A couple of days ago, I observed over the course of a few hours Monte coming in from his shop project du jour, going into the laundry room, swearing, and then going back out to the shop. This happened at least three times. I finally asked him what was up. He said he was just trying to do a load of laundry because he needed a clean pair of socks. But the washing machine wasn’t cooperating. Every time he came in the machine had stopped, unlocked the door and the laundry inside was drenched.
Having fixed one of our washing machine problems a little over a year ago myself (a leaking rubber door gasket), I decided to try and figure out what was wrong this time.
The symptoms:
- the wash cycle would not complete
- it would start filling the tub, putting way more water in than I have ever noticed before, up to about 6″ up from the bottom of the door window.
- at 45 minutes left in the wash cycle, it would stop filling, unlock the door, and blink the start/pause light
- a 12 minute drain and spin cycle would sometimes work to drain the tub. Sometimes not.
After doing some research online, and messing around with the washer for a bit, I thought we had at least 2 problems:
- the drain pump, which empties the tub and sends the water out the drain hose into the wall, was not working consistently. I took that out and Monte hooked it up in the shop to a switch, and sure enough, it would only turn on about 2 out of 10 tries.
- the water level switch hose (a rubber 3/8″ hose) had a hole in it, which prevented the fill computer from correctly detecting the level of the water in the tub. Wear on that hose can happen over time from abrasion against the side of the washer tub and housing.
The website AppliancePartsPros.com is great resource for how-to videos, and also to follow discussion threads from other DIYers.
Our washing machine is a 12-year old GE Model WCVH6800J1WW. The 2 parts we needed were the drain pump (part #WH23X10028), and water level switch hose (part #WH41X10129). I ordered certified GE OEM replacement parts. The fix was easy, requiring only a phillips screwdriver and some pliers.
The two videos I watched to understand how to replace the parts I ordered were:
- For replacing the water pump assembly: https://youtu.be/zHzy7e_1cpc
- For replacing the water level switch hose: https://youtu.be/IP27XDsU7AY
The first load just finished, and we finally have clean socks!
Sheila365 
You, my dear, never cease to amaze me!
Amazing. When in Colorado, drop in and I will share my “appliance repair” TO DO” list with you. Leave the dirty socks at home, but bring Monte. I enjoy and look forward to your posts.
Sheila,
You are so amazing. I loved the pic Monte took while you were practically under your washer.
Susanne