Clean your washer drain pipe every six months. Or prepare to mop up the Great Laundry Flood.
Her husband, Mike, grabbed the shop vac. “It’s the drain pipe,” he said. “It’s clogged with ten years of sock fuzz and regret.” how to clean the washer drain pipe
They carried the drain hose to the utility sink. Using a garden hose sprayer, Mike blasted water backwards through the hose—opposite the normal flow. Clumps of gray lint, a bobby pin, and what looked like a disintegrated guitar pick shot out. “Found my missing pick!” he laughed. Clean your washer drain pipe every six months
The real trouble was the standpipe. Sarah fed a 25-foot drum auger (a “drain snake”) into the pipe. She cranked the handle, felt it catch on something soft, and pulled back. The snake emerged wrapped in a slimy, rope-like mat of hair, detergent scum, and microfiber lint. “That,” she said, “is disgusting and satisfying.” “It’s the drain pipe,” he said
First, Mike yanked the washer’s power cord from the wall. “Water and electricity are not friends,” he reminded her. Then, they pulled the machine away from the wall, revealing the coiled, corrugated drain hose snaking into a standpipe—a vertical PVC pipe in the wall.