dadoes: :( didn't realize that. Though in all honesty, that trap was groddy with I think *blush* screws that had been caught in there forever and rusted and fused to the insides. Ew ick. I probably needed to replace it all. It's been through two sets of diapered kids and many, many years since then (they're 13 and 16 now so you do the math) -- it could stand some new innards. I didn't know about that trap until it started throwing error codes and shutting down; it was not fun -- this is chronicled elsewhere in GW somewhere. That caused me to learn about the machine so it was years and years when I didn't clean that trap out. whooo-wee. nasty. Nevertheless, if I had been able to change out just the pump it would (a) have been easier and (b) cheaper, presumably. The whole housing, with tax, came to something like $120 There was an elderly gentleman in service repair uniform ("Oleg") in the store who asked who was doing my repair and what was I doing in there buying such a part. Hmmmm. I said "me". He said "no". I looked at the salesman, who I'd been speaking with on the phone earlier so he knew I was, um, me. I said "me?" He positively ejaculated "No!!! No I don't believe you are doing this. Most men [I swear he said this] wouldn't even know how to do this, but a female"?? He also inserted a snort and hands-on-stomach-doubled-over guffaw. It was impressive. It's not actually particularly difficult to do this.... And I'm sure in his line of work he doesn't, necessarily, see many doing this themselves. There's plenty that's easy to do I don't do, it's just that as has been explained to me many times here, washing machines are pretty simply devices. I fixed the error codes by soldering the mother board and that was harder to do, not because of the soldering, but because of the *plastic*. Getting all those stupid clips to let go without flying away is not easy!! Anyway -- Gwarstong -- thanks, tons, for responding immediately. Had you not, I would not have had the courage to just haul the seemingly-perfect-looking motor over to the store and shell out $100+ with no evidence. I appreciate it. And dadoes - thanks for the information about the part. It's probably just as well I didn't know about it, but I will know now to suggest the salesman search for a replacement when it's tough to find. That was an "asko" and the full assembly that he sold me was too. He probably just didn't even know about the Samsung, but perhaps he would have if he hadn't found the other. I'll know to ask next time. Thanks!

As a spinner and knitter, I feel I should point out that we have some apples and oranges being discussed here. The felting tendencies of these fibres depend on their physical structure, especially the scales on the shaft of the hairs themselves. These scales are what hook together with water, heat, soap and agitation to form the fulled or felted fabric of a ruined sweater. Cashmere has very few and very flat scales and thus tends not to felt as much as a coarser wool. Merino tends to be the least 'felty' of the wools for similar reasons. Allendubner, your Goodwill sweaters may be of a more scaley type of wool than merino, and thus may not be good indicators. I'm getting a new LG washer and dryer this week (if LG gets their inventory act together and finally coughs them up!) but I hadn't intended to clean my handknitted stuff in there. But you've given me the incentive to knit up a few test swatches and try!

Thanks! I added more hot water as suggested :) I am using 1 1/2 cups of bleach to soak it. I will wait another hour or so and then let it complete it's cycle to see if it takes care of the problem. So the bleach isn't super strong in that washer but hopefully strong enough to cut through whatever is in there. I figure the hot water soaking will dissolve any detergent build up in the machine. The true test will be when I let it agitate and finish it's cycle. I will report back after it has ran it's cycle. I will fill the washer again after it is done and see if there are any more soap suds, but I think this probably should take care of it. Thanks!

Currently laughing and calling out LUCY you did it now. The clean cycle is with very hot water and the detergent becomes VERY activated in hot water. Basically you will get more suds with hot water than with cold. Clean up all the water run a little bit of liquid fabri softener in it to knock down any suds that are still there.