What is the strangest stuff you found in an washing Machine

[fredriksam]

Well when you wash you´re supposed to empty your pockets when washing jeans and such also jackets can hold many foreign objects not good for the machine.

I have worked with recyckling and repairing machines some years.

I remember a friend that had a Whirlpool machine. It made a racket when spinning. He thought something was loose in it and he wanted me to check on the machine. I did so and what was it? Well the persons kids had throwed some small lego piece in the machine and it had getting stuck between the drum and outher tub (Frontloader). I removed the plastic lego and it was silent as it should be.

Another person, an older lady, bought a Cylinda machine from the work i was at. We had repaired the machine so it was ok. We had three months warranty on the machines. Some week later she came back and had a problem. There was a rattling noise. Checked the machine and it was a small screw. I was sure the screw wasnt in the outher drum when we sold it but we fixed it for free. two weeks later she came back. The machine had stopped with water in it and the clothes still there. I checked the machine and when wempty it we found an empty small bag with screws and such in it. She had to pay for the repair but we got out all the screws and spikes. She said she was washing her husbands workclothes but had forgotten checking the pockets. I guess shen learned the lesson.

Final thing. We found an relative new Siemens XL washer at the dumpster. The drum had seized. We thought it was the bearings or the drum spider being gone. Nope. It was a small sock that was between the drum and outher tub. You could see there were fibres from the sock all over the hard edge of the inner drum and also lots in the tub in the bottom near the heater. I removed the sock and voila : the machine worked top again.

So. Whats your experince of this. What has gotten stuck in your machine?

 

[lorainfurniture]

1. I once found a $20 bill and some change in the coin trap.

2. I was cleaning out my vacuum that I used on road calls and found a men’s ring. I got $350 for that in gold scrap. It probably came from a dryer.

 

[bradfordwhite]

Years ago, when I started my washing machine fix/repair/collection hobby, I would get machines people would leave for garbage pick up on "Big Junk" week, which happened twice a year.

I picked up a 1970 Whirlpool washer with several used condoms in the tub. Like they had just been thrown in there....along with the hoses and some other junk.

 

[bradfordwhite]

I also bought from Menards, in 2017, a used Whirlpool Duet matching front load set for like $50 or something. The dryer was crammed with lint but the washer pump was just jammed with grass and pine needles. I think they had used them at a horse farm or something and never used detergent.

 

[DADoES]

 
Tub outlet hose and pump trap on a Duet.  Coins, candy wrappers, pellets & BBs, tampon applicator, camera memory card, screws, hairpin, nails, etc.

 

[tolivac]

Play the camera card to see what was on it!!Card "players"-"readers" available at most electronic places-connect to any computer.

 

[neptunebob]

Not the washer but in the dryer...

I was asked to look at a dryer by a neighbor who said they did not know what brand because "it's not fun to use so I don't look at it" and I found a stash of marijuana, it had to be almost a kilo. This was back in the 80s when it was illegal.

The people in reply #2 must have believed in population control.

 

[rpms]

Glass eye.
When I worked at a nursing home the students came in in the morning before school to make or strip the beds. One old guy's glass eye went missing.They figured it was in the sheets.
The hunt was on. The sheets had gone to the laundry.Big front load washer.The eye was going round staring at the laundry staff.

 

[turbokinetic]

One bad part....

... damaged two appliances!

Fixing a vintage fridge; I cut off the end of a capillary tube, along with its filter screen and about one inch of condenser tubing. This was in preparation for installing a new filter-drier. That restriction had caused problems for the fridge.

Stupidly, I put the cut off end in my pocket where it got washed and put in the dryer. In the drier, it got stuck between the drum and the front of the dryer; completely wrecking the felt seal on the front of my vintage Amana dryer.

So yeah - one crappy part caused two casualties.

Sincerely,
David

 

[dustin92]

I once found almost $20 in change inside an early 90's Kenmore gas dryer that was a free curbside find. I assume the coins slipped through the felt seals over the years and just collected where they fell. Also found a few inside the blower and lint trap area but those didn't amount to much. The dryer was in decent condition and worked fine aside from the drum being stained blue.

