I'm with weissman. I'll bet you're safe except for minor connection seeps that you can probably handle with towel-absorbers for the short run. However, that's still bad. Contractor or another experienced tech should make these things right before they're left alone. There should be NO leaks after any of these installations. ANY leak is bad.

I've done two loads of laundry in the new Cabrio HE top-loader. I don't think I have anything negative to say about how the clothes cleaned. I did use more detergent than this forum says one should. Using Tide HE, I filled to the "1" mark. It was late, I was tired and well, it kinda looked like a 1 tbls measure (g) It's not. It's at least 2x that if not more. The first load felt a little "thick" after drying. Towels weren't "crunchy" tho. I may not have even noticed it if I wasn't looking for a difference. The work clothes load (jeans and dark tees) felt ok. I'm going to reduce it to 1 tbls and hope that the over powering scent is less as well. Didn't add Oxy or vinegar to either load. Couldn't remember which dispenser the vinegar went in and had already loaded the clothes when I read that the oxy powder would have to go in the bottom of the washer BEFORE the clothes if using liquid soap. The vinegar goes in the fabric softener dispenser, right? 1/2 cup? I don't use liquid fs or the sheets. I don't care for the feeling of "limp" clothes and I know it creates a build up, not to mention towels aren't as absorbent. All my clothes washing life, I've washed towels, washcloths, underwear, socks together. I did it with this first load too, on the normal cycle, warm/cold, high spin. I saw no twisting issues. Can I/should I not combine these articles for washing in this washer? It would result in having to do more loads if I have to separate the towels. That's more time, water and energy. I washed the work clothes in hot/cold, heavy duty, high spin. I normally do NOT wash work clothes on heavy duty, just longer on the normal cycle and they come clean. What I do NOT like...I do NOT Like the locking lid! WHY in the world does a top loader HAVE to lock?? I know, I can pause it and look inside but I *need* to see it in action (lol) Really, I do! I remember seeing a YouTube video about how to disable the auto-lock feature on this machine....hummmmmmmm Can you REALLY see thru the clear lid? Seems like water and steam would prevent being able to clearly see the action. I have both water taps wide open. With the first load, I never felt warm water (I checked SEVERAL times). It was mildly cool. With the heavy duty load, the hot water didn't kick in till the "wash" cycle. The soak cycle was, again, mildly cool (what our cold water is here in Texas this time of year). The washer it's self is level (checked with a level) and doesn't move AT all when manually rocked back and forth, but, during the high speed spins, it vibrates pretty bad. It's not walking but it definitely jitters around and makes me worry about the integrity of the machine after so much of that kind of vibration. Yes, the clothes were distributed evenly. lulundave, can you "add" water to a cycle if you feel it needs more or just reset it to high, med, or low levels? You said it (Cabrio with agitator) has "just a few more bells and whistles". What does it have that the HE doesn't? Also, it doesn't appear to be an Energy Star machine :( Are HEs the only Energy Star rated washing machines? Thanks for ALL the comments and help. I truly appreciate the time everyone took to reply :) Monica

Thank you all. I couldn't stand the suspense, so kept looking online and tried something suggested on another forum, where I was not a member: changing the .do extension to .pdf. I did try a virus scan first, which declared the file safe. The mysterious document turned out to be a list of fruit trees I had asked for at a nursery site. Why on earth they would send something with no hint of what it was or where it came from is beyond me.

There's a degree of truth in what your husband says about turning it over and freezing the bugs, but he's got it a little convoluted. In turning things over, you're burying the plant debris. It's the plant debris the bugs, insect and pathogens, winter on and in/around, and turning it under creates an environment that the bugs don't find hospitable. He's got the idea, just missed on how it's effective. I'll let you decide how to tell him. When I was going through high school, locally no-till farming (on a large scale) was becoming popular. There was a period of time when we could buy large moldboard plows for less than the price of scrap iron...sometimes, you'd buy them just for the hydraulics and scrap the rest. Long way of saying, twenty years later, people started parking the no-till equipment and pulling the moldboards back out...especially those who in our area grew beans and beets. The reason? disease management, mostly. Nothing's so new it wasn't old some time ago, and ideas go in and out of favor. I grew up on a farm that used alfalfa as part of the rotation. When it was time to put the next crop in, we just plowed it. Granted, grasses are different than alfalfa, but all you're looking for is enough of a head start to get to the end of the year without feeling like you'd be better off slinking off into the corner. Between some plowing when you feel it's needed, and some extra thick mulching, you should be able to get things to where you feel you can manage them. How do you that? everyone has a different answer, and everyone agrees that their answer is the best, who cares what others say.