The washing machine arrived this morning earlier than expected, which was good. It took them less than 5 minutes to deliver the new one and take away the old one. It was wrapped in bubble wrap, which kept the kids occupied for hours popping the bubbles.
I had disconnected the old machine last night and capped off the un-needed hot water feed. There was an in-line valve, but I decided not to rely solely on it long term. I didn’t want it to start dripping sometime in the future as I had already experianced that with the cold feed last year. Several weeks after laying the laminate floor in the kitchen last year, I found that the cold feed to the washing machine was dripping. I found this out when the water was squelching up between the boards in front of the old washing machine. This meant that about 3/4 of the floor had to be lifted and many of the boards replaced, not what I was expecting when I got a call at work.
The new machine is all fitted and working, its going to be a bit of a learning curve as the controls are different from the old one. It is extremely quiet compared to the old one, but then after 12 years it should be. It is also much more efficient than the old one and indeed many of the modern ones. This is good with the rising costs of electricity. It is a faster spin (1400rpm) than the old one which means that the clothes are drier when they come oout, reducing the drying time if we have to use the tumble dryer.