That time a washing machine drum turned into a disco ball

I was working on a 5 year old front loader yesterday, and when I pulled the drum out, about 200 of those little plastic sequins from a kid's costume came pouring out like a glitter bomb. The homeowner just shrugged and said 'oh yeah, my daughter's mermaid phase'. Has anyone else had a repair completely derailed by a kid's craft project?

4 comments

4 Comments

smith.nancy23d ago

Oh man, that glitter bomb story is too real. I once opened a dryer to fix a noise and found a whole army of those tiny plastic gemstones, the flat kind from sticker sheets, melted into a colorful crust on the drum. The homeowner just sighed and said her son was making "treasure maps." I had to carefully scrape it all off with a plastic putty knife before I could even start the real repair. That sticky residue was something else.

granthunt23d ago

Treasure maps is a pretty creative excuse, gotta give the kid that. Did the mom seem more tired by the mess or by having to explain it? That sticky melted plastic is the worst, it's like glue mixed with candy. What did you use to finally get the drum clean enough to work on?

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diana_kim6623h ago

Lol that sticky plastic goo is the worst! I had a dryer once with melted crayon all over the drum, felt like cleaning up a rainbow crime scene. A little goo gone and a ton of scrubbing finally did the trick.

granthunt23d ago

Ugh, melted plastic crust sounds like a nightmare. Did you have to use any special cleaner after scraping, or just a lot of elbow grease?