Solved! What to Do About a Smelly Washing Machine
Q: Lately, every time I open my washing machine door, I detect a foul-smelling odor—not the fresh scent of clean clothes. Help! How do I get rid of it?
A: Sorry to hear your sniffer is suffering! It looks like your it’s your washer that is in need of a washing. The most common cause of odors wafting from your washing machine is a combination of the following contaminants: mold, mildew, and bacteria.
Over time, soap scum, dirt, body oil, and hair get trapped inside the washer’s seals, gaskets, and dispensers. Without regular cleaning, your washer ends up smelling about as disgusting as that collection sounds. Add to that your laundry room’s constant humidity, and you end up with an ideal environment for bacterial growth. And therein lies the irony: The machine you rely on day after day—cycle after cycle—to remove soil and stains, now smells worse than your dirty laundry. Sometimes, even the hardest working appliances need a little TLC to get back on track.
To remove those foul odors, use the following three-step process to restore your washing machine’s clean fresh scent: scrub, sanitize, and deodorize.
To begin cleaning, remove the soap, bleach, and softener dispensers so you can scrub these parts individually.
When water gets splashed into any of these sections, it’ll often be left behind as standing water between cycles, a breeding ground for mildew. Use an old toothbrush to get inside the cracks and crevices and a pipe cleaner to dig out buildup lodged inside the pipes of the dispensers—that’s a sneaky source of moldy smells. If you have a front-load model, also wipe around the rubber seal with a wet cloth and use a Q-tip to remove accumulated gunk around the gasket. On top-loader models, pay special attention to the cracks and crevices around the doors where dirt tends to hide. When you’re done scrubbing the parts it’s time to move on to the interior tub.
To sanitize the machine, keep chlorine bleach on-hand as your “go-to,” as it’s the absolute best solution to kill mold and mildew.
Just be sure to take precautions when using this product and, for safety reasons, don’t mix it with other cleaners. Now, set the washer on the highest possible temperature setting. Depending on your appliance, add 4 cups bleach to a top-loading machine or 2 cups to a front-loader, then start a cycle. Let the tub fill, and stop the wash cycle once the agitator mixes the bleach. Allow the bleach water sit for 30 minutes, and then resume the cycle. One more run of the rinse cycle should remove all traces of bleach.
Once the bleach has done its job sanitizing, pull out vinegar to remove any last, lingering smells.
In addition to making an excellent deodorizer, the acidic quality of vinegar removes hard water buildup as well as any leftover bacteria which may have survived the bleach. To begin, set the cycle on the “hottest” setting. Add 4 cups of plain white vinegar (not balsamic or apple cider) to a top load machine or 2 cups to a front load model. No laundry detergent or anything else this cycle—vinegar acts alone! This should feel familiar: Allow the tub to fill and stop the wash cycle once the agitator mixes the vinegar and water. After 30 minutes, turn the washer back on and allow the cycle to resume until complete. The next time you open your washing machine door, don’t be afraid to breathe in deeply! Instead of that foul-smelling odor, you’ll enjoy the sweet smell of success.
