We were eating dinner when we suddenly noticed that there was 1/4" of water all over the kitchen floor. We jumped up and quickly realized it was coming from the washing machine, which had overflowed the tub. The good news is that the marble threshold I had installed across the doorway to the laundry room when we renovated our kitchen a couple of years ago dammed up a bunch of the water inside the laundry room. The bad news is that the floor drain I have been intending to install in said laundry room to work in conjunction with the threshold was still on my to-do list at the time of this flood...meaning that the water eventually made its way into the kitchen. I'm willing to bet the toe kick on several of our still almost brand new kitchen cabinets is going to swell and bubble. Awesome.

A couple of hours of frantic wet-vacuuming later and I had time to troubleshoot the washing machine. At first I thought the drain pump must have failed, like it did years ago when a toddler sock got sucked into the impeller. But upon manually starting the drain/spin cycle, I realized there was excellent flow from the drain hose. So then I knew it must be related to the water shut-off controls. I did a web search for the troubleshooting procedure and discovered that it basically involves unplugging the washer while it's filling - if it continues filling when unplugged, the problem is related to the solenoid valves. If it stops filling when unplugged, then you know the solenoid is working properly and the issue must be related to the water level cutoff switch. When tested, my washer stopped filling when power was disconnected, so I knew the switch was my problem. My web search told me the switch was located behind the control board, which thankfully is easily moved out of the way by removing two plastic trim pieces and two Phillips screws. To my delight, doing so revealed that the plastic tubing running to the diaphragm inside the cutoff switch had become completely disconnected from the switch, likely because there was no hose clamp. I'm guessing the vibration from the spin cycle had caused the hose to work loose over time. So, I reconnected the hose, found a cable tie, and installed it around the end of hose. Then I tried a new test cycle, and voila! The water shut off at the appropriate time.

Thank you to the Whirlpool bean counter who saved the company a couple thousand dollars by eliminating the hose clamp on the shut-off switch tubing. Well done.