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.

Smelly Washing Machine vs the Open Door Policy

With most of the front load washers, there's a lot of recommendations that you have to keep the front door open to enable the inside washing drum to air dry out. I have to say that for the first few years that owned my washer that I did NOT do that. I think that after year 3 of owning my washer that I started to have an odor problem with mold in the machine. I've been through about 3-4 different types of liquid detergents and I haven't been able to pinpoint which one is causing or caused the problem.

Currently, we're using powdered detergent. Additionally, we're also leaving the front washer door open so that the washer airs out. For about 3 weeks, we had NO odor coming from the washer. Note: this is after the fact that I ran the machine through a battery of cleaning techniques to get rid of the mold and odor. I went back to liquid detergent to finish it out after our test batch of powder detergent was used up. My odors did come back even with the door left open. Now while the odor wasn't as bad as it was before. It did come back. With that in mind, we have definitely switched back to powdered soap. The detergent we were using was a Costco liquid HE detergent but I can't remember which one it was. I'll have to say that I have to see whether the odor comes back after a few weeks with powdered or not to rule out a timeline possibility with odor but I highly suspect that it is the case that the detergent causes the build up.

Smelly Washing Machine vs Oxiclean

From a previous post, I can't say whether it was Oxiclean that did the job or if it was the Affresh. I munged these two techniques together at one time so I can't really confirm or deny their effectiveness as a single cleaning agent or remedy to the mold problem in washers. However, if you can build a cocktail of cleaning agents that does the trick then what does it really matter. Ok for the people who really want to know so they can buy one or the other, then I guess it does matter but I suspect that many other people have something like this in their house already. It's a great multi-purpose cleaner anyways.

I may have to put this to a round two test soon with new and different application techniques. Muhahahaha.

Smelly Washing Machine vs Affresh

I think this is really the first product that I bought that actually did anything. The main reason that I know is that the odor was reduced but additionally a lot of the mold flakes came off into the wash. It was utterly one of the more disgusting things that you can find in your washer but I knew that something was at least happening.

For me, I think the site did a good job of informing me what the product actually does. More or less telling me that the problem isn't on the inside of the washer drum, it's on the outside of the drum on the part that you can't see. Obviously, you really can't tell what's happening there unless you get the thing disassembled. At that point if you're going to do that, you may as well scrub the thing off yourself.

Going forward, yes, I still have a problem with the odor in my washer sorta, I will have to try this again with a towel in place. I've got an earlier photo with some remnants to show.

As for addressing the root cause for my particular washer, I think it was either this or the Oxyclean that actually did the job to clean the problem. Since I have a huge vat of Oxyclean, I can replicate this combination again if need be. So officially, I can't say that Affresh methodically cleaned my washer but if I don't have to put a towel under the door anymore to keep odors out of the rest of house, then I consider that a win.

Smelly Washing Machine vs Clorox

I'm now revisiting what might be the issue with each step in each attempt to remove the odor out of my washing machine. Which brings me back to the beginning.

I have to say that I started with bleach first because well for one reason. I already had it, well sorta. I had a little but needed more. Thing is that you can always use this for other things not just laundry. So buying another quart or something isn't going to be a problem for when you have to clean other things.

Regarding how well it actually cleaned the washer, I think overall it did a good job to mask the problem intiatially. I think had I been doing more hot washes along with bleach. I could have maintained a clean tub. Looking back at it all, it may not be the best solution for a smelly washing machine that has slowly become that way.

Would using Clorox or bleach by itself be the most effective way to get rid the odors? I'm not sure that I can conclusively say that it's ineffective. However, it was the first thing that I tried. Over a period of 2-3 washings with only bleach, my situation to tame the odor was marginal. So while it may have helped a little, I don't think it really addresses the root cause of the problem that I had.

Smelly Washing Machine vs Liquid Detergent

So over the past few weeks, we've gotten our washing machine smell down to a managable odor. Around a 1 or 2 on the smell-o-meter. During that time we switched to non-HE regular powdered detergent. About two weeks ago, we ran out. We still had a Coscto vat of detergent that we stopped using in lieu of the powdered detergent after finding out that many online posts mentioned that after the switch to powdered, their odors went away. Well since we stopped, our odors went away as well but that was after all the cleaning that I had done. Since we ran out, we decided to finish the rest of the liquid detergent.

