What do you use to catch water from the washing machine filter?

[comeondover]

What do you use to empty your washing machine filter? My machine is on the blink and I've painstakingly emptied the drum of water and then the drain hose thing. But the filter is so low down, I can't think of what I could put underneath it to catch the water. It needs to be very shallow, fairly rigid so it can be picked up when full, and wide enough to catch a decent amount. I thought I was being clever when I thought of cutting down an old takeaway box, but the plastic split down to the bottom when I tried, making it useless. I wish designers would factor this in.

I use a large shallow tray. I close it off part way through, empty the tray, then go for part 2. I assume it has to be low down to work with gravity.

I had to do this many times with my old machine and I've found a solution although it is harder physically to do especially when the machine is full.
Pull the machine out, how far depends on wires, space and pipes, mine was an under counter so had to be quite far.
Tip the machine back so it's leaning on the wall/countertop.
Put a large jug/bowl/bucket under the filter-exactly where takes practice!
Open filter and let it flow out.
Once stops flowing you can tip it further forward and use a smaller bucket until it's empty.
No more towels or sodden floors!

DH lets the water out so can control the flow and I alternately pass him 2 metal trays with sides so it doesn't get too full

I lay a big plastic bottle flat on the floor and put the end of the flexible hose inside bending it downwards as far as possible. You need to empty the bottle quite frequently or the water will flow out but if you tilt the bottle upwards before removing the hose, you will only get a few drops. When it seems that there is no more water coming out, I tilt the top of the bottle downwards so that it is touching the floor (the hose still inside) to catch the last drops. There is still some water left when I open the filter but it is only a small amount so I place the towel underneath to catch it.

Baking tray for spills but most of the water I can get with our garage vacuum.
Game changer.👍

I bought a huge fluffy microfibre towel/mat thingy. It slides under the machine enough and holds loads of water.

It was only a couple of quid from morrisons. I think it is meant to be for car washing or something.

I have to say, I'm glad that everyone else has this problem. I thought it was just me, doing it wrong. Surely these manufacturers should be including some sort of tray that slides out or a hose attachment, or something!
And I use an old towel but I'm sure that water is running everywhere under the machine, ruining the house.

A disposable baking tray. You can crush the rim a little and slide it under the machine.

Baking tray and pull ups that have been kicking about for 20 years just in case a random small child visits 😆

First use an empty 2 litre milk carton to empty as much as possible with the little hose, then use a towel on a tray whilst I empty the twisty thing.

Then mop the floor

Holy moly I’ve just tried this and it worked! Thank you

How does this work??

The filter on ours is very low. I use a large, square ziplock freezer bag slid over the filter door flap with a tea towel underneath to catch any drips.

I have that pan. It wouldn't fit under the filter housing on my machine.

I use a shallow baking tray (I think it's technically a Swiss roll tray) and have the filter in my hand ready to stop the flow while it's still possible to lift it off the floor without spilling it everywhere. It takes a few goes. Obviously there are towels or something down too.

Flat baking tray , under that I put a washable bed mat (used for freezer defrosting too) as it holds a fair bit of fluid and waterproof backing . Wash/Dry/Re-use .

how often are you supposed to clean your filter?

The slide in tray that comes with the oven, and a towel on top of it for soakage.

All this. I had a washing machine once that had a little hose that come out a bit higher up so I could at least put a bowl under it!

Mine doesn’t even have a pissing hose and there’s absolute sod all you can place under it, it’s so low. I used a doggy pad once, it helped, but normally it’s about 3 towels and it’s still flipping everywhere

I have an old large (not fancy) litter tray which fits perfectly. I've also used a large paint tray. Put an old towel underneath in case of unexpected spills.

I have a very shallow baking tray, the whole machine is also slightly lifted up as we have it on a rubber mat to reduce vibration, which helps with drain access. Though you might not be able to fit this if you have it under a kitchen counter.

If it's going to be a lot then I stick a big towel under there. If you have the mini pipe thing, then what you can do is tilt it down to empty a bit, then when your tray/towel is getting too full, flip the pipe up and stopper it, empty the thing, go back to the pipe. This is annoying and takes forever, but will spill less.

It is tricky to carry a full baking tray very far, so I usually have a wide mixing bowl or saucepan next to me to tip the tray into. Then it only splashes a bit and it's easier to empty the bowl or pan into the sink.
Generally you should not be having huge amounts of water to empty from here, but it is a massive pain when you do - if it's happening frequently, it might be worth calling in an engineer or looking at pricing up a new machine.

In some European countries it is normal to have the washing machine installed in a bathroom which is like a wetroom with a floor drain, or a cellar again with floor drain. I am sure this is what manufacturers are picturing when they design these things, though I also do understand it has to be low down simply due to gravity.

What I did find is that my current machine's filter behaves differently to the previous one. My old machine used to get items like baby socks and forgotten pantyliners stuck at the bottom of the door, which was one of the drain holes. But this hole was too small for things that size to go through to the filter. My current machine must have a bigger pipe to the filter, because colour catchers and pantyliners can get sucked into it and then because they are bigger, they completely clog it up so that the machine will stop running in the middle of a cycle, because it can't drain at all. Then I have to do this laborious 100x emptying thing, and when it happened even the pipe was only dripping. So I have learnt that I need to check that filter at least every couple of months in order for this not to happen. When the machine is empty, the amount of water which comes out of the little pipe is much less and is able to be caught just in the baking tray, and this is 99% of the time all that I need to do. (I think I haven't checked it in a while, this has prompted me to look!)

I have to use an oven tray for mine, or flood the utility room and mop it up with towels and dog blankets.

Just a bath towel.

I use a couple of towels and then think of it as giving the floor a good wash if that's not enough.