I learned an important lesson last night. Always check every hose, even if it’s one that you know you didn’t loosen. You see, I ran a load of laundry in the new machine last night and everything seemed to be fine and dandy, until I headed into the kitchen to clean up for the night. When I noticed that there seemed to be some water leaking from the cabinet onto the floor. I opened it up to discover an inch of water. I started bailing the water out, grabbing towels while also trying to determine where the water was coming from. As I mopped, I ruled out the water pipes themselves, which meant that it was coming from the drainage tube. When I reached out and grabbed that hose, it was loose.

As in, not tight around the pipe at all, allowing water from the washer to pour straight into the cabinet.

I ran for a flat-head screwdriver and had the leak stopped within moments. I sat there, watching until I was convinced that it was truly no longer leaking, did the clean up and went to bed.

However, this morning, I woke up to strange voices in my living room. Scott was in the shower and so I cracked the bedroom door and called out, “Hello?”

It was two maintenance guys from the building. Apparently the water from the initial leak had seeped into my neighbor’s hallway, she had called the front desk and they had come to check it out. They called twice, but I didn’t hear the phone ring, so they came on in (understandable when it comes to water leaks). Thankfully, after hastily getting dressed, I was able to explain what had happened, so they were prevented from ripping a hole in the back of my closet to look for the source of the problem. We ran the wash cycle again and it didn’t leak a drop.

So now I’ve learned that you should always check all the hoses, even if they aren’t ones that you touched during removal or installation. The guys who took the old machines away on Sunday must have loosened it in their haste to get to the washer disconnected and since it wasn’t one I had touched, I didn’t even think about needing to tighten it. Next time I have reason to install a washing machine (or any appliance that involves water) I will double check EVERYTHING!

They cleaned up the water in my neighbor’s apartment, and Harvey the maintenance guy said that the leak wasn’t a bad one. I still need to check with her tonight and find out if there’s any permanent damage, but as accidents go, it wasn’t a bad one.