Help me with this household engineering problem.

February 20, 2008 1:12 PM

I have a silly problem. I have lost quite a few things in my apartment, and need help getting them back.

I have a washing machine/dryer unit which has the dryer on top of the washing machine. Sort of like this .
It is 70" in height, two feet across, 20" front to back, and one and stands a half feet from the back wall. The top is about fifteen inches away from the ceiling. It is wedged very tightly between another wall and a shower stall.

I store laundry paraphernalia on top of the machine. When the machine has a heavy load in it it tends to vibrate, and sometimes I forget to take things from the top before turning it on in such cases. As a result, several things have vibrated right off the back into the space between the machine and the wall, such as three half full bottles of laundry detergent, a valuable mop head, and ... well, other stuff. I would like to retrieve these items. I can climb up on my stomach and peer down into the well at them, but they are too heavy and oddly shaped to be fetched up with things like cord and clothes hangers (or valuable mop heads). I have tried, by myself and with another person, to move the machine away from the wall, but it is very heavy and very tightly wedged indeed. Does anyone have any ideas of how I can retrieve my things, either by somehow fishing them up or by figuring out a way to safely move the machine? I have at my disposal one other person and the usual range of household items one would expect to find in a city apartment. Thanks.

posted by frobozz to home & garden (20 comments total)

Do you have barbecue tongs, or maybe just long kitchen tongs? That might work.
posted by cerebus19 at 1:16 PM on February 20

Something like this Long Arm Grabber might do it.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 1:19 PM on February 20

Golden retriever.

or treble fishhooks on the end of stouter cord than you've used in the past. This will at least get your valuable mop head back.
posted by jamaro at 1:19 PM on February 20

Have you got an umbrella with a hooked handle? Don't know how flexible it needs to be.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 1:20 PM on February 20

Giant Needle

1 reel baling wire
1 reel clothesline
1 pair wire cutters


Cut the wire into a long and curved enough piece to pass through the handle of the detergent bottle. Make an eye in one end of the needle by bending it into a small loop. Thread clothesline through the loop and knot one end. Thread the needle through the detergent handle, and lift the bottles out with the clothesline. Depending on what kind of mop head it is, you might be able to thread though its tendrils.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:20 PM on February 20

I think this is what I would do:

I would use the claw end of a hammer to do the grabbing, at least for the detergent bottles (though the handle). If I needed something longer, I would duct tape it very securely to something like a mop handle or yard stick. Enough duct tape, and that hammer isn't going anywhere. Also, you could use the hammer-pole to push the items around as needed.

If you need something bit more versatile, you could fashion metal hangers into some sort of a large hook by bending a number of them together, and then also taping the hook to the mop handle/yard stick.
posted by SpacemanStix at 1:24 PM on February 20

You could call MacGyver, or you could just slide the unit straight out...they are designed to be moved for service.
posted by Gungho at 1:24 PM on February 20

Tried a vacuum?
posted by sageleaf at 1:26 PM on February 20

If you can tilt it back and get about 1" clearance underneath, try putting some furniture-moving sliders underneath the front feet. That should help with the friction aspect of moving it.

Seconding a long grabber arm, though. That's probably your best bet.
posted by jdfan at 1:29 PM on February 20

The problem with things like umbrellas and tongs is that they're no where near long enough ... I can peer down at the items but they're still six feet away from me at the bottom of the shaft, sitting amid piles of insulation and all the things washing machines and dryers have to have attached to the wall. The Giant Needle will go on the list of things to try though.

(Also, anything like long poles won't do because of the limited amount of space between the ceiling, machine, and back wall...they can't angle in. The mop was because it was a model that has sections that can unscrew and be rescrewed when it was behind the machine).

On preview:
you could just slide the unit straight out...
See, that's what you would think...

I had not tried a vacuum. The suction probably won't be enough, but it also will go on the list of things to think about.

Thanks for the answers, keep 'em coming...I need all the ideas I can get, apparently.
posted by frobozz at 1:31 PM on February 20

Fashion a "net" out of a wire hanger and a plastic bag. Or, if you happen to have one around, use a fishing net. Duct tape the net to the end of a broom handle. You could also make a strong hook out of another hanger and tape it to the other end.

