You have fought bravely and honorably in this mortal combat with your washer, Grasshopper. And now, the Samurai is here to help you deliver le coup de grace.

The protective screen on your inlet valve is clogged with sediment and probably looks something like this. The recommended practice in this case is to replace the whole valve. Sometimes, you can clean the screen using a Dremel tool with a wire brush attachment or a toothbrush. But, whatever you do, avoid the Cute Plumber’s Trick where you simply remove the screen altogether and then return the valve to normal service. It’s called a protective screen for a reason: to protect the valve from sediment and pipe scale and prevent it from getting stuck open. Let this haiku from the Samurai Scrolls of Appliantology be your victorious katana in this, your Hour of Appliance Repair Misogi:

Cold water dribbles
lifeless into the washer.
Replace inlet valve.
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As long as you’re poking around back there with the water hoses off the valve, now’s a good time to get rid of those cheesy black rubber hoses which can (and do!) fail without warning, like this one, and install steel-braided hoses–it’s the cheapest flood insurance you can buy!

Oh, I know, you’re saying, "Enlighten me further in the ways of washer flood prevention, oh Ancient Ameliorator of Aging Appliances." Ahh, Grasshopper, the Samurai heard your petition for wisdom before you even knew enough to ask. Come, read the Sacred Samurai Scriptures on preventing washer floods.

Although it’s labelled Kenmore, Frigidaire manufactures this machine. I’ve been seeing this problem on several service calls lately. Two common troublemakers can cause this problem, one minor and the other a muthah. Fortunately, the minor one is also the more common one. To check both, you’ll need to remove the back panel of the washer.

First thing to check is the drive pulley. Work that sucker back and forth and make sure it’s on the shaft good n’ tight. If there’s any play at all, it’ll make a gawd-awful racket when the washer goes into spin. If you do find that it’s loose, then most likely the flat of the shaft has worn the flat on the aluminum pulley. Don’t screw around with trying to shim the pulley because that’s just a bandaid and you’ll just be living on borrowed time. Go ahead and git you a new pulley.

The other problem is more severe and you better to pray to the appliance gods that you don’t have it. This unhappy situation is caused by a leaking tub seal that rusted the tub bearing. You’ll know right away if this is your problem by the tell-tale rust streaks on the back of the tub. The genius engineers at Frigidaire made the tub bearing an integral part of the tub so to change the bearing, you have to replace the whole frikkin’ tub. It’s about a three hour job that requires almost $400 in parts. I nominate that Frigidaire engineer for the Dumbass of the Year award. Can I hear an amen?

Your Kenmore front loader is made by Frigidaire and is, in my vaunted opinion, the best front loader out there. Most of the problems I’ve seen with this washer have to do with debris in the pump, as you described, or door catch breaking. Both are extremely minor problems in the world of washer repair. Compare with the Maytag Neptune which has been nothing but one long, sad song about fried control boards and door latch assemblies–at much more than $50 a pop! I talk more about various appliance brands here.

The U-hook on your drain hose should just hang in the drain pipe–the diameter of the drain hose hook should be less than the diameter of the drain stand pipe. Typically, drain hose diameters are around 1″ o.d. and standard drain stand pipe diameters are 2″ o.d. The hook of the drain hose is simply placed into the drain pipe and secured with either duct tape or a tie wrap. You can see that this creates a natural air break which you should not try to obstruct. If your drain meets these criteria and you’re getting the suds-back condition, then we need to consider a couple of other things.

Start with the simple things. Have your drain professionally reamed out by a plumber who knows his sh*t: Mr. Rooter. If you’re not using a high efficiency detergent (especially critical for front loading washers), then it’s time to start. Finally, and worst case scenario, if your house is on a septic tank system, the back wash from the drain pipe could be an early warning that it’s time to have your septic tank pumped out.

Ramadan begins October 26 so there’s still time to order your Maytag Performa or Atlantis washer repair manual. But don’t dilly-dally–Allah hates a slacker.

