A foreign object got into the washing machine - how to get it out?

foreign object in drum Very often, due to user negligence, foreign objects get into the washing machine. It’s one thing if this object gets into the drum and spins along with the laundry, but it’s quite another thing when a foreign thing gets stuck in the drum. In both cases, you need to act immediately and get something that shouldn’t be in the washing machine. We will now tell you in detail how to do this.

How did the object get into the car?

First of all, we need to say why foreign objects appear in the washing machine. They end up in the washing machine along with the clothes whose pockets you were too lazy to check. The most common item is money, or rather coins, although paper coins also sometimes end up in the drum. Moreover, some managed wash a credit card, passport, phone, gold chain and rings. Often, service center technicians take seeds, pins, bolts, nuts, and hairpins out of the washing machine.

In addition to items falling out of clothing pockets, parts of the clothing itself can get stuck in the washing machine. The most common are buttons, beads and rhinestones, as well as bra underwires.

A foreign object can get into the machine and not only with clothes. It can be placed in the drum by small children or pets. An object can get inside the washing machine not only through the drum, but also through the powder cuvette.

For your information! In some models of automatic washing machines, small items may get stuck in the tub because there is an opening that is too large between the tub and the drum.

Any foreign object that gets into the washing machine either remains in the drum until the end of the wash, or:

falls to the bottom of the tank;
gets stuck in the tank;
is wound onto the shaft.

Removing the item from the drum

How to remove a randomly dropped object from a machine drum if you noticed it while draining water in the machine start of washing? Everything is quite simple - you need to cancel the program. In most cases, to do this you need to do the following:

press the program start (pause) button, causing the machine to stop;
press the program start (pause) button again and hold for about 5 seconds;
wait until the pump pumps out the water and the machine turns off.

Some washing machines do not drain the water, so after turning off the program, the water must be drained manually. This can be done through the emergency drain (small hose next to the drain filter) or through the filter located at the bottom of the machine. Draining the water is necessary to unlock the hatch door lock. After the work has been done, you can open the drum and remove the foreign object.

Important! You should not reset the program in a washing machine by unplugging the plug from the socket; firstly, this may affect the control module, and secondly, modern machines remember the selected mode and, after the power supply appears, continue the program from where it stopped.

What to do if it gets stuck in the tank

washing machine filter If a foreign object has fallen into the tank or is stuck between the tank and the drum. It won't be that easy to get him out. It is easy to understand that there is something in the tank; you will notice an extraneous sound when you rotate the drum with your hand, unless, of course, it is a handkerchief or sock. But even soft objects should not remain inside the washing machine; sooner or later they will manifest themselves, blocking the operation of the drain pump or the rotation of the drum.

You can remove an item from the washing machine:

through the drain filter;
hole for heating element.

Small objects such as pins, nuts, coins and others can pass through the drain pipe and end up in the filter. Removing them from the filter is quite simple. Unscrew it and pull it out, first cover the floor with rags.

If objects lie at the bottom of the tank, then in this case they are taken out through the hole for the heating element. In different brands of washing machines, the heating element is located either in the front or at the bottom below the tank. When the heating element is located at the back, it is enough to remove only the back cover of the housing, then disconnect and pull out the heating element. But with a frontal arrangement of the heating element, read the detailed article How to replace heating element, it describes how to get to it.

When the heating element is removed from its seat, shine a flashlight into the tank and find the object. Then use a homemade wire hook to pull it out of the washing machine.

hole for heating element in washing machine

If an object gets stuck in such a way that it jams the rotation of the drum, then you simply cannot do without disassembling the tank. The process of removing a foreign object will resemble bearing replacement process, which we have described more than once in other articles. Getting the tank out is half the battle; if it is non-separable, then in order to remove the item from it, you will have to cut the tank body into two halves. This may take 3-4 hours minimum. The work is not easy and requires skill, so most often it is entrusted to a master.

Recommendations

laundry bag Unpleasant situations with foreign objects in the washing machine can be prevented if you are a little more careful and follow the recommendations:

firstly, you need to check the pockets of your clothes before washing and the reliability of how small details on the clothes are sewn;
secondly, check the contents of the drum before washing and look into the powder cuvettes;
thirdly, clothes with sewn details, zippers, buttons, underwires, etc. need to be washed in a special bag. And then nothing will get into the washing machine tank and damage it.

Violation of such simple rules leads to unpleasant situations. In the best case, some unnecessary thing will be damaged, in the worst case, a foreign object will pierce the tank, and then expensive repairs cannot be avoided.