When I got home from work last night, my wife informed me that our washing machine is broken. It seems to go all the way through to the spin cycle, but then it won’t spin. You can hear the motor whir, but it’s accompanied by a grinding sound and the tub just sits there. My first guess was that the belt had come off. That’s a pretty easy fix, so I decided to investigate. Unfortunately, after getting the front service panel off and looking around a bit, I soon discovered that the belt was just fine — still on, and plenty tight… So what’s wrong?

Based on what I read at this appliance repair site (which is a great resource, and definitely worth bookmarking), it seems most likely that the hardware that attaches the inner basket to the agitator has worn out. While this sounds like a fairly straightforward repair, we’ll be heading out of town on a short vacation in a few days, and I don’t have the time nor the parts to do it myself. Thus, the repairman is coming this afternoon. We’ve been told that the minimum charge for a service call is $55… Anyone care to guess how much this will end up setting us back?

Side note: I’ve decided that now is an opportune time to replace the rubber water supply hoses with stainless steel hoses. The rubber lines don’t last forever, and it’s not pretty when they burst — especially if it happens when you’re away from home! It’s also a good idea to shut off the supply lines when leaving home for added protection against water problems.