How to Stop a “Walking” Washer

A walking washer is a common issue in which your washer vibrates with so much motion that it starts to move. It literally starts walking out of position and can get as far as the plug and hoses let it. Obviously, if it starts unplugging itself and yanking the drain hose out of proper position, this is an issue. Of course, that vibration is also incredibly hard on the rest of the washer as well. So what can be done to stop your washer from walking?

If your washer starts walking intermittently, typically the cause is an imbalanced load. This can happen when you wash clothing with different weights, like washing a load of multiple jeans with t-shirts. Jeans get vastly more heavy when wet. This can be solved by removing items or manually redistributing them.

If a walking washer is more common than just the occasional incident, then it is likely that you have uneven feet on the appliance. Washers come with adjustable feet, and sometimes those feet can fall out of adjustment or just break. You can test this rather easily sometimes. If your washer wobbles when you put pressure on it, then the feet are uneven. However, you will want to take a level to the washer to check. Even just a small difference in level can cause your washer to vibrate suddenly.

It should also be noted that the cause of your unlevel washer could be the floor it sits on rather than the feet. However, the good news is that this is the exact reason every washer comes with adjustable feet. You can’t easily fix a floor, but you can easily adjust the feet of a washer so that you have a level appliance. With the help of a level, you can get an even surface without a lot of guesswork.