"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