Washer Repair FAQs

Repair it if the quote is under half the cost of a comparable new machine and the washer is under about eight years old.

Replace it if the machine is over ten years old and needs a major component, if the drum bearings or outer tub have failed, or if gearcase grease is marking your clothes.

Sometimes. A ten-year-old machine that needs a $180 pump is worth fixing. The same machine needing a control board or bearings usually is not. Speed Queen and older heavy-build machines are the exception and are often worth repairing well past ten years.

Usually we will tell you not to. Oily streaks normally mean the tub bearing seal has failed and gearcase grease is getting into the wash water. On most machines with a sealed plastic outer tub, that repair costs more than the washer is worth.

We will tell you that on the phone rather than charge a diagnostic to say it in person.

Drum bearings and outer tub on a sealed plastic tub, a cracked tub, and a second major failure on a machine already past ten years. See when we tell you not to repair.

Standing water usually means a blocked drain pump filter, a kinked or blocked drain hose, or a failed pump motor. The most common culprit is a coin, hairpin, or small sock jamming the pump impeller.

On front-loaders the filter sits behind a small access panel at the bottom front. See washer not draining.

If the motor hums but the drum stays still, look at the drive belt, motor coupling, or transmission. If it fills and agitates then stops before spin, it is usually the lid switch or door lock. On newer top-loaders a failed shift actuator does the same thing.

Start with the load. Comforters, wet denim, and a pile of towels bunch to one side. If it still shakes on a balanced load, the causes are leveling feet out of adjustment, worn shock absorbers, broken suspension rods, or worn drum bearings.

Four sources, in the order we check them: a torn door boot seal, loose or cracked hoses, a drain hose pushed too far down the standpipe causing siphoning, and over-sudsing from regular detergent in a high-efficiency machine. That last one is free to fix.

Usually not. A machine that shuts off partway, sits full of water, and powers itself on and off is normally electrical rather than mechanical, and the main control board or its power supply is failing. A bad pump stops the cycle but does not make the machine power cycle by itself.

Do not force it. The lock stays engaged while the drum holds water, or when the lock assembly fails mid-cycle. Drain through the pump filter at the bottom front, then try a reset. If it still will not release, the door lock assembly or its wiring has failed.

The machine is not reaching full spin speed. Causes are an unbalanced load it cannot correct, a failing drain pump leaving water in the tub, worn drum bearings, or a motor control fault.

Front-loaders trap water in the door boot and the detergent drawer. Wipe the gasket dry, leave the door ajar between loads, clean the drawer, and run a tub-clean cycle monthly. If it persists, water is sitting somewhere it should not be.

No. Colorado Springs Utilities reports hardness of 1.3 to 2.8 grains per gallon, and the Water Quality Association classifies anything under 3.5 gpg as soft. Denver sits around 4.2 and Pueblo around 10.6.

The city runs on surface water, largely mountain snowmelt, so it never sits in a limestone aquifer picking up minerals. Pages claiming 11 or 15 grains per gallon here are water-softener retailers, and they describe Colorado Springs as drawing from groundwater, which it does not.

Almost always the shipping bolts. Front-loaders ship with transit bolts through the back panel that lock the drum, and if the movers did not remove them the machine bangs hard on every spin.

The other two causes are a machine that is not level and a drain hose set at the wrong height. All three are common after a move to Fort Carson, Peterson, Schriever, or the Academy, and all three are quick fixes.

Yes. Colorado Springs averages around 64 inches of snow a year and winter lows near 20 degrees. Water left in the inlet valve, fill hoses, or pump housing can freeze and split, and you find out in spring from a machine that was fine in October.

Before the first hard freeze, shut off the supply valves, disconnect and drain the fill hoses, and run a drain and spin.

It can. We sit at 6,035 feet against the Front Range, which is why summer afternoons produce fast storms and power flickers. Boards rarely fail outright. They go erratic instead, with unresponsive buttons and cycles that stop partway. A surge protector on the laundry circuit is cheap insurance.

Yes. Mention it when you call. Colorado Springs is home to Fort Carson, Peterson Space Force Base, Schriever Space Force Base, and the Air Force Academy, and a good share of our work is with military families.