made: Sometimes I dabble as a plumber

I think one of the more challenging things about being a mom and a wife is that sometimes you just have to fix things yourself. As much as I would love for my husband to have been home to fix my washer today, I just couldn't wait: my son's entire stash of cloth diapers was locked inside, and he'd peed all over his bed this morning so his lovie was on deck for a washing (which is making for a loud/non-sleeping nap so far!) What a nightmare.

Luckily, a while back I'd had a similar problem with the dreaded "F21" flashing on my Kenmore HE2 Front Loading Washing Machine! GAH! Luckily the first time, I googled it, and somewhere in cyber-space someone was kind enough to post the exact directions on how to fix this "suds not draining" problem! Ultimately, something got stuck in the trap for the pump (a bad thing, but ultimately a good thing, because should something get INTO the pump it would mean a new pump or worse a new washer-which might not be SUCH a bad thing?!)

I should have done this early on, but jam a rag into the open space where the plug usually is...at least then you can SLOW the flow of water a little.

This is after I cleaned up the 100 rags I had all over the floor.

Once I opened the panel my door unlocked (yay for my freed cloth diapers!)

Ultimately the plumbing repair only required removing the three screws from the bottom panel, removing the actual panel, and then getting prepared for dear life to catch Niagara Falls once you remove the drain plug. Yes, water gets everywhere. I even used an old cookie sheet to catch the runoff but alas, even that started to overflow. If you decide to do some self plumbing, have more rags then you think you would ever need!! Luckily I have a utility sink within inches of my washer (it's actually so close I can barely open the soap drawer of my washer!) so I was able to clean up the wet mess of rags, and clean out the trap. Tightly screw the drain plug of the pump BACK in, place the panel back, and screw the panel back on!