Appliance Repair Wisdom for the Ages

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Sue wrote:

We saw what you said about a Leak from a Frigidaire (Kenmore 417.xxxxx) Front Loading Washer. It appears the door is holding water. There is a slow trickle of water leaking out. Would this more likely be the door seal boot?

THANK YOU!!!!

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In vexing times like these, I turn my furrowed brow to Samurai's 12 Laws of Appliance Repair. In accordance with the 7th Law, "All leaks are visual." To aid your visualizations, click the washer breakdown diagram shown here for an interactive tour of the very bowels of your washer. Go ahead, I'll wait ...

Back so soon? Ok, with that crash course in washer anatomy, let's light this candle with the simple stuff, first.

We'll start behind the washer... oh, cut it out! ... where the two water fill hoses connect. They'll connect from the shutoff valves at the wall to the water inlet valve on the back of the washer. Lay some heavy-powered eyeball action, aided by the brilliant illumination from the halogen search beam you're using, on both ends of those fill hoses looking for any sign of water. And, by the way, if your fill hoses look like this, well, you and ol' Brother Noah 'bout to have something in common... 'cept he had forewarning; but now you do, too!

Awwite, ever-thang looks good with the fill hoses, so now we pop that front kick plate, like ahso. We're looking for evidence of leaking from either the tub boot or from the tub gasket. Here's a thought question: since the tub boot is right up front, and if it were leaking, where would we see signs of leaking? Ooo, you're good! If your tub boot is leaking, this excerpt from the service manual should hepya replace it.

Ok, here's a tougher one: given that the tub gasket goes all the way around the tub, where would you expect its characteristic leak pattern to be? That's a little less obvious, but this post explains what to look for and a minimally-invasive procedure that may fix it.

Finally, I have also seen, on rare occasions, where a bra wire pierced the pump suction boot and created a leak.

Smile! It's a Friggidaire! (yes, I meant to spell it that way)

2 Comments:

Took me longer to figure out the source of the leak, than it's going to take to fix it. If I had only seen the photo of the envelope inside the machine, and what the leaking gasket caused, it'd been diagnosed within 5 seconds of opening the bottom front access.

It doesn't leak but a few drops every 20 seconds during wash cycles, but let it rev up to the full final spin, and we have a small lake on the floor of the washroom. (Caught it in the act after opening it up and watching for a full cycle.)

I ordered the gasket today from a local parts shop for $22. Probably take about hour and a half to replace. If either half of the tub is cracked, their about $100 each.

By  Anonymous, at December 15, 2005 7:12 PM  

Good suggestions - found your forum while researching the leak. Second time in two days noticed a puddle forming under the washer and it wasn't coming from the door. Did a search under 'leaking sears front loader washer' and came right to the forum.

We too had a rusted bra wire poking two holes in the suction boot - I can't remember the bra, so it has to have been several years - along with a half-dissolved fishhook and about ten dimes. Ordered the part today and will pick it up tomorrow. Thanks to you guys that we didn't panic and call the service guy out! Very easy fix - unfasten 3 clamps and moved the suction motor out of the way and that's all she wrote. We have no idea how long this has been developing, but considering the state of the rust in there, it must have been quite a while.

Thanks for the tips. Very useful.

By  fishingaldenver, at April 15, 2008 1:59 PM  

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