So I’m doing laundry. It’s what I do on Sundays. (Yes, it is magical). I heard a loose coin inside my washing machine so I went to fish it out while bracing one hand on the agitator. The top part of the agitator came off (the fabric softener part) and ACK it was covered in gunk on the bottom. And when I looked inside the agitator? Lots more gunk. EEEK.
Gene’s first reaction: Woohoo! Front loading washer! (I don’t know why he got so excited, I don’t think he’s done more than 2 loads of laundry since we’ve lived here).
Okay, Gene’s reaction was the same as mine. Fortunately it turns out that I’m not willing to drop that kinda cash just because of gunk (even with Best Buy gift cards and 2 $5 off coupons and 10% off coupon as well), so I Googled it. The Internet recommends pouring hot water into the fabric softener spout. They also recommend 1/2 c. of white vinegar. I’ll try the hot water remedy first later this week and then the vinegar if that doesn’t do much good. I already scraped out (ick!) as much of the gunk as I could so the remedy only needs to fix the part of the agitator that was further down than my hand or plastic knife could go.
On the bright side, if I can avoid buying a new one, I can avoid the inevitable Elaine & Gene disagreement about which model to buy. Consumer Reports had two quick picks – an LG and a Frigidaire. The LG was $200 more than the Frigidaire, but had a bigger capacity by half of a cubic foot but the wash cycle was also about 30 minutes longer. Bah. The way this works is that generally I want the cheaper option and Gene wants the more expensive. I am so relieved that I talked him down! 🙂 If we can just put this off another few years I would be so pleased.