Laundry disaster

[bjarvis]

I put a load of towels & sheets into the washing machine, then headed upstairs to warm up some soup. When I returned, there was a half-inch of water throughout the basement laundry/furnace room. Not good.

The mystery is that there is little evidence of a machine malfunction, yet I can't see any other possibility. There are no visible breaks in pipes, all other appliances are working well and the washing machine itself seems to be operating correctly. The water itself was clean and odourless, indicating it was either a rinse cycle or fresh water rather than drained or waste water.

On the good side, the soaked areas all have tiled floors rather than carpets so clean up has been easy. I was tempted to dash out to buy a wet/dry vacuum but it seems now unnecessary. We are however going to be shopping for a new washer & dryer. This isn't the first time and I'm getting a little tired of mopping the floors in this way.

Anyone have any recommendations (or warnings) about various models of front-loading washers?

Comments

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Usually the drain hose goes into a standpipe, and if there's any slowdown in the drain from the standpipe it will overflow from there. If there's any sign the standpipe had water flowing down it, I'd check to make sure it's not a slight blockage in that drain rather than your machine which is at fault.

I have no useful advice re new machines, though some of the new Euro-style frontloaders (which are considerably more efficient in water and energy use) have been troublesome. Consumer Reports did something on them recently... Feb 2005. Get a gas dryer if you can (much lower operating cost.)

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

The drain hose from the machine pours into a large sink adjacent to the machine which is draining correctly and has no signs of having overflowed. A gas dryer is definitely our preference. And we've heard of some problems with front-loaders so we're treading carefully. The current equipment works (kinda) so we'll take our time with the purchase, perhaps making it a household xmas present later this year.