How to Open the Drain

OK, first thing, if you're getting an E:04 error on the Nexxt, that means a drain issue. Over the years we've definitely had baby socks, cloth baby wipes, and random bits of debris from pockets get around the drum gasket and into the pump unit.

Fortunately, the pump seems to be pretty good at stopping itself when these things are there. The downside is that if the clog happens at the beginning of a drain cycle, there can be *a lot* of water in the machine still (load of towels, anyone?)

So here's the deal. If you don't own a wet/dry shop vac, don't even bother continuing. I guess you could somehow jack the whole unit up onto blocks to get a tub or bucket under it, though a shop vac is the way to go. Even a small one will do just fine; the repair guy that showed me how to do this carries a 1 gallon unit....

Anyhow on the front of the machine, at the bottom right is a circular panel. On the panel is a small hole. Insert a sturdy, pointed object into the hole; my favorite is an awl, though a heavy duty paperclip unwound also works. While applying pressure to the plastic plate through the hole, rotate the panel (I'm pretty sure it's clockwise to remove it). It only turns about an inch or so, then should come right out.

There are 2 things of interest here: a green pull cable and a black 4" drain pipe with a recessed cap threaded inside of it. The cable is the manual release for the door. If you have a lot of water in the unit, this is by far the easier way to get the hose of the vac in there to pull it out.

Even if the machine has run a full cycle, there will still be a good amount of water in the pump's trap and plumbing. Since the pump is at the bottom of the machine and the drain outlet at the top, the pump can only empty the water until the pump housing is empty. At this point the pump shuts off, and with a gurgle the water remaining in the drain hose between the pump and the outlet runs back into the pump trap.

So, first turn on your vac and put the hose into the bottom of the 4" drain pipe. If you have a big shop vac, you may need either a reducer or a crevice tool. I found that it was easiest to keep the hose of mine right at the opening of the drain pipe so I had room to work with my hands to get the cap off.

SLOWLY unscrew the drain cap. At some point the threads will have backed off enough that a trickle of water will come out. This trickle quickly increases, so go SLOW, with the vac running the whole time. Continue unscrewing the cap until it's the maximum your vac can handle. It will likely still take a couple minutes or more to empty all the water out.

Once the water's no longer running out of the cap's threads, continue to unscrew it; I've always found there's a little bit more in there and I don't turn the vac off until the cap is totally removed. At this point (if not earlier), I like to have on a pair of rubber gloves. We do our own cloth diapers and also weekly laundry for our local food co-op, so there's really no knowing what sort of putrid funk is hanging out in the machine's trap. Then I put my hand in there and feel around for anything that could plug the impeller. It's always been pretty obvious if there's something in there. Then put the drain cap back on, tighten it firmly, and run the machine without laundry just enough to first get some water in and then switch to drain to make sure the issue's fixed.

Put the panel back on and voila.