Bad smell inside washing machine

Bad smells are a common issue with front load machines, there is a washing machine cleaner that needs to be run through about every month. We cannot give any more accurate response without a MAKE, MODEL, and YEAR of your machine....!

Once a month you need to wash the inside of your HE machine with a good cleaner. Here is what I use to get rid of the bad smells.

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You can use Affresh to clean your front loader. Deposits of soap and other such things can be stuck around the inside tub of your washer. Try this product, it works great on all front loaders. Use very hot water with the Affresh pellet with no clothes and run the machine through a cycle. Also helps with any stagnant water smells. Put the Affresh pellet inside the machine, not in the soap dispenser.

You can give me a ‘very helpful’ rating for the free help, can't you. Thanks.

Sounds like the machine needs to be descaled and the boiler and element needs to be checked.
Was the machine left on for a long time?
If yes then the element needs to be replaced.

Bacteriological action is becoming more of a problem nowadays due to low temperature washing , the deteregents , wash your clothes well but do not kill off bacteria , this is generally harmless to us but can build up in your machine , giving rise to a smell and sometimes a slime which can get on your washing. A regime of High temperature washes WITH NO CLOTHES IN MACHINE , just a dose of bio-powder every six to eight weeks , may help.

This is classic bad design actually.
Some washers are worse than others for this.

Use an oxygen based bleach in a trigger spray, and remove the detergent drawer. Use the spray everywhere in there - and remove the drawer completely to wash it in a mild bleach solution.
Use a small brush to remove the mould in there - and flush it down the pipe with more spray.
If you an get a foaming cleanser down there - then even better - or an alcohol based sanitiser spray.

Also wipe over the door seal rubber - as this sometimes collects stagnant water in the folds.

Reassemble, and do a hot wash with a few white hand towels to remove all the bleach.

You may need to do this every month.
Doing hot washes helps - maybe with a cap of bleach.

(I think the manufacturers do this on purpose - so you wash more often - breaks machines - you buy a new one etc.)

Hi Six,

Yeah, that's a common complaint on FL washers. I experienced it first hand myself! (I have a Whirlpool FL washer). I use this in mine about once a month and it's worked well for me. I don't have to order it, though. I pick mine up at my appliance parts place. If you have one nearby, I'd check there first.

SG

Same here. We bought ours January 2005. Love the machines and take great care of them, too. Then the smell in the washer which seemed to affect certain clothes, like thick sweat pants and t-shirts (they smelled really "sour"). After doing some searches I found on this site where someone had recommended using a product called Affresh. I figured I might as well try it since my other attempts failed. This really worked for me. I bought it at Home Depot for $7 for a pkg of 3. I used 3 tablets per their directions, as this was my first time using it (afterwards they recommend using only 1 tablet per month). I was totally amazed as the smell was gone. I hope it works for you, too!

I have the same problem with a 3 month old ge front loading washer.after 1 month it started off smelling musty..I thought it was my imagination, now at 3 months old our clothes smell so bad I think we might just have to buy new clothes! everytime I wash a load the clothes smell worse and now you can even smell it just walking into our closet 2 floors up. A new washing washing machine should NOT be doing this! so far leaving the door open in between washes has helped a little but I plan on tipping it back and finding the hidden filter today. Isn't it lovely that they don't mention a filter that needs monthly cleaning or it's location in the manuals?!

this is caused by a build up of old detergent and limescale.there are some industrial strength descalers around.wpro descaler is one.add the sachet to the drum with no wash load.pour in a kettle of hot water(not boiling)and leave for thirty minutes.then put washing machine on a 60 degree cycle and allow to run right through.you will need to repeat approximately every three months