After chatting with Alan & Telsa at the weekend, and with Simon-the-Monkey-Boy yesterday, I spent last night disassembling my 20+ year old washing machine in order to access and unblock the filter.

The machine dates from before an era where ease of use was not terribly important, so to empty the filter normally would require special tools – screwdriver, wrench, and extractor tool for the basket – but I circumvented this by turning it upside down, removing the circlips and extracting the basket, housing and pump for cleaning.

An hour later, I’d removed the accumulated slime and hard-water concrete of two decades, from the filter basket and ingress and egress pipes. It was a messy job, and a bit gross, but the effect has been incredible.

The washing machine no longer floods the kitchen because of being backed-up and unable to drain.

The washing machine now floods the kitchen because the drain pipework cannot keep up with the rate of outflow.

Sigh.