 

[iheartmaytag]

Not is a washer, but a Gift from heaven

Once when we were growing up, poor as church mice. I think my dad had just had his second heart attack, and the washer broke down. At that time it was like $38 or something to fix it, it was the 60s.

So Mom took our laundry to the Wash-o-mat and did what had to be done. As she was loading the dryer she saw something stuck in the tumbler in the back of the dryer. She reached in and pulled out a Dollar bill, she reached back in and pulled out more. She kept it up until she couldn't find anymore, and the total in the dryer was $38. the amount she needed to get our washer repaired.

Some can judge that it belonged to someone else etc. It was in an empty laundry, there was no one to turn it into. She took it as a gift from heaven.

 

[whirlykenmore78]

I have a good one:

One restaurant I worked at we did the laundry in house. As I was the guy who did
basically every job in the place except serve and bartend I often did the laundry. I found a few interesting things when washing the cooks uniforms.

One day I found a $20 bill in that Whirlpool DD when I was moving things to the dryer. Another time I was unloading clothes and heard something clank in the bottom of the tub. Laying next to the base of the agitator was someone's glass crack pipe! I gave it to the owner and told him he had a drug problem in his kitchen! HE WAS PISSED!
WK78

 

[lakewebsterkid]

Well...

A majority of these have come from my own home. Lol
An open pocket knife, 9 mm bullets, golf tees, lots of beer tops, surgical masks, pens, headphones, cough drops, pretty much everything. The only thing I have ever pulled out of the pump trap has been a paperclip.

I did have a friend that went to do a load of laundry at her apartment where the SQ FL washer and dryer is shared. She found slices of bell pepper in the machine. I don't know what people are thinking. LOL

 

[ozzie908]

back in the 90's when repairs were common

I used to go to the local dump and see what machines were any use for spares etc I was on the hunt for a certain drain pump and found one on a battered relic of a washer, Asked the scrap yard owner how much for a pump he replied £3 and that was how much was inside it in coins !!

Another time I was fixing my sisters Hoover 800 it had stopped draining ao took the pump apart to find a complete choke chain for a dog a large dog at that. This chain must have been there for a while as it was rusting and leaving a stain on the plastic!

Austin

 

[tomdawg]

One washer repair was a panty hose stuck in the pump of a duet sport.
Another was 11 baby socks in the pump of a duet - original design- the owner said, see the laundry do it eat socks!
Another was an older dryer I took apart. I found at least $17 dollars worth of coins in it...

 

[eurekastar]

The strangest thing might be live a mouse.  When I tried to get it out, it managed to squeeze up under the agitator before I could nab it.  So I filled the washer with water to drown it, then put it on spin.  The spin cycle managed to sling the critter out from under the agitator.  I then ran the washer on hot wash with detergent and bleach!  LOL!

 

[thomasortega]

$3 in quarters inside a Kenmore all-in-one (fake skinny mini)
$0,25 inside a Whirlpool Thin Twin.
$7,75 (all quarters) inside a Kenmore Calypso
Kenmore portable (World Washer) threw up a dime through the drain hose the first time I used it.

Don't ask me about the dryers..... ALL my dryers were piggy banks. The Neptune Superstack came with a $50 bill in the blower.

 

[kenmoreguy89]

€1200 Gold ring.
In an old Rex I took from the dump years ago I've found a gold ring in the outer tub stuck in the heating element.

 

[bradfordwhite]

In the first washer I ever picked up when I was 12, it was a 1969 avoocado GE with sudsaver. The motor was stuck. After detaching the motor I found a childs sock stuck in it that someone using the sudsaver must have sucked up.
That was all that was wrong with the washer.

One late 70s GE dryer was loaded with lint in the chute beneath the MISSING filter and in that lint was a lot of coin change and about $12 in paper bills.

In 2018 picked up a newer Estate dryer from a Menards store. Even though it worked perfectly fine was in rather good condition I thought I'd better open it up and just make sure.
In the bottom there had been a busy mouse that made a perfect shaped nest in the middle with all the lint. It was all stuck together in a neat mound.