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My wife is staying in a condo in Mexico and the diamond from her engagement ring popped out of its setting and dropped in between the drum and the housing of the washing machine. I'll elaborate. The brand name is Easy (apparently popular in Mexico). It's a top load washer but what makes it different to any machine we've personally used before, is that as the machine fills with water the drum actually floats upwards and as it drains the drum floats (settles) back down. Not sure what you call this style of mechanism but regardless there is a good size gap between the drum and the housing at all times even when the machine is off.
While the machine was off and empty with no water in it her ring clipped the drum and the diamond went down that gap. Can anyone please tell me where the diamond may have ended up? Would it have dropped into any residual water at the bottom of the machine somewhere or on the bottom of the housing or somewhere else perhaps? She's frantic, doesn't know any repair people down there and even if she can find somebody they may not be helpful in this situation.
Any understanding of where the stone may have fallen to would be really appreciated. I've tried to search by make and model number on the internet and there is a little bit of information, mostly in Spanish though. but nothing for a situation like this of course.
I also understand there should be a drain plug with a filter and perhaps a small drain hose near the bottom of the housing, but she has checked all sides and there isn't one, but I also don't know if it would have even made its way into the water where it was dropped so it may not even show up in the drain.
Please can anyone offer any help? Thank you for reading this.
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Rank: Member
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Wow that is a dilemma. Info on this machine is scarce but I did find what seems to be a parts diagram. It looks like a GE style. Hopefully you have not run the machine since then. The basket is surrounded by the outer tub, it sounds like it fell between the two. Assuming you have not run it the diamond will still be in there. You might even get lucky and be able to see it through whatever holes are at the bottom of the basket if you use a flashlight. That would be my first step. After that I'd use a wet/dry vacuum to suck the water out of the drain hose in the hope that the stone would suck out with it. 1) You can try to run the machine or fill it with water and see if it'll push the diamond out during drain, or use the wet/dry vac to suck it out in a more controlled manner. If you can put the drain hose into a bucket where it can overflow as it drains you may find that the stone will pump out and be at the bottom of the bucket. A filter made of something like pantyhose over the drain hose end would also catch it probably. I would still use a bucket or other means of ensuring that the diamond didn't go down the house drain. I've seen pumps push dimes and pennies out so the stone may move more easily than you'd expect. 2) Failing that I'd lean the machine back and see if you can locate the pump underneath. It'll have the drain hose on it obviously. The pump will likely come off with a few screws. There will be water in the machine, always a little. If you have access to a hose you can run water through the tub, letting the water run out of where the pump mounts onto a piece of cloth or other material that would catch the diamond; possibly flushing the diamond out. You might lean the machine so the pump hole is the lowest point to help anything in there find the exit. 3) You can try to remove the basket, this is the hardest option for anyone not into appliance repair. If the basket does float up and down I'd expect it'll come out pretty easily. You'd need to figure out how to remove the agitator and whole top of the machine first. Take some pics of the bottom of the unit and the inside, perhaps it'll be a rebadged GE or Whirlpool that is familiar to me. http://www.denek.com/pdf/LAE17500XBB0.pdfBy chance I'll be in Mexico next week, if you happen to be in Baja (Cabo, La Paz, Todos Santos) I might be convinced to help by a good meal or bottle of tequila. :)
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Rank: Member
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Joined: 2/16/2017(UTC)
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PNW Drew thank you for your reply.
The draining didn't work so she called someone with appliance repair experience.
The first thing he did was remove the top from the machine and apparently under that is a shelf type tray running around the sides of the machine and sure enough there was the diamond sitting there.
Well if this can help anyone in the future who happens to lose something in a similar way they may be as lucky as we were without having to take the machine apart and that may be the first place they should look.
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Rank: Member
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Awesome! That's called the tub ring. I didn't even think it may have stayed up there. Good luck indeed.
I've found many lost items over the years and it always is a good feeling. I bet that guy was happy to have saved the day.
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