So after 2 weeks of using the liquid detergent, we have an odor again. Now we have been using powdered for about 3-4 weeks before this and leaving the door open to aerate. During this two week period we also left the door open to aerate. At this point, I have to suspect that the liquid detergent played a significant factor. However, I can't rule out the fact that there was still an odor in my washer prior to switching back. Thinking about this further, I don't know what a new washing machine never been used odor smells like. So the 1 on my meter might be clean or it might be still dirty, i just don't know. After all said and done, my washer now stinks and is on the 3-4 scale of smelliness. I'll definitely have a chance to re-apply some of the other cleaning techniques to see how well they work. I'll probably start with the SmellyWasher cleaning product.

Smelly Washing Machine vs Water Thermostat

It's now been about two weeks since I've started this process. As of last weekend, my washing machine was still smelling and on the Stench-O-Meter scale, it was still around a 3. I was still able to smell some kind of odor when I put my head into the washer.

BUT NOW, the odor isn't as as bad. My wife has been washing some loads now for the past week. No comments, no gripes, no towel under the door to keep the odors out, NOTHING. I put my head in to smell what it was like and it was hard to smell anything. It was maybe a 1.5 at most but there was a faint smell but I really had to work at it. Rotate the drum, close the washer door, put my nose to the drum. Very little.

So I'm not sure what to conclude about this. It's entirely possible that between this weekend and last is that the treatments from the Affresh, chlorine, and OxiClean did the trick and the remaining crap was just washed off over the week's wash.

The only thing that did change was the thermostat. I could say that it might be the powdered detergent but we switched about 2 weeks ago. The thermostat, however, was set to 115 degrees. I've since changed it to 120. I figured that it might be entirely possible that the water isn't hot enough by the time it fills the washer. We have a Rinnai tankless water heater. We can adjust the heat between 110 to 140 degrees. The water takes a minute or two get hot and by the time it gets to the washer about half the wash is in relatively cold water. So I figured that increasing the temp up would help. This might make sense for how I got into this smelly mess. I did decrease the temp down to 115 to save on the water heating costs roughly a year ago. But after a whole winter, it's really the gas air heater and not the water heater contributing to my gas bills. So the timeline makes sense given that it might take a year to build up all this crap. I owned the washer for 2 years prior and didn't have an odor problem. So on that note, I've left the temp at 120 during the week and I think that is what is helping.

That said, I did get my SmellyWasher cleaning solution on Saturday. I'm not sure if I actually need this now. I might just run it this week and see if I can get that last bit out. However, I might just save it for later. Anyways, there's supposed to be 24 cleaning portions in it so no harm in running it now.

Smelly Washing Machine vs Class Action Lawsuit

Maytag
Now that I'm waiting for my product to arrive, I actually found information on the Maytag lawsuit. Seems to be legit and not some rumor. After going to the official http://www.maytagfrontloadsettlement.com/ site, I found out that this is an old settlement from about 4 years ago back in 2006. So don't get excited, the settlement is basically over. It applied to people who bought their washer from 1997 to 2004. Sucks for me.

LG
However, I did find one that appears to be still ongoing for LG.  Murray Frank  filed this back in 2008 and updated the status as of February 2009. I guess there's a lot of mad people. I found a lot of pages but this one seems to sum up all the experiences at Consumer Affairs.


Whirlpool
Wow. Keep finding more..The Whirlpool one seems to be getting some momentum and looks current. This was filed by Lieff Cabraser back in April 2009. It has several states involved regarding the Whirlpool Duet series design flaws that causes accumulation of mold and mildew in the washing machine, odors that permeate the home, and having basically smelly clothes after a wash.

Ohio, California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Arizona, Indiana, Maryland, North Carolina, and Texas.

There was an update literally this week on Monday 7/12/2010 in Ohio to certify as a class suit.

"Me vs. Smelly Washer" --- My Battle to Remove the Odor from my Front Load Washing Machine

I've had my front load Maytag Neptune washer for about 4 years now. However, over the past few months my washer has been smelling a little funky. Funky like a moldy rotten sewage center. The odor has been gradual and became seriously unbearable within the last week. I've since made it my sole purpose to remove the stench from my washing machine, especially since the odor from the laundry room is wafting into the rest of the house now.

