(paint spraying)
- [Steph] Welcome to Mother Daughter Projects, I'm Steph.
A week before Christmas, I discovered this strange leak
right by my front door.
Mom and I went inside to investigate
what was on the other side of the wall,
and it was my LG front-loading washing machine,
which made us think there was probably a leak.
Before we did anything to the washer,
I turned off the water and unplugged it from the wall.
So we tried to move the washing machine,
but the dryer was stacked on top,
making it too heavy to move,
so we unstacked the dryer
by removing the LG stacking kit that secures the dryer
to the washer.
(upbeat music)
We moved that out of the way,
and that's when we saw it, the water under the washer.
The washer was still heavy, but we were able to move it,
and this is what we found.
Whenever we have excess water,
we use puppy pads to clean them up.
They work great to absorb all that water,
and they can be thrown away after.
We cleaned up all the water
and vacuumed up the dust that was down below,
and I noticed some of my vinyl tiles had water under them.
Now, these tiles were actually installed over sheet vinyl,
so the water was just kind of sitting there on top.
I ultimately picked up a couple of the tiles
to dry them out, and then put them back into place
once all the water was dry.
Now, this washer I thought was about 10 years old,
so in my mind, I thought I was gonna have to buy a new one.
But Mom suggested we look for the leak
by following the water and try to replace the part.
I took the back panel off first,
and saw some water on the back of the panel
and some water pooled in the bottom of the washer,
but I still couldn't tell where it originated.
That's when Mom said, "Look at these brackets.
They seem to be able to be removed,
and we might be able to move the top that way."
And we found that the top did in fact slide off
once the brackets were removed,
and that's when we found the leak.
This right here is what was leaking,
and you can see it's hard to tell,
but there was some water around the edges.
I saw a part number that I took a picture of,
and of course I Googled it
and found out that this was the cold water inlet valve,
and it was about 28 bucks to replace.
So I ordered the part, but unfortunately,
it being around Christmas time,
it took about two weeks to arrive.
As we waited for the part,
we investigated to see
if there was any further water damage.
I texted our floor guy, Robert,
who actually we featured in this video right here,
and he does a lot with water mitigation.
He suggested we remove the quarter round
to see if there was any evidence of mold.
I used a utility knife to cut through the caulk,
and then used a crowbar to remove the quarter round.
And there was no evidence of mold, yay!
I could have probably put the quarter round back in place,
but I decided to buy a new piece.
We went to Home Depot to buy the quarter round
and painted it, and then I took it to the miter saw
and I used the old piece as a guide
to make the cuts for the new piece.
(saw whirring)
Each end got a 45 degree angle,
and I went inside to place it.
We shot a couple brad nails into place
with our DeWalt brad nailer.
And then I added caulk to the top
and used our silicone caulk tool to smooth out the bead.
I also filled the nail holes with caulk.
(upbeat music)
And here it is, the part we ordered on Amazon.
It looks pretty much just like the old one.
I started by removing the two screws
that attach the valve to the washer.
With those removed, I took off the electrical components
and put them right back into place on the new part.
And then I screwed the new part into the washer.
Next, I moved the metal clamp down
so I could release the tube.
I actually started by pulling the tube,
and that was not budging,
but after reading some of the reviews
for this part on Amazon, I read the suggestion
of twisting the tube off, and that worked perfectly.
There was some excess water in the tube,
so be sure you have something to collect that.
(upbeat music)
Then I put the tube onto the new part
and followed the same process for the other tubes.
Then I moved each of the pipe clamps into place.
The best tool for this would have been needle nose pliers,
but for some reason I've misplaced mine.
(upbeat music)
With that installed, we decided to run a test load.
I put the top back in place, and here you can see
I actually bought a washing machine pan,
which we're putting the washer on right now,
so that if we have any future leaks, they will be contained.
Then we attached the water lines again,
plugged in the washer, and I washed a blanket for our test.
While that was going,
I set up a smart water leak detector.
This is something I've known about for a while,
but was dragging my feet on installing.
The idea is you install these
in places that potentially could leak, like a washer,
hot water heater, toilet, et cetera.
If any water is detected,
the detector makes an audible sound
and you get an alert on your phone.
Here I'm installing one,
and follow the prompts on the Moen phone app.
I also added the extension cable
so I can get this right under my washer.
Once it was set up, I poured some water
over the sensing disc, just to be sure that it worked,
and it did. (alert beeping)
Lastly, my dad came over to help me put the dryer
back onto the washer,
and I secured the stacking kit once again
to make sure the dryer was nice in place.
And then I placed the sensing disc under the washer
and attached to the detector to the wall.
So now if the washer leaks in the future,
I will discover it from my phone
and not from a pool of water near my front door.
And we actually did this five years ago at Mom's house,
where we discovered that her hot water inlet valve
on her LG washer was leaking,
and we replaced that, and five years later,
it's working perfect with no leaks.
Have you ever had a washing machine
or other appliance leak?
What did you do to fix it?
Let us know in the comments below.
Thanks for joining us, and we'll see you next time.