April 2017
Throwing the toys out of the cot
Today is Good Friday and a very, very good
day it is indeed. Today we have thrown
the lines off and departed the Boatworks dock to motor up to the Dux anchorage,
where in a few days time we will meet up with several of the Down Under Go East
Rally for this year and some of last years participants as well.
It was with quite a deal of apprehension
that we let go of the marina berth, with it’s electricity, water and dry
landing, the courtesy car, the assistance and the shops for any small forgotten
item. I am not sure the dy will feel the same without a regular trip to the
hardware store.
In the last week, since our return from
Cairns, Easy Tiger was lifted to the hardstand where she had a nice new coat of
anti foul applied to the hulls, sails out of storage closet and hoisted and
engines cleaned, serviced and started.
All seemed fine with Easy Tiger as she was
lowered into the water for the first splash in 14 months. Then I said it. Yes,
I said to Leanne that all seemed good. My apprehension that something had to go
wrong with a boat that had been out of the water for so long, had started to
fade.
We had been almost twelve hours in the
marina berth getting everything sorted when Leanne decided to do a load of
washing in our on board washing machine.
The load of washing even went ok, until it
came time for the machine to drain the rinsing water. No go. Error 03 it said on
the panel. My first thought was that the line might be blocked or something had
dried inside the drain hose.
So dangling upside down into the area where
the hot water system is, I managed to undo the drain hose for the washing
machine. I could blow through it and suck water through it quite easily. Damn.
It seemed like it wasn’t an easy fix.
I drained the water out of the washer,
spilling quite a bit into the floor of the boat. Now sloshing around in the
washing water, I tried to get the machine to do another cycle and see if it had
righted itself. No go. Again I had to drain the water manually, spilling even
more on to the floor.
So, now it was time to ring the washing
machine company. While I was doing this Leanne mopped up the spilt water and
then put our de-humidifier into the spare cabin to dry things out.
To be fair the washing machine is probably
two years old. The company said that they would send me a new drain pump for
free which I was impressed with, but they would not pay for any labour involved
in the repair, which I was not impressed with. The new pump arrived the next
day, the day before Easter.
While this was being organized, Leanne
noticed that the dehumidifier was turning itself off after only running for a
few minutes. I had just packed all the
manuals, receipts and information sheets away after searching for the washing
machine book. Now there was another frantic search for the dehumidifier book
and another Google search for trouble shooting the IONmax dehumidifier. A call
to the dehumidifier company revealed pretty much the same as the washing
machine. It’s older than twelve months, therefore out of warranty. In fairness
to the company, they are quite happy to have you send to Victoria, then charge you
the technicians time followed by a charge to send it back. They were even
happier to give a basic estimate of $350 for the repair of a $400 machine.
With the information we decided to throw
the dehumidifier out and buy a new one. That will cost $389 delivered.
Meanwhile, back to the washing machine. With
the new pump in hand I decided to tackle the job head on. Our washing machine
is located in a very tight location under the bed in Easy Tiger’s rear cabin. I
had to take the door off and then lift the 80kilo machine up on to the bed to
then roll sideways to then lift through the doorway to install it. It would
take a herculean effort to get it out but that had to happen as the pump is
located in the bottom of the machine.
I rigged some straps underneath the machine
and positioned myself on the bed with my knees up around my chin. Leanne then
squeezed herself into the doorway so that she could do the twisting once I had
the weight of the machine. Surprisingly
it slid out of its position quite easily and wedged itself between the cupboard
and the door way. With several attempts accompanied by noises normally made by
gold medal weightlifters, the machine came up onto the bed lying on its correct
side for getting it through the narrow doorway. The problem now being that I
was on the other side of the machine to the doorway with it resting on my lap.
With the twisting and wriggling that an Indian
rubber man would have been proud of, I
managed to writhe out from under the washing machine and then squeeze between
it and the cabin roof to end up face down on the floor, sweaty, smelly and
exhausted.
To my absolute delight the drain pump took
less than tem minutes to replace with the new one, which meant that I had only
a short recovery time before again I was wrestling with the machine to
reinstall it into the professionally crafted and exact fitting space we had
paid to create for it. Again I lay on the floor pushing at the bottom while
Leanne stood above me pushing at the top. After an hour or so of grunting,
pushing, and levering we had it right.
Convinced that it was ready to go, I
plugged it in and turned the dial to the shortest cycle. The machine burst into
life, filled its bowl with water and washed for the next 5 minutes while we
watched with baited breath.
Then we heard a whirr and a clunk. We heard
water being pumped over board. We high fived each other in glee, thinking the problem
solved. Or so we thought. The machine had always drained the wash water and
that was what it was doing now. We sat back down. We waited with trepidation.
These machines seem to take an eternity to get through their cycle when you are
sitting there waiting for them. At last with a click and a whirr, the moment
had arrived. Drain. We waited. Come on, drain. Please …drain. Alas it was not
to be. Even with a new pump and a cleared drain hose the washing machine would
not drain. Cheekily it just displayed Error 3 on it’s red display screen. It just
sits there daring you to drain it manually, to spill water all over the floor
and to use the dud dehumidifier to try and dry it all up. But it was late Thursday night, so nothing
else we could do but cut the power and kill that annoying red error code. Now facing
the fact that being a problem in the electronics and out of warranty, the
washing machine may well be the next thing to be thrown over board.
But now it’s Good Friday, we have motored
up to Dux anchorage and the washing machine and dehumidifier experience is
temporarily forgotten, while we enjoy a sundowner with other boaties.
Fortunately, it’s only the toys that need to be thrown out of the
cot, not anything critical to Easy Tiger’s sailing adventures.
 |
| The offending **&^#%86 washing machine |
No comments:
Post a Comment