MIRACLE WORKER

For very good reasons, I probably don't have much of a reputation as a miracle worker, but, quite recently, I was able to enhance whatever little reputation I may have had, albeit in a very small way.

You see, the washing machine had been emitting some rather strange "plasticky" and "soapy" odours which, whilst seeming in themselves to be all rather harmless, were nevertheless mildly troubling. Though not troubling enough to stop us from heading out of the door mid-cycle, you understand, because there were, after all, things which needed to be done.

Aren't there always...?

Still, a couple of hours later, we returned and, in a rare moment of remembering, I realised that there was still washing in the machine which probably needed hanging out to dry.

I reached for the door and it wouldn't open.

In fact, it wouldn't open a lot... no matter how much I insisted.

Rationalising that there might have been a power outage whilst we were out which had interrupted the programme, we reset the "delicates" setting (because it would just have to be that one wouldn't it...?) and ran it again where, in the middle of the cycle it seemed to get into a loop which had those "delicates" sloshing around in mucky water for far, far longer than seemed usual.

And still the door wouldn't open.

Especially after blurting out a rather final sounding "beep" and flashing a couple of unexplainable red bulbs at me.

The machine looked dead to the world and we resigned ourselves to calling out an engineer in the week, possibly forking out for yet another machine, and watching those expensive work tops slowly rot to rags in a few inches of water.

But then I had an idea.

I vaguely remembered something about the service plate at floor level, and, with this in mind, I swiftly popped upstairs to type the make and model and the words "door stuck" into my search engine of choice and very quickly found a little video which told me about cleaning and clearing the filter as well as how to access the drainage hose.

Minutes later, the kitchen floor was covered with whatever towels we could salvage from the stacks of stuff still cluttering up the place from the recent building work, and we had grabbed a couple of "shallow trays" and a bucket from the decoration in progress, and I decided to give it a whirl.

After pulling out the hose and successfully draining off about a gallon and a half of water, the door actually opened and I was able to head outside with a load of sodden clothing and hang it dripping upon the clothesline. Next, I was able to remove the filter, wash it out and clear the impeller of the small plastic object which had been obstructing it - a left over curtain hook from when I washed the bedroom curtains last week.

Once everything was all returned to where it was supposed to be, we ran one of those "clean your washing machine" powders through a complete cycle and it worked swimmingly and so an expensive call-out charge was, for once, avoided, and I regained my reputation as a miracle worker...

With more than a little help from Captain Internet...

But at least, for once, the day (and the credit card) was saved...!