One day while I was doing laundry, my washer stopped in the middle of a cycle and the screen displayed the error code E20. Since the owner’s manual did not have any information on error codes, I went online to find an answer. Sure enough there it was -- error code E20 indicated that the “coin trap” was blocked.
I thought, “Wow, what a clever component -- a trap to block coins and other debris from ruining the evacuation pump.” So I looked for an access door only to find that it was on the rear of the machine. I moved the units away from the wall -- I have the washer and dryer stacked -- and proceeded to remove the back cover. There it was, the coin trap... behind three hoses.
The three hoses are connected to a boot at three different locations with three different kinds of clamps. This assembly is at arm's length, and there is only room for one arm to get in to work on it. After two hours, I managed to get two of the three hoses unhooked. I then looked for a solution to remove the last hose. I saw there was a cutout on the bottom of the washer, so I lifted the dryer off, tilted the washer back against the wall, and tried from the bottom.
After another hour I got the coin catcher assembly removed and cleaned out. Now I had to try to reassemble the boot assembly with one hand, blindly. When your hand is in the access area, you can't see in to line up the hoses and install the clamps. After five more hours of trying to remove the front panel and other options, I was ready to drag the machine down my driveway with a chain and put it out on the curb.
Then I thought, “I have nothing to lose. Why not make an access hole in the side?” So I got out my saber saw and cut a 12x12-inch panel in the side. In 10 minutes I had the boot and pump assembly together and the machine running again.
This entry was submitted by Gary D. Rodichok and edited by Rob Spiegel.
Tell us your experiences with Monkey-designed products. Send stories to Rob Spiegel for Made by Monkeys.
Plenty cars have such bad access to engine parts that they feature new access doors from the first moment the owner (or shop) needs to do engine work such as spark plug changes, because the customer is not inclined to play the cost of an engine drop for minor service work like that.
Also I have taken to documenting re-assembly by taking pics with my cellphone so I can re-confirm wiring colors before turning everything back on.
I have never had issues with Ikea furniture, in fact my sports is to figure out how it goes together *before* looking at assembly instructions. Whether it is that I am also from Europe or because I like solving puzzles, I hardly every look at the instructions and typically find that their stuff is designed logically. Occasionally I will accept the gift of incorrect assembled new furniture for a small donation to friends and then re-assemble it correctly myself. I still have a nice bookcase that I obtained cheap that way.
Yes, cars a bigger than they used to be. In and out of the garage, I had just a couple inches on either side to get through without catching the sideview mirrors. One blinck of attention, and pop, there goes the mirror.
I'm glad to hear your kids weren't strong enough to wrestle off the side-view mirrors, which is what my imagination conjured up when you blamed them. Sounds like your garage may have been built in the days before minivan and SUV widths.
And not just Ikea--every single version and brand of put-together furniture I've put together has been a hassle. For awhile, I was doing it so often I got really good at it, and stopped looking at the Escher-like drawings altogether, since the assembly techniques and fasteners/screws are/were extremely similar.
Interesting comment about mechanical drawing. All freshman at Worcester Polytechnic Institute had to take mechanical drawing and descriptive geometry. I have one of the texts and still refer to it occasionally. The skill to create an engineering drawing by hand has proven a most usefull skill. Eventually WPI decided to cut the mechanical-drawing classes and one on the professors quit in protest. He was the author of the text I have, "Technical Descriptive Geometry," by B. Leighton Wellman. You can buy a used copy at www.abebooks.com for under $4. It's a good book and at that price, a bargain.
Could it be a consequence of the (nowadays) lost or nearly lost art of drafting?
As engineering turned towards CAD, some good things were lost. It has been my personal experience that in our engineering firm, the people with the best tridimentional thinking were the old draftsmen from the piping department, followed by the old people from mechanical components. Every year I'm assigned to interview new young engineers as they are selected to be hired. technical drawing interpretation is consistently an area where latter generations tend to fail miserably, even with the (supposedly) help from personal computers and video games.
The bad geometrical design, component placement and lack of respect for repairability seems to be a worldwide trend, and those of us older engineers need to engage in seriously re-train younger people, if we want to be able to keep the good name of engineering as a noble profession.
Jon, that description of diagrams for mounting glass in a door frame made me laugh. Escher's art is a good description of just how bad some diagrams are, even the ones I've tried to use just for putting furniture together.
Yes, Ann. I'm blaming my kids, but it was really my fault. I have a one-car garage that barely fits my minivan. Two different times my kids were fighting or rough-housing as I backed out of the garage. I tried to intervene while backing out. In one instance I nicked the right side-view mirror, in another, I nicked the left. You only have to nick the mirror slightly and it's destroyed.
I fixed the mirrors, hen I solved the problem by ignoring the kids completely when I back out of the garage.
We usually use online manuals for washing machine and dryer repairs, as well as solving automotive problems. But, I'm impressed with your kids--they destroyed your side view mirrors?! :)
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