Stench - o - meter rating: 11 ---- open the laundry room door and overwhelmed by the odor. had to put towels at base of door to keep the odors from coming out.

Here's my story so far...

Day 1 - Washer vs Clorox
Figured that there must be some kind of crap in my washer and that good old fashioned bleach should do the trick. So I went down to the store and got some Clorox. At first, I was going to pick up generic bleach since for the most part, all I want is the chlorine. However, I started to check the contents on the generic bottles and some of them had less than 6%. So in the end I got Clorox. It also helped that someone left a coupon for 50 cents which brought the cost down to par with the generic.

I came back home and poured roughly two cups of bleach into the longest hot water wash that I could --- 1 hour. After the wash was done, a good majority of the odor was gone but there was now a mix of chlorine and moldy mildew smell now. However, the overwhelming stench coming from my laundry room was at least a little more tolerable such that when I open the door, I'm not gagging just to breathe. The odor still lingers but at least its confined to only when I open the washer door.

Stench - O - Meter rating: 7. No odor in the laundry room. Open the washer door and gag.



Day 2 - Research
I came back to the laundry room and the odor was still there and it was a little worse than it was right after the chlorine wash. After checking online and multiple sites, there were a few conclusions that I arrived at. For one, apparently I'm not alone. Many people with front loader washing machines have this odor problem. In fact, there's some kind of class action suit with the various manufacturers about this. I didn't check into this further since I want to use my washer now vs waiting for some kind of settlement. 

The main reason is that mold and mildew build up in the washer. Here's the two main places to check.

1. Build up on the seal - On the seal of the door there is a rubber gasket. That gasket normally traps and builds mold and mildew. Given that most front loader washers seal the door so that water doesn't come out, it also makes it difficult to circulate air to dry out the washer when the door is closed.
2. Build up on the inner drum - The rotating cylinder drum that you put your clothes in has two sides. One that faces the clothes and the other side that you can't see. Apparently this is the side that can build up mold / mildew.  There are two possible causes for this. Liquid detergent and infrequent use of hot water.

The reasons for the build up are:

1. Use of liquid detergent. - Apparently the liquid detergents use animal fats in the soap. Additionally, many people use TOO much soap. Most of the high efficiency (HE) washers don't need as much detergent. The extra soap causes build up within the system. Many people who had repair technicians come out instructed many of them to use powered detergent going forward and they won't have this problem.
2. Not enough hot water washes - Most of the front loaders use warm / cold washes and rinses for higher cost savings. However, without as many hot water washes, there isn't much opportunity to flush out the system.

Products and possible resolutions for the problem:

1. Affresh - This is provided and recommended by Whirlpool. It's supposed to scrub the layers of build up off the inner drum of your washer. Gonna try this since they put so much effort into the online demo and videos.
2. Smelly Washer - Natural enzymes that dissolve, eat, and digest the mold off the washer and leave it smelling like oranges afterwards. I want to try this especially given the head to head demo on the news.
3. Dish washer detergent - There were a couple of posts that mentioned dish washing detergent has anti-fungal ingredients added that laundry detergents aren't approved to use. This kinda makes sense. Given that the dish washer is also an enclosed front loading machine with water and a whole lot of food grime, my dishwasher doesn't even smell. However, I'm skeptical this will work. My dish washer also uses tons of hot water too and that's probably the main reason I don't have any odors or build up.
4. Borax - Now this came up a couple times as a cheap alternative. Borax has been around for a billion years and used for laundry additive for almost as long. Additionally, it has other uses like a insect repellent. After looking around more, there are some toxicity levels that you'll want to keep in mind of you use this. Now I suspect that this isn't that high otherwise the government would probably outlaw the sale of this but if it can be used to kill ants and roaches, I'm going to have to pass putting it in my laundry for now. However, I may revisit this since I do have an ant problem so it won't be entirely single purpose.
5. Bleach - Already tried this and has helped to a certain degree. I suspect that I still have some crap left over that needs to be removed. The other addition to bleach was to use dish washing soap. I recalled someone using this so that it'll sud up and get into all the various crevices that your washer. I might be mistaken this combination with borax but either way I wasn't going to add liquid dish soap to my washer. I did that to my dish washing machine one time when I was really young and stupid and there were so many suds I ended up flooding my kitchen. Not willing to possibly repeating that experience with my washing machine.
6. Vinegar - If you have it, no harm in trying it. I just honestly think that bleach has better killing power. I tried this once before but I got better results with the bleach.
7. Physical scubbing - While the places like the rim and gasket are easy to reach, you can certainly disassemble your washer and scrub the crap off. A few months ago, I did open up my washer and inspected the drainage and the pump for any possible clogs or stuck clothes. I didn't find any clothes but the water was awfully smelly. Put it all back together and the odor wasn't as bad but came back in a few days. It was probably due to me draining the water from the trap. The next step was to take the drum off and scrub it down. While I could probably do that, frankly, it wasn't that appealing and I'd probably puke from odor.

