Newer machines have a drain flow rate which overwhelms older drains, and there's no adjustment. The only answer I ever hear is tear up your floor and put in new bigger drain pipe. That is not an option in some cases.
Getting an older machine isn't feasible because it's starting to be hard if not impossible to find parts. Is there any way of cutting the pressure down so it doesn't back up and flood the floor in older homes?
Best Answer
As mentioned in other posts, in the old days, we had laundry sinks/tubs that the washer drained into. The tub would fill up and then slowly drain. The tub acted as a "buffer" to temporarily hold water until the drain would catch up. My solution was to replace the 1 1/2" drain pipe with 3" pipe. I used a 3 to 1 1/2" reducing coupler to mate with the existing drain, connected 24" or so of 3" pipe, put another reducing coupler on top for the hose to go into. The top reducing coupler is just so nothing accidentally falls in. A 3" pipe holds 4 times the amount of water that a 1 1/2" pipe holds for the same length (a 4" pipe holds 7x the water!). The 3" pipe mimics the old laundry tubs. Newer HE washers use a lot less water so we don't need big tubs. Here's a picture: