A washing machine arrives and gets used. That is the normal sequence, and it skips two things that take about half an hour and prevent a surprising number of problems.
This applies to a new machine out of the box and, more urgently, to a second-hand one where you do not know what it has been through.
New machines: the bolts
Start here, because getting this wrong destroys a machine in one cycle.
Front loaders ship with transit bolts through the back panel that lock the drum to the frame so it cannot move in transport. They must come out before the machine ever runs.
A machine run with the bolts still in will bang violently on the first spin, and it damages the suspension and the bearings immediately. It is one of the most common and most expensive first-week failures there is.
Three or four bolts across the back panel, removed with a spanner. Keep them. If you ever move the machine, they go back in, and movers will not do this for you.
Top loaders usually ship with foam blocks or cardboard inside the drum instead. Same principle, take it all out.
New machines: everything else before the first load
Level it properly. Not roughly. Put a level on top, front to back and side to side, adjust the feet, then push each corner. Any corner that drops means it is not sitting evenly, and an unlevel machine vibrates hard and wears its own bearings out.
Check the supply hoses. If it came with rubber hoses, consider braided stainless instead. They cost a little more and they are the cheapest insurance in the house, because a supply hose is under pressure all the time, not only when the machine runs.
Leave clearance. Four inches behind for hoses so they are not kinked against the wall, a couple of inches at each side.
Set the drain hose height to what the manual specifies, usually two to four feet, sitting loosely in the standpipe with an air gap rather than sealed in.
Run one empty hot cycle before any clothes go in. Manufacturing leaves residue and lubricant in a new drum, and the first load will pick it up.
Second-hand machines, where the stakes are higher
A used machine is worth buying and worth checking, because you are inheriting whatever the last household did to it.
Before you hand over money, if you can see it running:
Listen to the spin. A roar or grind that grows as it speeds up is bearings, and on many machines that is not economically repairable. Walk away from that one.
Rock the drum. Grab it at the top and pull it toward you and push it back. More than very slight play means the bearing is going.
Spin the drum by hand. It should turn smoothly and quietly.
Look at the door seal fold on a front loader. Black growth in the fold tells you how the machine was kept, and a cracked or perished boot is a leak waiting to happen.
Check the drum for scoring and for anything caught between the drum and the outer tub.
Ask whether it leaks and look under it for staining.
The reset routine for a used machine
Once it is home, do this before the first real load. It takes an hour, most of it unattended.
1. Pull the dispenser drawer completely out. Soak it and the siphon cap in hot soapy water and scrub. Then clean the housing it slides into with a flashlight and a brush, paying attention to the jets in the roof of that cavity.
2. Clear the drain pump filter behind the panel at the bottom front. Have towels and a shallow pan ready. On a used machine this is frequently full, and it tells you a lot about the previous owner.
3. Wipe the drum and, on a front loader, the entire door seal fold. Vinegar and water on a cloth, or hydrogen peroxide for visible mold. Never bleach on the rubber, which degrades it until it cracks.
4. Run an empty cycle on the hottest setting with a machine cleaning tablet or oxygen bleach.
5. Run a second empty hot cycle with two cups of white vinegar, on a different day rather than back to back if you used any bleach product.
6. Replace the supply hoses. You do not know how old they are and they are cheap.
Doing all six once is far more effective than doing one of them repeatedly, and it gives you a known starting point.
Dryers, briefly
A used dryer needs its own check. Pull the lint screen and hold it to the light, and wash it with soap and water since softener film is invisible. Look inside the drum for scoring or rust that will snag fabric. Check the drum seal at the front and back.
And when you install it, use rigid or semi-rigid metal duct. If the previous owner sent you home with plastic or foil accordion duct, bin it. It traps lint in every ridge and it is the worst part of most laundry installations.
The Michigan detail
If the machine is going in a garage or an unheated basement, and around here a lot of them do, water left in the pump and hoses can freeze. A frozen pump cracks and a cracked pump is a repair.
If the space is genuinely unheated and you are going away in winter, shut off the supply valves, disconnect the hoses, and run a drain and spin to clear what is left. Otherwise keep the space above freezing.
The other point is that a garage machine draws cold supply water through cold pipes, so a January wash on the warm setting is arriving colder than the same setting in July. Insulating the first several feet of the hot line is cheap and it helps.
Before it is plumbed in
There is usually a gap between a machine arriving and a machine working, and the laundry does not pause for it.
The machines at our self-service laundry on 13 Mile Road handle a household’s backlog in one visit, including the bedding and bulky items that a new machine will not thank you for as its first load.
Our machines and the store are cleaned daily, which is the routine described above run every day rather than once when a machine changes hands.
Our wash-dry-fold service covers everyday laundry during the gap.
The short version
On a new front loader, remove the transit bolts from the back before it ever runs, because running with them in damages the suspension and bearings on the first spin. Level it properly and check that no corner drops. Swap rubber supply hoses for braided stainless. Run one empty hot cycle before any clothes go in. On a used machine, listen to the spin and rock the drum before buying, since bearing noise usually ends a machine. Then reset it: dispenser drawer and housing, drain pump filter, door seal, a cleaning-tablet cycle, a vinegar cycle, and new hoses. And in an unheated space, drain the machine before a winter away.
WaveMAX Fraser is at 16777 E 13 Mile Rd, easy to reach from Fraser and the surrounding area. If you are between machines, call us at (586) 204-7058.