Right, so my washing machine is spitting out water and it's done a number on the contents of the shelf under the sink. I'm going to seal its output but I bought a water alarm to be put on the floor in case I fuck it up, or something else leaks; the plumbing isn't great here. It's got two small metal sensor pads on the bottom which do a good job of making a racket when I dip it into water.
I have a question about this thing, though. The microcontroller (?) seems to be open to the air, and in my case water has been spewing out the top of a pipe, so there's a good chance it'll get inside if this happens again. Why is it open, and is there any reason why I wouldn't put a bit of tape over the hole (pointed to by the arrow)?
I can't really say without a much higher-resolution image. There's a fairly good chance that the circuit board has a conformal coating - a very thin layer of waterproof lacquer protecting the entire board. The gap in the case might be there for a reason, or the manufacturer might have just re-used a case from another product.
The case as a whole clearly isn't waterproof. Taping up the gaps might provide some protection from water, or it might trap moisture inside the device and accelerate the rate of corrosion.
Ultimately, I'd suggest getting your washing machine repaired rather than trying to mitigate the effects of the leak.
>>25857 >There's a fairly good chance that the circuit board has a conformal coating - a very thin layer of waterproof lacquer protecting the entire board
Makes sense, I'll take the risk and leave it as-is. I can't see any lacquer, the top of the chip looks matte, whereas I'd expect it to look shiny if there was a lacquer layer on top, but honestly I'm not sure I'd know it if I saw it - attached an image of the chip anyway, but it's not great quality.
>I'd suggest getting your washing machine repaired
Sounds advice, I just can't afford to get a plumber out, or a new washing machine. I don't think it's the washing machine that's at fault - I've watched it flushing at the end of a washing cycle and it's not any faster than a tap, it's just that the back pressure on the pipe makes it spit back up and out (I've run a few packs of descaler through the machine anyway and will be doing so regularly from now on, I guess). The whole place has problems with plumbing, I have to pour drain cleaner down both sinks and the bath every month or water starts backing up, and I'm not flushing coffee grinds etc down there, so I don't think I'm doing anything especially dumb to cause it. I've checked the accessible piping for blocks and there's nothing present. I do have a housemate but he's aware of the issues and has been told the do's and dont's so I doubt he's doing anything much to cause these problems.
Thanks for your advice, anyway - any further input appreciated, obviously I'm not an expert in any of this stuff.
>>25858 Can you share a photo of the plumbing underneath your sink? i.e. showing the drain hose from the machine, and the u-bend and everything it's connecting to? There's probably just a blockage further down in the system but there might be an obvious issue one of us can spot.