Skylark wrote:
Help! My 6-year-old Hoover WA100 (Performa 1100) ate a bra wire Thurs
morning. It made a terrible metallic clanking noise while spinning. At
first I thought it was just a jeans zip, but it was too loud. I
stopped the machine, extracted the clothes and noticed a wire missing
from my bra. No sign of the wire itself.

If you are not familiar with the innards of a washing machine, it has an
outer drum - which stays still, and an inner drum which spins. A rubber
seal between the outer drum and the door stops the water getting out.

Said bra wire is between the inner & outer drums. It will eventualy find
its way into one of the holes in the inner drum, poke through, get jammed
and start shredding whatever you wash - it has to be removed. I speak from
experience! It happened to our machine twice.

Get one of those mesh bags to wash bra's in future. If a wire come loose
the bag stops it getting away.

Also, in amongst the clothes
was a narrow, stiff yet flexible white plastic ring that closes with
a set of little teeth. Suspiciously, it is about the diameter of the
drum where it meets the door seal. I am afraid to run the machine now
in case it floods my downstairs neighbour, so I don't know whether it
still works.

It sounds like it might hold the door seal. Without it the machine might
well leak badly.

What is the plastic ring and will the machine work ok without it? Can
I put it back in myself? Is there any way I can get in and find/remove
the bra wire?

First, feel around the inside of the drum. You might find it sticking
through and may be able to pull it out with pliers.

If not to remove the bra wire you have to remove the door seal and if lucky
you might get at it. If not the front of the machine has to come off and
the front of the outer drum has to be removed.

HTH


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257