Whirlpool top-loader not draining — the basket hub had corroded through — Hillsdale, NJ

The call

The call was a simple one: a top-loader that would not drain. On most machines that means something is caught in the drain path — a sock, a coin, a hairpin — and the visit is short.

What we found

This was not that. The water was getting nowhere because the drain line had metal in it: hard, flat, rusted fragments that no pocket ever held.

They had come from inside the machine. The hub that holds the inner basket onto the drive shaft had corroded from the inside out. Around it the tub bottom was blistered and lifting, and the metal had gone from solid to layers of rust that come away in sheets. Pieces had broken off, travelled with the water into the drain path, and gone through the pump on the way.

Corrosion like this takes years. Water, detergent and damp sit around the hub on a top-loader and work at it slowly, and by the time it shows itself it is rarely the only thing that has gone.

What we advised

We did not repair it, and we told the owner why. Putting the machine right meant the hub, the pump, and the labour to reach both — on a cabinet where the corrosion was nowhere near finished. The arithmetic came out too close to the price of a new washer to recommend spending it.

That is an uncomfortable thing to say at the end of a diagnostic, and it is still the right answer. The alternative is to take the money, fit the parts, and wait for the call that comes when the next rusted piece breaks loose.

What this one is worth to anyone reading it: a washer that will not drain is usually a small job, and it is worth having someone look. But if what comes out of the drain line is metal, the question stops being which part to replace and becomes whether the machine is still worth keeping.