Preventative odor best practices:

1. Leave the washer door open - This is supposed to air out your washer so the water can dry out.
2. Use powered detergents - Liquid detergents have some petroleum / animal fat ingredients that cause build up.
3. Don't use liquid fabric softener - Same reason as liquid detergents. use a dryer sheet instead.

Stench - O - Meter rating: 8. Slight odor in the laundry room. Open the washer door and gag.


Day 3 - Washer vs Affresh


Honestly, I was going to use the Smelly Washer solution but I couldn't get it locally fast. Their site mentioned it was at Bed Bath and Beyond but I couldn't find it in that maze of products. I found Affresh at Lowes for about $8 with tax so I ended up getting this first.

I read that you have to start with all three tablets at once if you have "significant" odors / build up. I decided to do three washes with one tablet each. The tablets were like two inches in diameter and looked like a small version of the toilet bowl tablets. I ran it through my wash about 3 times with hot water cycles. Nothing in the washer except the tablet.

After finishing the washes, the odor was significantly gone but not completely.  I was able to go into the laundry room and not have any odors wafting out. I opened the door to the washer and no odor. I stick my head in and take a sniff. I can smell a faded hint of the odor mixed in with a semi-neutral odor.

Stench - o - Meter rating: 4


Day 4 - Washer vs Oxyclean
  
I came into the laundry room and checked the washer to see if it had regressed. Fortunately the odor seemed to be the same as it was the day before but I still suspect that I was going to have the problem still. So as I looked back on the Affresh experience and their video, their big selling point was the scouring of layers of crap off. I couldn't help but wonder what was in that white hockey puck I put into the washer. At that moment, I thought, "Why couldn't I use OxiClean?" If Billy Mays can use it to clean all sorts of stuff, it should be able to clean my washer too.

Since I already had this stuff, I put four scoops of OxiClean into the wash and did a long hot cycle.

After the wash, I checked the odor and was pleasantly surprised that it was actually a little better. The strange odor combination from the Affesh was gone but I had to actually stick my head further into the washer and closer to the walls to smell the odor. So it was still there but not as noticeable.

Stench - o - meter rating: 3

Day 5 - Clothes vs Mold Flakes

The clothes were piling up especially after almost a week of cleaning the washer. Wife started a load and later told me there was a problem. There were thousands of little flakes all over the clothes. She ran the rinse cycle again and it cleared up all the flakes from the clothes.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to see this. So I ran another cycle with a load of OxiClean and a single while towel. I think the flakes are mold falling off from inside the washer. It came in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some were 1 inch circular chunks, some were small half inch flakey thin rectangular chunks, and others were quarter inch mini mountain chunks like chocolate Kisses. Nonetheless, I ran the cycle a few more times to see how much more would come off.  After 4 more empty wash cycles, I didn't see or have any more chunks in the wash. After all these cycles, still smells the same.

Stench - o - meter rating: 3

Day 6 - Smelly Washer vs USPS


At this point, I've decided to try another product to see if my problem can be rectified once and for all. The flakes that came off is encouraging. At least I know SOMETHING is happening. So now I'm going to try Smelly Washer. I'm actually kind of hopeful that this may actually work. I've placed my order on Amazon since it qualifies for free shipping but I've got to wait til the end of the week to get and try this. Overall, the washer smell has stabilized but there is some lingering odor. Based on all the "maintenance" advice, I've kept the door open and finished with hot water washes. I guess it seems to help but I'm holding my breath for few days and pass judgement then.

Stench - o - meter rating: 3