Washday Miracle

[sudsmaster]

Lately I've been having a problem with small electronic items stuffed in shirt or pants pockets winding up going through the wash.

First it was a relatively new Motorola bluetooth headset. It emerged from the Neptune without any cosmetic damage, but wouldn't take a charge any more. A write-off.

Then on Sunday, I sent the remote control for the vintage Cobra alarm on the van through. This remote was in need of replacement since the keychain loop on it broke a while back, and I've been keeping it in a different pocket than the van keys in order not to have it accidentally set off (which has happened a number of times) when a key contacts one of the buttons inadvertantly in the pocket.

So I heard this thumping in the dryer on Sunday, and there was the Cobra remote. Damn. Well, I knew the routine. Took it out, opened it up, dried it out. Lo and behold the battery (non rechargeable 12 volt alkaline) still had a charge, and the remote still worked! I replace the battery because I was worried it would start leaking soon, but it doesn't appear to have suffered any permanent damage from the ordeal. It was in a perm press cycle in the Neptune - warm wash water and STPP boosted Sears Ultra HE powder.

I'm probably going to get a backup for the remote pretty soon. They aren't overly pricey and it would be nice to have the remote back on a keychain (despite the occasional accidental activation) so it would be less likely to make another washday incursion.

 

[panthera]

Sacrifices to the Goddess of Laundry

And the futility of cleaning pockets.

I swear I went through our pockets before washing yesterday.

One credit card (still works) and two dollar bills (were accepted at store) came out of the dryer.

Goodness.

The real question is, what on earth does the washer use all those mis-matched socks for?

 

[westingman123]

Keven:

And here all this time I thought it was the dryer that was the sock-thief!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Back in the early 80s, my brother was visiting and handed me several pairs of jeans to wash. I put them in the Lady Kenmore Combo and thought nothing about it until I heard a clunking during the dry cycle. Tank watches are not machine washable! It was terrible. The crystal was so finely smashed that there were not even remnants in the wash filter. The hands were bent outward at painful angles that made me think of torture in a dungeon. He had tucked the watch in his pocket while working on something and forgot about it. Whenever he walked past Karen Kenmore after that he called her "the crusher."

 

[panthera]

Nah,

Dryers only eat G-strings.

 

[autowasherfreak]

Hmmmm so that's where all of my G-strings have gone, I was going to blame it on the Maytag.

 

[turquoisedude]

Ever find a golf tee in YOUR washer or dryer??

I am still floored by this - found them while fixing up my ol' Westinghouse CD6 dryer. Somehow, this is probably not THE strangest thing that has ever turned up in a laundry appliance, though!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Not golf tees, but pencils

I pulled apart a KitchenAid dryer and found several of those little stubby pencils from a golf course in the blower housing. I guess they were left on top and fell in when the lint screen was pulled for cleaning.

If your WH dryer had been a Halo of Heat, any metal object, coins especially, that fell past the front drum seal could have fallen onto the open wire heating element and shorted it out.

 

[hunter]

Erma Bombeck...

...always used to say when 2 socks went into the washer and only one came out, that the other went to live with Jesus.

Which is now, what I say, when I can't find any particular item.

Hunter

 

[westingman123]

OMG, I miss Erma!

I often wonder what her family is up to. After all, the grass is always greener over the septic tank. Except in winter. >grin<

 

[jamiel]

If you bought that Bluetooth headset with your credit card, you may have purchase protection...check your issuer.

 

[alr2903]

I try to check every pocket but the worse of the worst, is a kleenex. Mom used to frequently stash one in a pocket, it makes a terrible mess. Money launders beautifully. alr2903

 

[polkanut]

My wife is a Kleenex forgetter. Boy, nothing makes me madder than opening the washer lid and seeing shredded tissue everywhere. That's enough to even p*ss off the Pope.

 

[appnut]

Ever since I got my Fridgemore, every shirt & pant pocket gets checked.

 

[neptunebob]

Actually you never know what you find in dryers. Betty Draper, while on her "fainting couch" heard clanking going around in her Maytag dryer and found a key for Don's secret drawer - that revealed his "other life". Oh, I felt so bad for Don!

 

[foraloysius]

Bob

What did you do when you still had the Shredmore? Everything that was in the pockets got washed?

 

[vacbear58]

Mad Men

We are getting the latest season in the UK starting next week - can't wait. Of course it HAD to be up against Desperate Housewives (how come they never seem to have any older appliances? - Oh yes, product placement) at least in the first week, so there will be the sound of video recorders in my house that night
Al

 

[sudsmaster]

I try to check all the pockets, but it's the quick way - I squeeze them from the outside. Unfortunately the lozenge like car alarm remote probably didn't register as a foreign object to my grasp.

I do have a method that works fairly well before I retire for the evening. Everything in the shirt and pants pockets goes into a little bin in the bedroom. That way they are all in one spot the next morning when I rush around getting dressed for work. In this instance, though, I shed my clothes in the middle of the day on a Saturday to get them washed and the bin routine apparently didn't get followed.

At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

As for the Bluetooth, I was able to get it replaced.

 

[danemodsandy]

The Dad-Ratted Worst:

My late partner had to wear Depends during his final year, and the nursing assistant who came once a week to give me a break with bathing, changing, etc. once got all helpful and took the contents of his hamper to the laundry room and stuck it all in my LA208, adding detergent and starting the machine.

My partner had somehow thrown a Depends into the hamper (he was having issues with confusion), and so - it got washed.

You do NOT want to deal with the aftermath of that, trust me. That absorbent fluff in the diaper's inner layer got absolutely everywhere, even clogging the standpipe. The real clothes in the load had to be re-washed, and still they shed what seemed like pounds of fluff in the dryer. I spent most of a day cleaning the washer, clearing the standpipe, and doing a cleanout of the dryer's air-handling system.

Little Miss Nursing Assistant was told as sweetly as possible that I was managing fine on my own, that we'd call her if we needed more help (when you're a care-giver, you learn not to burn any bridges with anyone who's a resource).

That was One. Bad. Day.