PFE

Drat.  Not again.   So I have an issue with my washing machine.  It's not an issue of something broken, it's an issue that comes up from time to time that is a hassle.  I get told about the issue by the error letters PFE displayed on the washer front when I go to move the clothes over to the dryer.

The clothes, it turns out, aren't ready to be moved to the dryer.  They are drenched and the door is locked to the washing machine and nothing, including turning off the power or unplugging it will let you get your clothes out, short of a sledge hammer.  I discovered this because I used to fight the PFE.  Now, I just accept the PFE, get down to correcting the PFE situation and am back up and running (or rather rinsing and spinning) the laundry.

I don't know what PFE stands for, but what it means is some small item, say for instance a small child's sock, has gotten sucked in through the edge of the washing bin and been trapped in the drain catch.  This is fine.  It's appropriate.  It's working as designed, because it's better to get something stuck in the trap, versus further down the line at an unknown and possibly unreachable point.  But getting to the trap takes time.

First, you have to open the hatch on the front of the dryer.  Then you have to drain all the water that's backed up and can't drain out of the machine.  This is the reason the PFE message comes up.  The machine can't dump more water into the system when it can't drain what's already in cycle.  So you open and drain lots of water out of a small tube.  This part took me a while to get efficient.

That tube is near the ground so you can't drain it with a large bucket.  You need a second, smaller receptacle to catch the water, but you need that large bucket because you're going to be filling the smaller container again and again.  Once several gallons of water have been emptied and the drain tube stops leaking, you can open the trap itself and remove the very dark blue black sock that used to be white before it got stuck in the system.

Back out by closing the trap and putting the access door back on and all you have to do is press start on the machine and it picks up right where it left off.  I used to hate this message, but now it's about a ten minute job.  It's also interesting to find out what got stuck in the trap this time.

The Big Boy Update:  Daddy overheard my son tell Papa he needed to go potty.  They went into the bathroom and Papa waited for him to go.  When Papa asked him if he needed to go, since he had said he did only moments before, my son said, "It's your turn to go potty.  You take down your pants."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  The Very Best Ball.  My daughter still loves balls.  She sees balls in anything and everything, but there is one ball above all others she is infatuated with.  She loves the red white and blue Pepsi logo.  It's gotten so regular an occurrence that now when she randomly says, "ball!"  I look around for the Pepsi symbol.

Someone Once Said:  Butterflies are not insects. They are self-propelled flowers.