Area rug self destructed in my FL --What a Mess.

[mattl]

I have a few of those latex backed rugs around the house and was doing some heavy cleaning and tossed the semi large rug from my back entry into the Duet, had a thought or two about if it would be ok, but decided it was gentler than my TL.  I've had rug self destruct in my TL and it's a mess to clean out, but easily doable.  The FL was another story.

 

Kept getting Suds errors, machine would not drain and I had to pull the dreaded pump filter out -- with a tub of water!  Tried various pans and such, no go.  Decided on just sucking up the water with my floor scrubber.  It's a finished basement but the floor has survive many a flood over the years, but what a mess.   Ton of particles caught in the boot area, machine blipped out again a second time with a plugged filter.  Running a cleaning cycle now, will check the filter one more time before replacing the front panel.

 

After all these years you would think manufacturers could come up with a better backing, at least one that comes off in strips or sheets rather than tiny particles.

 

[arbilab]

Hate to inject this, but I washed area rugs almost to death in our 1950s slant Westy and the only thing that happened was the rugs got shabbier. IOW, modern washers exemplify mindless (AKA "crap") engineering. We already knew that, didn't we?

 

[fido]

Fortunately most of my customers had their machines on the ground floor so in such cases I could usually take the whole machine outside to drain it. Even if they said it was OK to spill water I would do everything I could to avoid it. You really need to keep checking the filter until it is coming out clean.

 

[westie2]

I grew up in a all hardwood floor home and we had the cotton loop area rugs with no backing that mother washed but she kept them slip proof by usint the old rubber jar ring on the back.  She would stick several on the backs with matching thread they lasted for ever  We had at that trime a Maytag EL2.   She even had them on the rugs that she swept with vacuu, cleaner that had the jute backing.  You can still buy the jar rings.

http://www.canningsupply.com/prod_detail_list/s?keyword=jar+rings

 

[westie2]

Rug Skid Pads

With the non backed rugs you can also get non skid pads to use.  Might not last as long as the rubber rings but still an option.  You can even use either the rings or the rug pads on a throw rung that has lost its latex backing.

 

 

 

http://www.rugpadcorner.com/rug-pads-for-hardwood-floors-2.aspx

 

[dustin92]

You haven't had fun until...

...you have had a feather pillow explode in the washer... I did in home care for a lady, and that included laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc. I worked for her two days a week, and another worker had the other days. She had a GE/Frigidaire front loader, which the other worker had no clue on how to load or operate. I had explained the cycles and where to put the detergent, and she dod ok. I got a call one afternoon that she had started the washer, it was blinking and wouldnt drain. I said I could come over and take a look, the apartment maintenance person could not come for a week, and laundry needed to be done. I got there, and in a bucket, there sat the sopping wet, smelly remains of a feather throw pillow. The washer was full of feathers, and still full of water. I had to take the hose off of the pump to get to the trap, which was of course full of feathers. I got it apart and water, feathers, and soap flooded the floor. I cleaned the trap, managed to cut myself rather badly on the washer frame, and put it back together. It probably took a couple hours, and for weeks I found feathers in the washer and on the laundry room floor. I did the laundry from then on.

 

[logixx]

I had a big patio furniture cushion come apart in a laundromat machine. Stuffed it in there and started the cycle. Few minutes later, I saw pieces of the foam filling floating around. Another customer walked by the washer and was like "Hm, this don't look right..." while I was thinking to myself "Oh my f'ing g_d. I hope our insureance will take care of this!" At the end of the cycle, I dug like four cubic foot of foam filling out of that triple-loader - while being watched by the surveillance camera, of course. I managed to get the drum almost totally clean... and never returned again.

 

[sudsmaster]

When washing rubber backed bath mats and rugs, it's important to use a gentle liquid detergent. A powdered detergent likely will be far too harsh and alkaline, which will attack the rubber and make it deteriorate much faster.

When I purchase a mat or rug, I usually test the backing by pinching it with my fingers. If the backing separates from the rug, the rug goes back on the shelf with no sale. I gather that synthetic rubber backings are likely to be more durable in the wash than natural latest rubber backings, but I don't have a sure-fire way to distinguish between them. It's more of a look and feel sort of thing.

The latex backing may also deteriorate in storage, as latex is a perishable compound. I have retrieved clean rugs from their storage location only to find the backing it sticking to itself and coming off in chunks.

 

[gansky1]

Good advice, Rich. I have only one rug that (had) rubber backing. I found it at an estate sale, never used from the 60's. A pink, shag "Pussyfoot" rug for the bathroom. I could tell the rubber backing was dry and crumbly - as Rich described, but I washed it gently in my SQ front loader in cool water. Much of the backing was washed away, it was like powder and a double rinse and spin flushed the remainder out of the machine. Since I knew it would happen that way, I shook the rug before washing and then again afterward. The backing is all gone now but the Pussyfoot rug is still around - sans backing.

Stitching mason jar lids onto rug backs is a good idea! I have a scrap leather runner this would work great on. I've tried the non-slip pads but it still slides on the floor in the hallway - the worst place for a slippery rug. Thanks, Heloise - LOL!

 

[mattl]

Good ideas.

