Remove the mildew smell from your washing machine for about $10

These are the steps that worked for me to remove the mildew smell from my front loading washing machine and for less than $10, you can too.

Background
Almost 5 years ago, my front loading washing machine started to generate this horrible smell. It was bad enough that we had to put towels around the door to keep the odor from coming out of the laundry room. After trial and error and trying different things found on the Internet, I was able to get the odor out of the washer in one weekend. After that, the overwhelming stench has not been back since and it's been roughly 2-3 years since the last "maintenance" cycle.

Why it smells
The short answer is that the smell from your washer is from a layer of mold inside your washer.

Long answer is that this layer of mold has been growing for some time. There's basically an inner liner around the drum where your clothes are washing in. The drum is where you put your clothes into. The mold is feeding off the soap scum and dirt that doesn't get rinsed off the other side of the drum and parts of your liner. You need to get rid of that if you want to get rid of that pernicious smelly odor.

What you need
This is where the less than $10 comes in. You'll likely have most of these items already. So once you have them then you're good to go and can skip to the next section to get started. If not, go to the store and get them or you can order them online with the links below. For everything on the list, you should be able to get them for less than $10. 

1. Bleach
2. Vinegar
3. Baking Soda
4. Washer Cleaner
5. Couple of old towels

How to get rid of it
These are the steps that I went through to remove the odor and clean out my washer.

• Step 1: Clean the rubber gasket and the detergent bin first - Around the door of your washer there's rubber gasket that seals the washer so water doesn't get out. Clean that out with soap, water, and bleach before you start. Also check the detergent bin where it feeds the detergent into the washer.
• Step 2: Bleach wash to kill off that surface mold. You'll want to start with this step so you can actually make it pleasant for subsequent cycles that we're going to do. The bleach wash will definitely reduce the odor in a significant way but you won't be close to being done. Run a wash with a couple towels on the hottest water setting you can and for the longest time you can using about a cup or two of bleach.
• Step 3: Vinegar and baking soda bath / Oxygenated soak. You'll want to try this step first to see if you don't need the washer cleaners in the next step. Start a load with towels again. Add a cup or two of vinegar to the wash. ADD another gallon or two of hot water to your load after the water has stopped filling your washing machine. Then stop the wash and let it soak for about an hour without draining the water out. If you can, rotate the drum every 10-20 minutes so you get coverage. After that, finish the wash on the hottest water setting and agitate with the towels. Try 2-3 soaks with just vinegar, vinegar and baking soda, and Oxiclean. When you're done, pull out the towels and look for black flakey specs stuck to the towel. The black specs are the crusty mold stuck inside your washer that was causing the odor. Having the towels in there will help you determine whether you're making progress. The more you have on the towel, the more progress you're making.
• Step 4: Use a commercial washer cleaner.
• When I did my cleaning, I actually started with this step first. and was alternating between this and Step 3. However, I suspect that most of my results came from this step. At the time, Affresh was one of the few cleaners out there and this was the one I used. Now there are others like Tide. Either way, same process as in Step 3. Put one or two of these cleaning pucks in with as much hot extra hot water your washer can hold without overflowing. This should be about 1 or 2 gallons.  Stop the wash and then rotate the drum every 20 minutes for about an hour or more to soak. (I didn't have that much patience beyond the hour personally.) After the soak, finish the wash with the towels so you can check your progress. I saw black flakes in my towels after this wash. Alternate between Step 3 and Step 4, until no more flakes are caught on the towels.

After care and Maintenance
Now that your washer is cleaned. You'll need to maintain it for a few months. I bring this up because you'll likely have big batches of soap on hand and well frankly, you may not want to part with them just yet. That's ok. You'll just need to do these maintenance steps until you either run out of that soap or dump it. So unless you change or do something different using your washer, you'll likely end up with a smelly washer again really soon. So maintenance is important until you make that change. Once you get past the after care stage for about 3-4 months, you can rely on just doing a hot water wash as the last wash of the day without having to do as many maintenance clean up washes.

