How to prevent the washing machine’s drain hose from detaching from the pipe

drainagewasherwashing-machine

We just moved into a new rental house, and have had some immediate problems with the washer.

Yesterday, during the 2nd load we'd run, the drain hose detached from the standpipe and unloaded the whole load's worth of water onto the floor. Here is a picture of what it was hooked into (not very pretty):
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That's a bunch of duct tape attached to a PVC pipe.

I'm wondering how should I proceed in diagnosing and fixing what the problem is here.

Aren't you supposed to leave an air gap in this connection? It seems like the previous fixer tried to make it air-tight. Could that be the problem?

Or could it be blockage in the drain pipe that could cause some buildup of pressure? Or maybe the hose just…fell out? (Seems unlikely with all the duct tape)

Any ideas on how to diagnose what's happening and proceed would be greatly appreciated! It would be awesome to get back to washing our clothes.

Thanks!

Best Answer

It's possible that it just fell out. Repeated heat/cool cycles plus the force of the water exiting the hose could have broken the bond to the duct tape.

The duct tape could be serving two purposes.

  1. To hold the hose into the drain pipe. Judging by the amount of tape this may not be the first time it has happened.
  2. If there is no trap in the drain line, the duct tape could be a DIY attempt to block sewer gas from escaping.
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