 

The rug will last a bit longer, though the binding is coming loos in spots.  It goes under a deacon's bench in my back entry so it's not going to move too much.  It's about 6-8 years old, really should last longer, and I may have put it in the dryer early on before I knew better.  I had 2 smaller matching rugs that are long gone, but they got much more wear.

 

[retromania]

Been there, done that.

My parents had a man over to clean the panelling and paint the ceiling. Displaying domestic tendancies even then, I got a ladder and jerk the den curtains down and threw them in our 1975 GE Filter Flo in harvest gold. The curtains ended up mostly in the lint trap. We were amazed it didn't mess up the machine or clog the drain. Oh well!

 

[tomturbomatic]

The other side of the liquid detergent coin is that most contain some sort of alcohol which is why they, as a class, are better on grease than powders and some synthetic backings can be very vulnerable to the alcohol so it can actually shorten the life of the rug or at least the non-skid backing.

At the 2001 washin, either something came apart or a rug lost its backing in Robert's Bendix Automatic Home Laundry and we had to find a piece of plastic to form into a chute to channel water from the pump protector to a pan to handle the water that would not drain and so we could clean out the particles clogging the works.

 

[retromania]

Dustin

I didn't know one could wash a feather pillow in the washer until recently. We always put our feather pillows in the sun to freshen them. Love that smell to this day!

 

[whirlykenmore78]

Entry mats are the answer

Commercial laundries such as Aramark or Ameripride use entry mats with a closed loop nylon fiber and rubber nitrile backing. These are extremely durable and withstand many launderings. Mountville Mills and Milliken are 2 major manufacturers of this type of mat. In 11 years working in a mat laundry I never had the backing disintigrate in the washer. Ususally the pile wore out before the backing shredded.
WK78

 

[mattl]

Wow, good to know.  I'll have to look for that type when I go to replace the rug.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Be very careful of what type of rug backing you put on a vinyl floor. When I put down my new kitchen floor, I was warned that a non-skid backed rug would make a yellow place on the floor.

 

[appnut]

a non-skid backed rug would make a yellow place on the floor

Tom, I kind of found that out the hard way.  Taht did happen in my kitchen, but fortunately, the background color of the floor was such taht it's not too noticeable.

 

[DADoES]

 
Yes, vinyl bathroom floor in previous house discolored under rugs.

I had one start disintegrating washing in my Neptune TL.  Fortunately I was checking and aborted before it got too far along.  Still took numerous rinse/flushes to clear the residue.

 

[dustin92]

Retromania.. Yes, we have 5 feather pillows in the house, and all are washed regularly. I had one shred about 5 years ago in our Whirlpool DD (it was old and the cover was desintegrating, I should have known better), but amazingly it all flushed out. They usually take about 4 hours to dry in the dryer, with a few tennis balls. We had one of those silly carpeted toilet covers shred (good riddance) in our Maytag Performa, but I caught it in the wash cycle and used a fine strainer to fish out the pieces as it washed.

 

[retromania]

Dustin. Four hours in the dryer? What temp setting do you use? Toilet seat covers. I forgot about those, but I think they are still available. I didn't mind those, but the one I didn't get was the toilet tank cover. Did you ever see one of those?

 

[dustin92]

It depends on what dryer I am using. At our old house, we have a frigidaire gallery, and I usually dried them on medium. That usually took about 2 1/2 hours. At this house, we have a maytag performa upstairs, I used that one once to dry pillows, on regular heat, and took about 3 1/2 hours for two pillows. I just washed mine today, and I am using the speed queen downstairs, on the timed cycle, which I assume is high heat. I started it on 70 mins. and will need to reset it at least once. They need to be completely dry, and all of the "wet feather" smell is gone.

 

[sudsmaster]

A bit off topic, but one should also be careful about the rubber base on some imported goods like room stand fans or foot stools. I had both a stand fan (from China) and foot stool, both of which had black rubber pads on the bottom, leave indelible black marks matching the pads on my hardwood flooring. Which flooring I had sanded and varnished with oil based polyurethane. Yikes!

 

[rp2813]

Toilet Tank Covers

Somewhere there's one buried around here.  I got over 30 years ago at a thrift store it because it had the look of fur in a zebra pattern.  Never had a bathroom with the appropriate decor, but now you have me thinking it would work in the one where I recently changed out the 1947 toilet for a 1959 model -- if I can locate it. 

 

My experience with non-skid throw rugs is that dryers are much more harmful to them than washers.  I usually let mine dry outside, but when the days start getting damp, I run them in the dryer on the lowest heat setting for 60 to 90 minutes.  So far they've been fine.  In the FL washer, I run them on the shortest cycle that offers a thorough extended spin.  So far that's worked too.

 

As soon as I notice any deterioration of the backing, I replace them.  They're a lot cheaper than a service call on the washer.

 

[retromania]

That's kind of the idea I have that they're cheaper to replace than run the risk of damage to the appliance.

A zebra toilet tank cover. That sounds more interesting than the gold shag cover I saw way back when. Bathrooms in our neighborhood went full circle from colored bathroom fixtures to colored toilet paper which by the way showed up in our grocery store a few years ago. Didn't last. Scott packaged them in their four- packs. I remembered them individually wrapped in paper the color of the tissue, but I can forget that!