• Keep the door open - this should help keep airflow in the washer so it doesn't become musty
Use powdered soap - In the beginning I switched to Charlie's soap and away from the liquid soap. Since then, I've used powdered soap only and primarily ones without scent. I suspect this is one if not the biggest reason why we were having the build up.

• Use less soap - apparently you don't need the cup full of soap that mfg recommends. the extra soap is to ensure that your wash is done. However, too much soap leads to the build up of soap scum and thus the mold and mildew smell. I've been using roughly a tablespoon of soap and haven't noticed a difference in quality of the wash at this point. Your mileage may vary so adjust as needed.

• Add an extra gallon or two of super hot water to your last load of wash - Cold water doesn't seem to get crap off of anything without a ton of soap, which then means you have to use more water to get the extra soap off during the final rinse. Anyways, use hot water as the last load and call it a day.
• SmellyWasher - I have tried this during a maintenance mode clean up for my washer. I will say that it does get the odor out and set to a neutral smell as well after it's wash.
• Step 3 or 4 once a month - Yes a basic clean but you need to this follow up monthly for a few month so you can be sure most of that moldy stuff is gone.

Final Thoughts

After doing this cleaning on my own washer 5 years ago, I was happy that the changes of using less soap, switching to powder, and washing a load of hot at the end has made a significant difference in not having that smelly mildew odor come back for the past few years. I have not used the cleaning process since then nor have I had to be "dependent" on the washer cleaners for monthly / quarterly / yearly cleaning maintenance since then.

If you found this helpful, order some of the products via the links above, and share with friends who need this help and eventually I'll have enough traffic to earn a cup of coffee. :)

Thanks!

No more smelly washing machine

I think it's been about a year or so since I've started this. But I will say, I don't have to use any of the cleaning products that I used in the past. Reflecting back on what happened, I will say that the one thing that I didn't want to try was probably the one thing that did cleaned out my washer. BORAX.

Just a little update, post all the extreme cleanings, I still had a slight funky smell. The odors really never came out. Went to powder and still funky. Put less powder in and still funky. Used bleach, still funky. Switched to various powders, still funky. UNTIL wife tried this powdered with borax. She just bought anything since we ran out. Didn't bother to look. Started to use it for a couple months... note, we used the other products for the same time, and that slight funky smell was gone. I checked the ingredients and well borax was the only thing that was different. Yes. I know. I didn't want to use Borax because well you can use it as an insecticide but hey it did the job. I'll have to follow up and revisit this but I think it's worth noting. There are other things that we have done as well that might have changed the odor factor but i think that was the most logical explanation for the change.

How I Removed the mildew smell from my smelly washing machine using Affresh, Vinegar, and Oxiclean

These are the steps that worked for me to remove the mildew odor from my front loading washing machine. My washing machine was really smelly from the mold on the inside of it.

I think it's been about six months now since I started to document how my washing machine's odor has impacted my life. Unfortunately I have to say that while I want to eradicate the odor completely, I'm just not able to. It feels like a disease that i just can't get rid of and will have to just live with by managing the odor that occurs from time to time. Maybe in a few months, I'll find a cure to my problem to permanently remove this odor but only time will tell.

Why it smells
After all these months, basically come to the realization that I have a build of soap scum on the inner drum of my front loading washing machine. Over time, that layer of soap scum gets a moldy mildewy smell from some kind of organism called smellius stinkius idunnowhatitscalled. Either way it turns into this black crusty stuff and feeds on that soapy dirt human oil residue. One way or another you have to get rid of that top layer of crustiness and then the underlying soap scum that it feeds on.


How to get rid of it
Based on what I had to go through, this is eventually what I had to do to get my washer from emanating a wretched odor from my laundry room. It was so bad that I had to put towels beneath the door so i wouldn't smell the washer.