• Maytag Performa washer repair manual
• Maytag Atlantis washer repair manual

This is a common symptom of using too much cheap detergent. Yes, Tide is a cheap detergent because it, like all other store-brands, uses inert fillers to bulk up the product.

There are many brands of commercially available detergents out there and they all SUCK. Why do they suck? Because they all contain fillers–inert, abrasive crap added to the detergent mix simply to take up space and to help clean your clothes or dishes by the abrasive action of the added silicates (sand). These fillers actually harm your dishwasher, washing machine, and clothes! Fillers in commercial detergents cause a whole host of problems including: clogging washing machine and dishwasher drain hoses, binding washing machine pumps, gunking up dishwasher impellers, creating foul odors in washing machines by providing nice homes for bacteria, creating leaks in dishwashers by working in between the tub gaskets and surfaces.

In addition to fillers, all commercially available detergents contain fragrances which give many people rashes, especially in sensitive nether regions, and other more subtle forms of allergic reactions, such as headaches and fatigue.

Many commercial detergents also add phosphates. For those customers on septic systems, phosphates are some of the worst things to put into your septic system. This is because phosphates are not readily biodegradeable and can accumulate in your septic tank creating nasty problems like overflowing and backing up.

Unless you enjoy adding these extra afflictions to your life, stop using those polluted detergents you buy at Piggly-Wiggly, SafeWay, or Wal-mart and start using real detergents that don’t have all that extra crap in ’em. “Ok, wise-guy Samurai, got any suggestions?” Sure do, thanks for asking.

Laundry Detergents

Power Formula Basic-L cleans clothes their whitest and brightest – especially when used with Nature Bright All-Fabric Laundry Brightener. Yet it’s easy on fabrics and gentle on sensitive skin. Basic-L also helps to guard against color transfer, so whites stay whiter and colors stay truer. Performs in all temperatures – even in hard water. If you have allergies and sensitivity to fragrances, Power Formula Basic-L Free, with no fragrance, dyes, or masking agents, is the product for you. Has the same powerful cleansing formula as Basic-L. Since it is sold as a concentrate, Basic-L saves you money, too. When used as directed, one nine pound box of Basic-L does the same number of loads as about 3.8 boxes of Arm & Hammer detergent.

Dishwasher Detergents

Use Basic-D Automatic Dishwashing Concentrate for sparkling clean dishes without all the added fillers. Cuts grease and baked-on food without chlorine. Top cleaning performance and phosphate free! Effective even in hard water. Again, this product is a concentrate and so saves you money. When used as directed, one 50-oz. box of Basic-D does the same number of dishwasher loads as 4, 45-oz. boxes of Cascade.

Try these products risk-free because they’re all backed by a 100% money-back guarantee! Best of all, your purchase helps support this free appliance repair website. Domo arigato!

Because they didn’t bother reading the manual.

The CA code means that the average current draw at the motor winding has exceeded 5.55 amps for more than two seconds. This could mean a problem with the drive motor, the thermal protector, or the motor controller board. Overloading the washer can also cause this fault. Page 57 of the manual gives specific tests for the drive motor and wiring harness. Start there.

This is a Whirlpool-built direct drive washer. It opens up a little differently from what you might expect. Many people, thinking the top panel pops up, begin ruthlessly prying on the seam between the top and front panel and only end up with a disfigured washer. I’ve seen more adventurous types actually remove the entire back panel, getting them no closer to what they were trying for. Let the Samurai enlighten you.

The entire cabinet removal procedure is illustrated in this diagram. Even though the procedure is very straight forward, a couple of fine points are worth mentioning:

• Some Kenmore-branded versions of this washer use plastic endcaps to cover the console screws. Just remove the console end caps and the console retaining screws are right there. This technique is illustrated in this photo.
• Once you’ve removed the console screws, flip the entire control console up and back to reveal the cabinet retaining braces, shown here.
• After you pull the cabinet back and away from the washer, here’s an illustrated anatomy of your naked washing machine. The lid switch is screwed to the inside of the cabinet top panel and is easily accessible with the cabinet removed.
• Replacing the cabinet is usually very straight forward but sometimes little snags can arise. Some helpful hints for replacing the cabinet are explained here.

