Landlord out of state

So I'm going to start off by saying my landlord is amazing! Any time we have a problem he is more than willing to fix it immediately. When my SO and I first moved in, the dish machine didnt work and our landlord went out the following day and bought and installed a brand new one.

During the winter our landlord and his wife go to Florida for a few months. They just left a couple weeks ago and today, I'm having a problem with our washer. It started off with a bad smell when washing clothes which led into the machine rumbling and banging loudly. My SO seems to think the belt in the machine is no longer good. It is an older machine, probably from the late 90s or early 2000s.

I'm just wondering what the correct course of action from here would be. Should we contact the landlord who is 20 something hours away in Florida and see what he suggests? Or just take our clothes to the laundromat in the meantime until hes back in town in a couple months?

My SO thinks we should contact the landlord and see about buying a cheap standard washer machine and deducting it from our rent. I personally think that's kind of rude.