Kenmore washing machine
And apparently, we didn’t even need to buy the manual because the repair instructions are also online at and the website has good information about repairing a Whirlpool/Kenmore top loading direct drive washer as well! So that’s plastic item #1 for this project.Ĥ) Remove the cabinet. The manual was shipped in a plastic mailer.
Turns out, Kenmore top load washers are actually made by Whirlpool, so this Whirlpool washer repair manual will work as well. Sears wants you to call their technicians! I found our manual on the Sears Parts Direct website, but tonight, I get an error message when I try to find it on the site.
#Kenmore washing machine how to
Why? Because even if you still have the Users Guide that came with the machine, it won’t tell you how to take the thing apart. The model number is on a sticker on the rim of the washer.ģ) Order the DIY Washer Repair Manual. How else was I going to find out how to take it apart? Lift the lid. Well, I’m not willing to use hot water for my clothes (once a month to clean the washer is okay) and toxic detergents, so there had to be a better way.Ĭ) Several people said they’d taken the washer apart and found terrible black gunk underneath the tub, so after the hot water vinegar failed us, and since I wanted to check that self-cleaning filter anyway, I decided to take the machine apart.ģ) Note the model number of the machine. Some posters blame cold water washing and natural laundry cleaners. We tried that, and it helped for a couple of weeks, and then the washer started smelling again.ī) Other suggestions for washer cleaning involved bleach, heavy duty detergents, and mold killer, none of which I want to use. From this and other sites, I found these suggestions:Ī) Run a hot water maintenance cycle once a month without clothes, adding a cup of white vinegar to the water. Next, I Googled “moldy top load washing machine smell -front” (I excluded the word “front” because it seems that more frontloading washers have this problem than top loading, and the instructions for them are different) and discovered a very helpful discussion of Kenmore Washer Odors on Bob Vila’s Website. If the machine has a self-cleaning filter at the bottom (apparently ours does), you have to take the machine apart to see if it’s actually cleaning itself properly.Ģ) Causes and solutions for moldy washer smell. But like I said, we use soapnuts, which are not powder and are not detergent.Ĭ. I’ve always separated darks and lights (which seems like a no-brainer way to keep light lint off of dark clothes) but apparently, it’s also good to wash linty things like sweatshirts and towels apart from dark clothing as well.ī. Separate linty clothes from non-linty clothes. Here are a few steps I discovered to reduce lint:Ī.
But at our house, we hang all our clothes to dry, so we can’t rely on the dryer. First, I Googled something like “washing machine leaves lint on clothes” and found this great discussion on the Gardenweb forum (which covers more topics than just gardening) and learned that since the advent of the automatic dryer, washing machine manufacturers have stopped adding lint baskets that can be manually removed and cleaned, assuming the dryer will remove the lint. Here are the steps I took and the challenges I faced down…ġ) Causes of white “lint” on clothes.
I’m hoping someone else will find this information useful. Hopefully, it will be funny, too, because who doesn’t enjoy a good washing machine repair story? And since I spent a ton of time on the web looking up parts and procedures and advice, I’ve included a list of all the resources I found at the bottom of this post for quick reference. This post will be long and winding and contain a lot of pictures. But really, I’m just so tickled that I was able to take the whole thing apart, clean it, and put it back together again, that I have to share! And learning to fix things, in general, is one of my strategies for avoiding new purchases and hence, new plastic. So, how is fixing a washing machine related to plastic? Well, we did end up with some plastic waste during the week-long ordeal. (The residue was not laundry powder we use soapnuts.) And then recently, we noticed a linty residue on our clothes and a moldy smell coming from the washing machine. A few months ago, it was dishwasher funk. Seems like this is the year for smelly appliances and DIY solutions.