Use the hook end to retrieve the stuff with handles or that can otherwise be hooked. Use the net end for everything else.
posted by bondcliff at 1:34 PM on February 20

Use Jdfan's idea of furniture sliders, then put a heavy, unbalanced load in and set it to spin. Use the vibration to walk the machine foward on the sliders.
posted by eaglehound at 1:44 PM on February 20

If it is on a smooth floor (not carpet) and you can tilt the machine back enough to place a towel under the front legs you might be able to use the towel to drag it away from the wall by having one person tilt it a little forward, while the other person pulls the towel towards them. It must come away from the wall somehow.
posted by SMELLSLIKEFUN at 1:46 PM on February 20

If the laundry detergent bottles have handles that are accessible and visible from your vantage point, you could try to loop a rope through and pull them up. Get a really long piece of rope, maybe fifteen or twenty feet, and tie a loop at the end. Then, with a few coat hangers, make a seven or eight foot long wire with a hook at the bottom. Lower the rope, loop side down, until it threads the detergent bottle, then lower the hook so that it it catches the loop. Pull the loop up towards you, so that the rest of the rope is pulled down through the bottle and back up, until you have both ends in your grasp, and you've got soap on a rope!
posted by farishta at 1:47 PM on February 20

To move the washer/dryer:

Tip the washer backwards enough to slide an upside down bathmat under the front legs. The nylon carpet type works best. Set the washer down. Open the lid on the washer and grasp the edge of the opening and pull towards you. You might need to give it a couple good tugs to break the rear legs away from the floor. Once the washer/dryer has moved forward an inch or two they generally pull out pretty easy. You can rock the unit quite a bit as it is bottom heavy. Even if you can only move it side to side a couple millimetres it'll eventually walk out.

I've only had a couple units that didn't yield to this technique. However when that happened I would use an appliance cart under the front legs. Tip the unit towards you on the cart and roll it out. This technique is usually pretty tricky because of a lack of clearance in front of the unit. You can use just about any two wheel hand truck, just be careful not to scratch or dent the front.

Now the caveats:
If the unit has been there any length of time you'll probably need to replace the flex pipe if it is of the plastic style. Use the expandable metal flex for this purpose, it is much safer.
While you've got it out, replace the hoses with steel braided style. The last thing you want to have happen is a burst hose behind a washer you can't slide out. Sometimes the hose will break off just from the movement so you might want to know where your main shut off is. Usually it's the hot hose that goes in which case you can get away with just shutting off the supply to your hot water tank.
posted by Mitheral at 2:41 PM on February 20

An appliance guy once told me that the trick to moving, if you have smooth floors, is to spray windex on the floor and then the appliance will slide much more easily. I would try that and pull the unit via the open washing machine.
posted by nightwood at 2:46 PM on February 20

What about a telescopic pool cleaning pole and leaf skimmer/net?

We used to have the very same washer/dryer stack setup (except we had about 6" on either side of the machine for some leverage) and I would use one of those lightbulb changer poles with limited success. Ultimately, I'd just do a big gob of duct tape on the end of a Swiffer. After a lot of patience, I could usually retrieve the item in question.

Oh, and definitely replace the dryer lint line if/when you pull that baby out from the wall. It's a fire waiting to happen (I was HORRIFIED when I saw how disgustingly nasty the innards of that thing was after opening it up).
posted by dancinglamb at 5:12 PM on February 20

Out here in the bush, we use fencing wire for jobs like that.
posted by flabdablet at 8:06 PM on February 20

Sliders under the front feet. Then use straps (webbing straps, several belts hooked together, dog leash, whatever) around the back of it to move the machine straight out. Mitheral's right about making sure you have the braided metal supply hoses. Some lubricant on the floor - windex sounds interesting; baby powder works, too, will help a bit.

Dancinglamb is quite right about dryer lint - definite fire hazard.

Or, have a party, supply MacGyver tools, and a prize (leatherman knock-off, of course) for the person who successfully recovers your stuff.
posted by theora55 at 9:22 AM on February 21

What about a few bungee cords, perhaps taped together so they don't fall apart. They will be flexible enough to pass by the ceiling clearance, long enough (if you put enough of them together), and the bottom one will have a hook.
posted by duckierose at 11:29 AM on February 21