• Start with a bleach wash to kill off that surface mold. That will definitely reduce the odor in a significant way but you won't be close to being done. Use about a cup or two with hot water. Run it for the longest setting with the hottest water.
• Affresh - yeah i had doubts but i suspect that most of my results came from this product. At roughly $9 for a pack of 3, it's a small cost to replacing your washer. I'm still debating whether this is hockey puck is really just a solid piece of Oxiclean. Either way i don't care anymore. Put one or two in with as much hot extra hot water your washer can hold without overflowing. Since it's a low water high efficiency washer, i had to add roughly 2 gallons of extra water. I turned off my washer after the water finished and it started the wash. At that point, i had a tub of water and about 2 pucks of Affresh soaking. I rotated the drum every 20 minutes for about an hour til I had the drum soaked in each section. Then i let it finish wash normally for the last hour.

• Vinegar bath. I used about 3-4 cups of vinegar and let it soak in the tub overnite. For my washer, i had to stop the wash (turn it off) so it wouldn't drain the vinegar from the tub. Rotate the drum every other hour for as long as you have patience. I did this for about 3-4 hours until most of my washer was soaked. Then run the wash on the hottest cycle you can and add extra hot water to fill the drum.
• Oxiclean - Finish off the wash with some oxiclean if you have it. Somewhere between the Affresh and Vinegar runs, i had a ton of black flakes come out of the wash. I was using oxiclean and couple old towels to check on the progress to wait until the last of the flecks came off. At this point my washer wasn't smelling and had a pretty neutral smell.

Maintenance

• Keep the door open - this should help keep airflow in the washer so it doesn't become musty
• Use less soap - apparently you don't need the cup full of soap that mfg recommends. the extra soap is to ensure that your wash is done. However, too much soap leads to the build up of soap scum and thus the mold and mildew smell. I've been using rough a tablespoon of soap and haven't noticed a difference in quality of the wash at this point.
• Use powdered soap - i switched to Charlie's soap and away from the liquid soap. It take a little longer for the odor to come back before i have to repeat and rinse the above cleaning steps. It's been about 3 months since i had to do this. The odor is mild when i did do it. basically, i had to stuff my head close to the washer door to smell something.

• Use super hot water - and if you can, use it on the last load of the day. at one point and i suspect that the problem started to occur when for a couple reasons. One i turned down the thermostat on my water heater to 115. Typically i use mix cold water at the faucets with my hot water for anything i do. But that in turn means that my water is less than hot when it hits the washer. Two, we were using cold water wash and rinse for most of the washes. Cold water doesn't get crap off of anything without a ton of soap, which then means you have to use more water to get the extra soap off during the final rinse. Anyways, just use hot water and call it a day and use it as your last wash to get the rest of the day's wash off the inside of the machine.
• SmellyWasher - So yes, i've gotten this as well. And i have tried it during a maintenance mode clean up for my washer. I will say that it does get the odor out and set to a neutral smell as well after it's wash. I did the same thing to let it soak and rotate the drum to get full coverage and leave overnight. However, I did get the odor back sooner. Either this product needs to be repeatedly used at certain durations or it really didn't clean my washer as well as it should have. Either way, it's an alternative if you want to try another product.

• Add extra water - I really think this step is what really makes a difference in the post maintenance phase. Adding the extra water in my case, has made the clothes come out a little cleaner where we don't have to rinse again. Don't know why it just does.

Overall these are the steps that I used to get that mildew moldy smell out of my front loading washing machine. If you're reading this, I hope that you find this useful. Granted, there might be other steps out there that might more effective or efficient but this certainly worked for me after all these months.

Update May 2013

Roughly a year ago, I noted that the smell has mostly disappeared. It mostly happened either coincidentally or was a causality of the powdered soap with borax. We used that for a couple months and the smell really just disappeared. Still followed the maintenance but didn't seem to need to  do that as often. Additionally, switched to another powdered soap and its been pretty odorless for the last several months now. Overall it seems normal now. I've got a Maytag Neptune front loader washing machine and using All - Free and Clear living odor free now.

Survey

Just for fun, I built a survey to identify what washers and detergents are currently being used before the smelly washer state. If you have a smelly washing machine, please share. I'll be posting the results once I get enough responses. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YK32LPW

Findings from survey

Here it is. There's roughly four questions. The main two that are likely relevant would be the manufacturer and the detergent type. My takeaway would be that we're using too much detergent. Aka... "If one cup is ok two is better."

