They all have pump protectors/filters but some brands/models don't provide access to it without some disassembly.

As dadoes said, to protect the pump from damage they all have a filter somewhere where all kinds of stuff accumulates (loose change, drillbits, screws, hairpins etc) That Amana garbage we inherited with this house does not have an access door for the filter, I had to remove the lower front panel with a few screws that are near inaccessible unless the machine is lifted or tilted & the filter is sitting right at the bottom so you don't have space to put any kind of container underneath & all the juice is running under the machine as you remove the filter.
Pretty much all high quality machines have a little access door on the lower front through which the filter is accessible without tools & some have it not all the way at the bottom & some drain cock or hose so you can drain into a glass or so before you pull the filter.
The filters do not usually need to be replaced, it's typically simple plastic screens that are easily cleaned & reused.

Greetz, Ben

Doing laundry 1/week, in a house with two people and a shedding dog, you might need to clean itâ¦after every wash? Every other wash? Or, what?

Rarely needs cleaning unless the machine is abused by not checking pockets, tossing in stray object and debris, and other bad laundry habits.

Happens that I replaced the pump on a friend's 10-ish years old Kenmore HE3 unit several months ago. She has a literal zoo of critters ... 13 dogs at last count, numerous cats, birds, etc. Upon checking the pump filter (which they had never cleaned), I found it amazingly clean. No mold (she uses chlorine bleach regularly). NO dog hair. A candy wrapper, couple twist-ties, two coins, couple other small objects.

On the other hand, I refurbed a 6-years-old Whirlpool Duet (bought via Craigslist) for use at a friend's rental property. The Duet had been badly abused. Below is what I found in the pump filter on it. Obviously these people didn't use bleach and tossed an alarming bunch of trash into the washer with their clothes.

The lesson is: check your pockets, be conscious of not putting trash into the washer, and use chlorine bleach at least every couple weeks on a whites load. There should be no need to clean the pump filter if the machine is used with reasonable care.

Dadoes, as I'm sure you know, the more forums and posts you read, the less you want to buy ANY brand of washer! What stayed in my mind this time was someone who said you should never buy a Samsung if you own pets because hers had flooded from a clogged filter. But I do take stories like that with a few grains of salt. Maybe they were just being careless, as you described.

FWIW....I'm not as experienced as Dadoes but from my more limited experience solving friends'/neighbors' problems over the years it's very clear to me that MANY people haven't a clue about maintenance of ANY kind with ANY of their machines. Most never even read the manuals. They just use the machines as they think they should without bothering to learn how they actually should.....and then call me when they don't "work right".

From reading various posts here, it's clear to me that MANY (no, not most or all!) problems reported have to do with operator ignorance, misunderstanding, or indifference. That's certainly been the case with my own friends/neighbors. Their machines were fine. They just didn't understand them.

For myself, just a few months ago I ended eight years trouble-free experience with the nearly-infamous Duet 9400 front loader. It's now doing yeoman's duty at a relative's house with no issues. Exact same machine that has been roundly castigated here and other forums. Was I just lucky?

Wish there was some way to separate "operator error" from bad machines. Alas.

Gwarstong, my favorite part of any new equipment purchase is studying the owner's manual. The thicker, the better. But I'm not normal.

Any thoughts on the often-mentioned vulnerability of spiders in front loaders? Our HE3T is dying from that at age 12, and the repair guy (an independent) says it's not worth fixing. Not much you can do to give your machine's spider a longer life-span, is there?

A service tech I know says that using chlorine bleach on a regular basis help keeps the spider in good condition by avoiding mold and grunge accumulation on it.

I've seen the picture posted above on another appliance board and someone described it as looking like a decomposed bird.

I LOL'd.