note that the white wire went to the “B” letter on the thermostat and the brown wire went to the other side. I pulled out the thermostats. They look like knitting needles with little electrical circuit boxes at the end of them. The one photograhed is slightly different to ours, I must search for the matching brand of ours when I remember to bring its name with me. Anyway, I swapped the thermostats around, replaced the wires, replaced the silver covers and went downstairs to turn the trip back on. Two hours later, I went to feel the pipes. They were hot. Excellent. Disaster of cold water only averted. I like being useful and messing around with stuff. It saved calling a plumber. Plumbers are expensive. The last time we paid a plumber 90 euro to replace a thermostat. Sometimes, I think I am in the wrong profession.
There is OFFICIALLY only one engineer in this house and it is not my husband. He does have a degree in mechanical engineering, and I have a degree in computer applications. Both are recognised by the Institute of Engineers, Ireland. But, he claims he is the only engineer in the house and I am a mere wannabe. Did I mention the fact that his degree is in Mechanical Engineering. So, he is supposed to know about things like washing machines. A machine. Mechanical. E.t.c.
The other day, our washing machine broke. Well, it didn’t really break. It would start any new cycle that you asked it do, but when it needed to drain the current water in order to continue on its washing journey, it got stuck. It couldn’t get unstuck from its flashing red unhappy with life light unless you turned it off and back on. But then, it was happy again. Except for one thing. It wouldn’t finish a cycle.
Today, we rang the service people. Machine is outside warranty. So, service call costs €114. Which seems kind of steep. So, I thought I’d try to figure out why it would do everything except drain. If you have a machine full of water, it is important to bear in mind that it can be drained by gravity. Simply by putting the drain hose (grey one stuck to the wall with a grey piece of plastic) down low i.e along the ground, the water will flow out. The only thing holding water in the machine is gravity. So, I drained it. Mission one accomplished.
The second mission to accomplish was to remove all the clothes from the machine. To do that, simply turn it off and wait for the door lock to give up. Then you can remove the clothes that have been sitting in it for days.
But, I was not satisfied with this progress. I had a machine load of clothes all full of soap powder that I really didn’t feel like washing in the bath. I asked it, “Washing machine, why are you are unhappy?” I sat and listened again to the washing machine. I thought about what it could do, I thought about what it couldn’t do. It could start any new cycle except drain. I established that yesterday, and again today, same story, started any cycle, except drain.
Using my LOGICAL, ENGINEERING (albeit computer applications) brain I thought, Hmmmmmmmmmmm, why will it do everything except drain? I wonder is the pump blocked?
I turned off the water valve and detached that. Then, I removed the hose that fills the machine, unplugged it, turned it upside down, felt the belly of the diaphragm, that seemed fine, so I unscrewed the little grey thing at the bottom of the machine. There was water in it. I stuck my finger in it, there was material in it. I fished out the material. It was the ripped bit of bra strap that had mysteriously disappeared from my bra a few washes ago. I really liked that bra, it was new, it was a nice colour and I was really upset at something ripping off the hook end. I drained the head of the spinny pump thing with some sort of electrical circuit with lots of copper wire on top of it and saw the pale grey spinny around thing thing was moving freely. I screwed the top back on, stood the machine back up. Reconnected the water supply, put the drain back in its place.
Then I selected, cycle DRAIN. It made the lovely noise it makes when it wants to drain.
Our washing machine is fixed.
Note to my spouse, that will be 114 euro please. I accept payment in cash, cheque, or contributions towards diamonds.
Further note to my spouse, comments about anthropomorphising inanimate objects are not welcome.
