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.