New House Problem #2: Indesit WIB111 Wash Machine - gunge in wash

[Java Jive]

[Mr Pounder]

Hmmmm. We got some "Washing Machine Cleaner" from a cheap shop. Loads of shit came up and it took several cycles to clear. ["Oxygen based bleaching agent 15%, Anionic surfactant 5%, Biological Enzyme

1%"} It does sound as though the machine is full of shit in your case.

[Java Jive]

Thanks, think I'm going to be needing something like that ...

Yesterday, had another crack it, and dismantled, thoroughly cleaned, and reassembled the entire water supply from the back inlet through to the soap drawer and down to and including the rubber inlet pipe into the drum. All now spotless or very nearly so, and I also noticed that the water inlet hose connector has a very fine mesh filter which is completely free of debris. The water supply is absolutely clean right through to the drum itself.

After another half-dozen or so washes, before each of which I wiped round the rubber drum seal and checked all the cleaning cloths that were to be test-washed, still lumps of sh*t were left on them in every wash.

Continuing on this morning, I've just stuffed most of one of the cloths between the rim of the drum and the tank, and turned the drum by hand, holding on the free end of the cloth, thus wiping both the outside of the drum and the inside of the tank. The cloth came out covered in black gunge.

As I see it there are two solutions, chemical, or dismantling the entire machine, cleaning it thoroughly, and then re-assembling it.

The problem with the former is that the waste goes into a septic tank, and I still don't even know yet how healthy or otherwise that is, let alone what would be the effect of strong chemicals on it. Nevertheless, does anyone have any recommendations similar to the above, preferably that would be compatible with a septic tank?

The problem with the latter is that it would probably be cheaper just to buy a new machine than to get the job done professionally, and although in principle I should be able to do it myself at little or no cost, and thereby completely solve the problem, there's the sizable difficulty of whether specialist tools might be needed, whether I could actually get it apart, let alone whether I could get it back together again.

I haven't had a chance to think much about this yet, let alone look on the internet, but if anyone has recommendations for a new machine I'd be grateful to hear them. Here are my first thoughts roughly in order of importance.

Reliable. Cold fill only.

Able to accommodate a king-size double quilt, but also able to do smaller washes without wasting water filling up the entire drum. This means that not only the drum must be big enough, but also the door.

Variety of washes including woollens, and hot whites.

Easy to program for individual steps such as rinsing or draining/pumping out.

Timer to start wash.

[meow2222]

I dont remember any machine needing specialist tools for that. Once apart, HCl destroys everything :)

NT