How do I make sure that a new washing machine doesn't overflow?

Question

My house suffers from a chronic lack of planning on the part of the designer. For example: the piping to my washing machine is both too small, and angled so that the water has to run uphill. This means that unless we interrupted the machine every 50 seconds or so, the pipes would overflow and spill water all over our carpet. Not fun.

So, our washing machine now looks like it is dead (of unrelated causes), and I was wondering how I might find a replacement which simply empties a little slower. They don't normally advertise "rate which the water is pumped out." Is there some number that is commonly used to determine how powerful the pump is? Or should I look into alternate means of stopping this overflow problem?

Answer 1

The only real answer is to fix the root plumbing issue. You are basically begging for problems by not fixing it. This can do serious damage to your house over time. There might even be health issues if the traps are not holding water (water flowing out of them due to incorrect slope) and sewer gasses are escaping into your house, not to mention the likelihood of mold too.

As a temporary measure, I would recommend putting in place a laundry tub and have the washing machine empty into the tub. This way, the tub acts as a buffer and holds the water while it drains. New HE machines don't use that much water compared to top loaders so this might help too.

But seriously, get this fixed.