HG Service Engineer

...and saw a product called HG Service Engineer. It's a box about the size of those 'Cooks Matches' you can buy and on the front is a picture of an engineer and a washing machine. I read the back of the product and it said that every wash cycle dirties crucial parts in your machine, through limescale, soap and dirt which then leads to malfunctions and this product can prevent or resolve such problems. It was only £5.99 so I decided to buy it and see ...
...of boiling water over the HG powder in the soap dispenser, I then left it standing for 10 minutes before switching the machine on - this did the trick and now the machine does not dribble anymore.

I have noticed 4 things since using this product -
* The machine used to take 2hrs to run on Programme 3, it now takes 1hr 20mins.
* The spin cycle has gone from deafeningly loud to lovely and quiet. My kitchen has an arched ... more

My washing machine had a slight problem - it wet itself. It obviously couldn't help it as it wasn't something that'd ever happened before, so, having a boyf who has no DIY or general 'sort it out' skills whatsoever, I knew this was something I'd have to tackle. After much checking, I found that the soap dispenser looked like the culprit, so I prised this out and cleaned it. Still no joy - whenever the machine filled with water, water would spurt out from under the drawer. I then found that the pipe leading from the dispenser to the machine was clogged with a nice slimey black build up of limescale tablets, washing powder and fabric conditioner. Euck.

I tried the traditional remedies of bicarbonate of soda and boiling water but to no avail. I tried those fluffy-covered wire things but that just resulted in me flicking above mentioned gunge over myself which was not a pleasant experience and resulted in a lot of swearing. I went down to my local hardware store determined to find something to dissolve the gunge but every product I looked at wasn't suitable for washing machines, only your regular household pipes. I was determined not to have to pay a plumber as I knew it was only a small job, but once you add on call out , fix it time (usually 10 minutes) then 'faff about time' to make up the hour , I'd be looking at £100 being handed over (apologies to those more honest plumbers out there!). I went back to prodding the gunge…..

A week later, out shopping in Bluewater I saw the shop Lakeland Limited. Out of interest I popped in there and saw a product called HG Service Engineer. It's a box about the size of those 'Cooks Matches' you can buy and on the front is a picture of an engineer and a washing machine. I read the back of the product and it said that every wash cycle dirties crucial parts in your machine, through limescale, soap and dirt which then leads to malfunctions and this product can prevent or resolve such problems. It was only £5.99 so I decided to buy it and see if it worked.

I got home and opened the packet. Inside were two bottles of product which turned out to be a powder. There are two sets of instructions, one for washing machines and the other for dishwashers - as I used it in my washing machine, here's what you do:-

1) Make sure there is nothing in your washing machine & close door firmly.
2) Open soap dispenser, wear gloves and pour product into main soap compartment.
3) Set machine to regular wash programme.
4) Set temperature to 60degrees, switch on and let the whole programme run.
5) In my case, stand by with several cloths!!

The washing machine sprang into life and I must be honest and say that halfway through filling with water it did dribble quite a bit. If this happens, keep gloves on when you mop up as the product is caustic and will burn you! I watched the drum fill with water and it was black!! And to think I'd been washing all my clothes and bedding in that - they would have came out dirtier than when they went in! The machine ran, drained then refilled and this time there were much fewer water dribbles. At the last fill (which would have been the fabric conditioner cycle) the water was crystal clear which meant that the pipes were now free of gunge.

A few days later I filled the machine with laundry and the machine still leaked a bit. I decided to use the second bottle of powder but this time, before the machine was switched on I slowly poured half a kettle of boiling water over the HG powder in the soap dispenser, I then left it standing for 10 minutes before switching the machine on - this did the trick and now the machine does not dribble anymore.

I have noticed 4 things since using this product -

• The machine used to take 2hrs to run on Programme 3, it now takes 1hr 20mins.
• The spin cycle has gone from deafeningly loud to lovely and quiet. My kitchen has an arched doorway to the living room, if you were watching TV, you'd have to go up to volume level 24 to just about hear it, now you can keep it on 10.
• My freshly washed clothes now smell strongly of fabric conditioner.
• I need to use less than half the amount of washing liquid as it bubbles up like crazy.

I must say that when I opened the bottle and poured in the powder I did doubt that it'd work, however, although it took two attempts as my machine is about 5 years old, it didn't let me down. The packaging says to use this every 3 months as a preventative product so I think I'll make sure I always have one of these in my kitchen cupboard on standby.

 

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