With the washer cabinet removed, you have easy access to the lid switch. You may find that the actuator lever is broken. If the actuating lever looks ok, then you should use your ohm meter to check the continuity of the lid switch. Many times, if the switch is bad, it will no longer make a clicking sound when you actuate it. Your lid switch can be replaced using one of the kits below, most likely the older style. But you can easily confirm this by feasting your Vulcan squinties on your washer’s lid switch.

Older-style Lid Switch

Newer-style Lid Switch

Ok, tear ’em up!

UPDATE: There is at least one other variation on the lid switch used in this washer. For example, this one. Be sure to look up the exact one you need using your model number.

To learn more about your washing machine, or to order parts, click here.

You put a load of dirty clothes in your washer, start it up and walk away to watch Jerry Springer just like you have a thousand times before. Only this time, something goes wrong…very wrong!

After the booing and cheering on the Jerry Springer show stops, you hear an unfamiliar sound of running water coming from the laundry cubby just down the hall in your trailer. You set the bag of Doritos aside, grab your can of Old Milwaukee and grunt your way out of your Lazy Boy as you exhale the last drag of your Marlboro and shuffle down the hall to investigate. You don’t get 10 steps before your pink bunny slippers are sloshing through a huge pool of water. Now the bile starts burning the back of your throat and you feel your sphincter dilate as you prepare to do battle with the single greatest horror of your lifetime: a washer flood out.

Yes, it finally happened: your washer dutifully filled with water and then…it just kept right on filling, and filling, and filling… Turns out that the water level control switch in your washer decided to take a permanent vacation and so never told your washer to stop filling with water. Hi. Welcome to my world. Oh! But if only you’d listened to that nice appliance repair guy not long ago who told you that you really, really needed to have a Floodcontrol on your washer and that it was cheap insurance against a devastating washer overfill. But that money was earmarked for that Dish TV you’ve been lusting after for so long and, besides, you’re not sure you trust people who can throw around fancy words like "devastating." Damn straight! Well, Bubba, now you’ve got one helluva mess to clean up in your trailer, ain’t ya? Hey, newsflash: do yourself a favor and come git you some o’ dis.

And while you’re at it, go ahead and upgrade those cheesy 12-year old rubber fill hoses on your washer to the steel braided hoses. What, you’re gonna wait for those to burst and find water spraying out from behind your washer like a firehose on that ’71 Cutlass you got parked out front? Haven’t we learned our lesson by now? How long? How long? I say, how long must this bullshit go on? How ’bout when we do a job, we go ahead and do it right? Ok then, come git you some steel braided hoses, too.

I was out on a service call for a washer the other day and noticed that the fill hoses were in pretty bad condition. I pointed this out to the customer and recommended that she install steel braided fill hoses with stainless steel fittings to avoid these problems in the future.

When I removed the rubber fill hoses with the badly deteriorated fittings, at least a quarter of the cheap brass fitting on the washer fill hose had rust-welded onto the water valve, shown here: (click the picture for a larger view)

Admittedly, this is an extreme case, but here’s the kicker: your washer hoses can be in much better condition than the hose shown above and they can still burst! How ’bout we avoid this unhappy event by installing steel braided fill hoses?

Want more pearls of wisdom on preventing washer floods? Ok, read this.

Do you own a Frigidaire or Gibson tumble-action, front-load washing machine? Then check out
this cool page from Electrolux for some valuable pearls of wisdom on installing and using your front load washer.

That’s probably the brake. More good info on that in this Appliance Tip of the Day.

This excellent page explains it all.

Ain’t no thang, m’main man. You probably just got the air tube for the pressure switch pinched when you re-installed the cabinet. This photo ‘splains it all to you. Yea verily, flip that console up, unpinch that puppy and marital bliss shall be restored unto thee.

Go whup up on that bad boy!