New washing machine

[RMJacobs]

Washing machine hoses are supposedly notorious for springing a leak. I don’t have the same concern with other water supplies. I like my floors and don’t want to risk flooding my house if a washing machine hose breaks.

When I turned off the house water before traveling in winter, it was because we found the house was not built to tolerate the below freezing temperatures that would occur at least a few times each winter, even though it was in the southeast US. A frozen pipe in the attic would wreak havoc if it burst. We were lucky that the one time we didn’t take precautions, the frozen section in the attic thawed without bursting the pipe. We got heat circulating in the attic pretty quickly. This was a suburban house, so water for horses wasn’t a consideration.

I’ve never worried about turning off the house water when living in Colorado. Houses here are built and insulated much better. Even my 45 year old horse property never had a frozen pipe, even in sub zero temperatures.

But a washing machine hose can break in any climate. If you think it’s silly, then don’t shut the water off.

Rebecca

[LCDR]

Damn, I can’t do anything right, can I? My late mother-in-law was judgy like that too.

I have a septic tank, and I choose to grind up the occasional ort that won’t compost safely and will smell to high heaven and attract vermin if I put it out in the trash bin.

[NaturallyHappy]

I want to live w you😀!

[Jarpur]

Our house has a recessed area with drain in the utility room, designed for the washer location. Have never had a hose burst, or a washer leak, but the fact that the washer is setting down in this spot (around two inches deep), and has the drain to the outside, is reassuring.

This Old House website states that there are special hoses that cut the water off if a situation is detected:
“Some stainless steel washing machine hoses come with an auto shutoff feature that can detect the increase in pressure caused by a hose burst. Once detected, the connector at the end of the hose prevents water from pouring out of the valve, minimizing the damage incurred by a broken hose.”

[RMJacobs]

@Jarpur

Our house has a recessed area with drain in the utility room, designed for the washer location.

We had a setup like that at our horse property. It was in the basement with a drain in the floor. Too bad that one of the first projects DH did for me at that house was to make a laundry room on the main floor of the house. There was no way my poor disabled body was going to go up and down the stairs with laundry.

We did have a leak associated with the washing machine in the new laundry room, but it was a weird circumstance. It was a front loader that we’d bought new for the remodel project. Water would leak into it, and if you didn’t catch it, it would fill up the entire tub and leak even with the door shut. Of course it started doing this right after the warranty expired.

DH had installed the water hookups when he created the new laundry room, and he made a point of having them accessible. So we just shut the water off as needed.

Rebecca

[tbchick84]

Speed Queen all the way. It’s the only remaining simplistic washing machine left. No computer chips to stop working. Just very basic and does a great job. I’m pretty sure they are big enough to handle blankets.

[pony_baloney]

We turn off the water to our washer after we use it. But we live in a condo, and I doubt very much that my upstairs neighbors do that as well.

Our newish washing machine barely moves the clothes around. They cycle sounds took a while to get used to; it just doesn’t seem to be doing anything.

I’ve seen a few YouTube videos of dryer vents being cleaned that haven’t been touched in 10-15 years. That’s scary!! How have they not had a fire at some point? They can suck out tightly packed lint that’s many many feet long.