Master of the washer!

I am master of the washer! Earlier yesterday, called me at work to tell me that the washer was leaking. After picking up a book from my mom, and running the spin cycle to clear the tub of water, I found out how to open the washer's top, and did some testing to see when it leaked - when the water was 4 rows of holes high. And lo and behold, at around that height is this thing on the side of the tub which leads up to the console - it's the "water level sensor", or really an air pressure sensor. That's because when the water gets to that level, it blocks the air in the tube, and the sensor can track the air pressure in the tube, and therefore how high the water in the tub is. And that tube had popped off, so a) the washer would leak from there, and b) the washer thought the tub wasn't at minimum water level yet, so it would keep filling forever. Reattached tube, and problem was fixed. That's when we discovered the absolute GUNK that this thing has accumulated over the last 10 years. Took me an hour to clean it out. So now it's up and running again. We're going to save up for a new washer/dryer combo, hoping that these last at least another 6 months, if not a year.