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.