For those of you who have never had to fiddle with the drain on a washing machine, there is a little bit at the bottom that you can open up. If you then twiddle it, it will start letting water out of the machine, trickling like a tap. It will go all over the floor unless you catch it.
Now the thing is, the water comes out from about an inch above the floor. So if you don't want to piss an entire wash cycle of water over your kitchen, you need to get a baking tray under it.