Fixing the washer

I have a love-hate relationship with aquaphor.

I love that it makes Wyatt all hydration-y

I hate that it coats all of his clothes

It really does work wonders for Wyatts skin

But it's impossible to get out of clothes

Wyatt is a much happier boy with a fresh coat of aquaphor

It's destroying my washing machine.

Because of the obvious benefits aquaphor provides I know it will be a part of my life until the day Wyatt moves out of the house... but even then it won't really go away because I'm sure he'll want to visit his favorite mother all the time.

So to get to the point... aquaphor is destroying my washing machine.

When I turn it on it's all rattley, and then when it gets the the spin cycle... psshhh, it sounds like a freaking freight train is going through my house.  I'm surprised the thing hasn't rattled itself to pieces yet!  So I went to my trusty advisor, GOOGLE, for help.  I checked out a bunch of different help blogs and a few you tube videos and decided that the bearings were bad.  With Jareds help we pulled up the user manual for our washer to get the item number and couldn't find it anywhere, figures.  So we called sears for help and wouldn't you know it, they don't sell the bearings separately.  You have to buy the whole friggen outer tub.  What?!  No thank you, I DON'T want to spend $350!  eBay it is.  Oh eBay, you have yet to let me down!  We were able to find and purchase the part for less than $100, so we also purchased a new water valve and boot {water valve was dripping and the boot was all saggy and gross from all the aquaphor} All the parts we needed were around $150.  Not too shabby!  Definitely worth attempting to fix it on our own!

Yesterday was the day Jared decided to tackle the project.

 New part vs. old part... covered in aquaphor lol

 new bearing vs. old bearing

 Jared tried scrubbing the aquaphor off of the drum with a brush and degreaser to no avail.  He had to take a pressure washer to it!

 Even the pressure washer couldn't get it all

 Installing the new bearing

 Putting it all back together

 This is how all the professionals put their stuff back together right? :)

 All back in place after only 5 hours!

I'm so happy to have my washer back!  And guess what?  No freight train anymore!  I'm thrilled that with my diagnosis and Jared's handiness we were able to fix and clean the washing machine all by ourselves {ahem, and the internet!}

To have a tech come out and do this same project we would have had to put out around $1300 between parts and labor {based on the pricing I did} So we saved around $1150 by doing it all on our own!

I'm definitely feeling pretty proud of Jared right now!  Even my dad said he was impressed :)