Smelly Washing Machine vs Soap Scum

Alright. Yes. I still have a smelly washing machine. Now I have to say that I've done a multitude of things to get my washing machine into an acceptable state that it's not smelling so foul that my wife and I gag when we open the laundry room door. Anyways, I digress.

I did some research on other sites to see what I might be missing. I ran across a couple articles stating that it's soap scum. Step 4 of this article states that non-HE soap will cause soap scum build up which causes mold to accumlate. Step 3 from this article states that vinegar will remove the soap scum residue from the washer.

Let's revisit this. I've been using non-HE powdered soap, HE powered soap, and liquid HE soap in this washer. At first, we've been running on liquid HE soap for a couple years before the odor came full force maybe several months ago. We've since switched to powdered soap. We've got non and HE soap. I still have the problem. So I don't know if the non-HE or HE argument really holds up well.

Now as for soap scum, that is exceptionally plausible. I have to say that when I used the Affresh, a lot of crap came off. It was flakey black moldy crap. But when I used the vinegar, it really didn't seem to make that much a difference. Now the second article mentions that it has to be done after the spin cycle. I'll have to check this out and see.

Soap scum for HE machines can be caused by using too much soap. Found this site that mentions you only need to have a tablespoon of soap. Additionally the site covers why this is a problem for HE machines specifically. Then it goes on how to implement a shock treatement for your washer.

So basically, I think at the end of the day. Soap scum is at the heart of the problem. Seems to have several different sources around the web to verify that this is actually the problem. I'll come back and do more research and testing on my washer to verify all this.

Smelly Washing Machine vs Steam

I went back to the site to see what the issue was for mold and steam. The site deals mostly with mold and allergies. It's interesting to me because my son has allergies along with eczema so figuring out this washer problem may be a cause for some of the issues he might be experiencing.


It looks like that mold can be removed via steam. Supposedly steam cleaners will put out about 180-220 degree heat which will kill most mold. Apparrently mold will be killed off at temps of 160 degrees and above. With that knowledge and assuming that I can verify that on a few other sources, then the water heater that I have will not be anywhere near the temperture that I need to effectively sanitize my washer. I think the top most temperture that I can put my water heater at is 140. To be reasonable, I don't need 160 degree water running in my house. I'll be burning the skin off my family and guests if I did. I'll definitely have to look into this as a solution as well. Not only for my washer but other things in the house.

Smelly Washing Machine vs a Red Light

I went to visit an Air Force base and there was a docent restoring an old transport plane on the base. He mentioned that they had a mold problem on the airplanes. To keep the mold problem to manageble level, they used a red light filter to maintain or kill the mold??? Either way, I looked up some mold remediation sites and found that there are some products that use UV-C light to kill and sanitize surfaces for mold. Now, I'm not sure how I can use this information to fix my smelly washing machine but thoughts are going through my mind that it might be a viable way to address the problem that I have. I can't say or know if it'll be effective since I can't directly wand over the part of the washer that has the problem but who knows.

Starting to think about sharks with "lasers" on their head now.

Smelly Washing Machine vs SmellyWasher

I was able to get the single bottle version of this product for about $20 online. I had this a while back but never really got to use this as a single application for fighting the mold or mildew problem in my washer. After using the rest of the liquid detergent, my odors came back and I finally got to use this product for the first time.

So I started off with the hot water wash. My water temp was set for 140 degrees on my water heater. I added a couple caps to the wash. Directions mentioned that I only needed one but figured two might be better than one. I ran the wash for a couple minutes and stopped it. I added more hot water until about a third of the washer was filled. I ran the washer for a few more minutes then shut it off and soaked overnite. In the morning I started the washer again. After the wash finished, I poked my head into the washer and smelled a faint odor. I have no idea what my washer smelled like when it was new but the mold and mildew odor was gone and it had this neutral smell.

So for the most part, I'm really happy with this product. I'll have to see if the problem will come back or will persist like it has before but for the time being, I'm a happy camper.