What can I do About a Smelly Washer?

My flatmate has a strong odor, and somehow, it has managed to stick that odor to the washing machine. Every time I do the laundry, all my clothes end up to my despair, smelling like him. I've tried using more detergent, gels, strong smelling softeners, but nothing seems to help. Can anyone give me a solution to this problem?

Use Odoban in the rinse cycle. Your clothes will smell fresh and your mildew smell will never return. The smell is caused by pathogens growing in the moisture in the washer. We found out the hard way.

Our teenage son got athlete's foot which found a home in the washer. It spread in the clothes. The whites we could bleach. The colors we couldn't. All of our laundry smelled like mildew. Our son and I developed jock itch that wouldn't go away. We tried everything, including pills from the doc. It would go away and then come back. We endured this misery for six months.

We started searching for something that was a fungicide that could be used in laundry and found Odoban. From the first load we did, we knew our problem was solved. Now when we drain our washer, the water never smells and was not black like the first time. It's guaranteed to fix the problem because it kills the source.

I was surprised at how easy it was to get to the pump filter on my kenmore elite front-loader. I took the panel off the bottom front of the cabinet. There it was, right in the front. It was a big, white plastic thing. Unscrew the filter, pull out, clean, put it back. All I needed was a nut driver with a no. 20 torx bit. I don't know about the drum. It sounds complicated.

Soap nuts (detergent) will solve these odor problem. They're anti-bacterial and anti-fungal.

I solved my smelly washer problem with two simple steps. Always leave the door open when the washer is not in use. Switch from a liquid detergent to a powdered one. Of course, you will have to manually clean all the places you can get at first. You may even want to use one of the commercial washing machine cleaning products that are available in grocery stores after you have done that to give your machine a new start. However, once you have done that, taking those two steps should solve your problem. The main culprit, in my opinion, is the liquid detergent.

There is now help in replacing your stinky front loading washer. Recently, courts have given class action status to the worst offenders. You can sign up for reimbursement by researching the class action lawsuit against Whirlpool.

They claim rather than fix faulty design problems, Whirlpool created Affresh in order increase profits. These charges show blatant disregard for consumers health and well-being.

It seems this is their modus operandi, since they also have been charged with concealing dishwasher problems that lead to house fires. Whirlpool also makes Kenmore, Kitchenaid, Roper, Estate, Maytag, Amana and Jennair. This seems like a monopoly. They should put the money paid to their lobbyists into fixing faulty designs!

Epsom salts and oxyclean: simple, cheap and very, very effective in killing the mold/smell.

I really do believe that the main culprit of a "smelly washer" is the great amount of fabric softeners that are used. I don't use these anymore; they are great water polluters. Also, they take the "drying" out of your towels. Use the softener towelettes in your dryers. Give the dryers (and the environment) a break and hang out your clothes, esp. sheets. You'd be surprised how much you can save on electricity.

This article does not tell me how to take the washer drum out. I need to know how to do this if I am going to clean behind it and the filter trap. This is the new info for me. We all know about running bleach and leaving the door open after and that stuff. I want to get the drum out!

Washing machine odor is almost invariably caused by overuse of detergent, using fabric softener, using cold water for washing or by infrequent use.

Preventative maintenance is important to avoid mold growth in the perfect environment of the washer.

The best way to clean any washer is to do long soaks (even overnight) starting with hot water and a washing machine cleaner. Bleach or vinegar (*never* together) will kill the mold but won't remove it or the residue it grows on from inside the plastic outer tub. In more extreme cases extra gallons of hot water need to be added manually after the washer has filled into this hot cleaning soak in order to soak the area just above the normal water line where suds and soiled water splash up and don't get washed out. This "splash area" is invariably the area of heaviest buildup. --Paul Flynn