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.
