Whilst washing some clothes in our machine today, we noticed an item had lodged itself out of the drum and sitting on the rubber... as the machine started to spin, it disappeared down the gap between rubber and drum... anybody advise how to retrieve it? Is there a cover we can remove easily to get to it? Do I need a special tool to take off the back? I noticed some of the screws/bolts have sunken star heads

Craig Gilman, August 2005

Thanks Gary! It looks as though that solved the problem! I took off the lower plastic back panel which has the drain tube coming through it and could clearly see the black rubber concertina pipe and pump attached to it. I undid the large jubilee clip (using a posidrive screwdriver) on the rubber pipe and inside was a load of mush - several clothes labels, hair etc around a small plastic cradle and ball. I emptied the mush and replaced the cradle redid the jubilee clip and back panel. The whole procedure took about 10 minutes to do and probably saved me £100 for a call out!

Craig Gilman, August 2005

chances are its headed towards the pump. at the botom off the drum is a rubber pipe leading to the pump, remove this and feel around for it.

Gary, August 2005