Help! Nasty washing machine smells.

Soda crystals to clean the machine and white vinegar instead of fabric conditioner. No need for expensive gloopy chemicals.

Run the machine on empty at highest temperature using one bio tablet every 8 weeks. Rest of the time, leave machine door open

Have you tried leaving the machine open until the drum has completely dried when you finish using it?

Doing so has solved the problem of the sour smell from my washing machine.

Fabric conditioner can have an adverse effect on the rubber pipes of the washing machine - the rubber softens and absorbs all sorts of smells, etc. You might find you need to have the pipes replaced.

www.dri-pak.co.uk/ I found this link yesterday. My washing machine wasn’t smelling but occasionally leaves dirty lines/marks on the clean washing when it comes out of the machine which is darned annoying because then I have to wash it again! I was looking in asda and found soda crystals - £1 for a decent sized bag. Found the website and then looked about for white vinegar in a spray bottle. Asda didn’t have any but Wilkos do - £1 a bottle! Great. So I cleaned the machine last night and will see what happens now. Fingers crossed ?

We give our washing machine a hot wash with soda once a month. It cleans out all the pipes etc. We were advised to do this by a plumber because our sink was always blocking up. We also put soda down the sink leave for about 30 minutes and pour a kettle of boiling water down the plug we do this once a month too. The shower plug gets the same treatment.

Part of the problem is that most washes we do these days are 40C or less which does not kill bacteria. I use Dr Beckmann's Service It every couple of months with a 60C wash and, together with always leaving the machine door ajar, it keeps my washing machine smelling nice and fresh. Dr Beckmann also does a Deep Clean product as well for washing machines, might be worth trying both of them if you are having serious problems with odour

Bleach and a 90 degree wash usually sorts mine out ,you could do your white cottons or just an empty m/c ,same effect.Nice and fresh

I do at least 1 load of washing every day and sometimes 2. I always use biological tablets which I brake up a bit and wash all bedding, towels, whites for whole family on a 60 wash and add bio tex stain remover to washing powder to make white. I wash some colours/synthetics on 50 and a few delicates on 40. I wash white towels on 90 wash once a week. I use fabric conditioner in wash and my machine has never smelled. My dd washes on low heat and quick washes and i have noticed a few marks still on her washing when it has been washed. I don't say anything but when I am babysitting if dgs is unwell and she is at work I wash all of her white towels on a 60 wash and put in bio tex stain remover and do another load of tea towels and sheets on a 60 wash with bio tex and squirt with Vanish too if marked. She has looked at them puzzled when dry and commented they look whiter than when she does them. She works full time and looks after her house her dh and dgs and does not have the time that I have. Her machine smells a bit and I do think it is the non-bio powder and low temperature quick washes. I use soda crystals dissolved into hot water to clean out my fridge and I do dd too when she is at work.

Actually I used to have this problem when I used a wash liquid. After cleaning thoroughly and a couple of empty very hot washes with washing soda I have gone back to powder and hey presto ! No more bad smells!

JanaNana how do you distribute the powder in the drum? I haven't used powder for years because I was fed up with white spots on the washing (exactly the same pattern as the holes in the drum).

Perhaps I could prevent these by putting powder in with the washing. I would so like to change back to powder - cardboard boxes, no plastic packaging.

I had a terrible smell in utility room. Thought it was drains. Paid plumber £70 to come and then he told me it was dead mouse in cupboard, which he would not deal with. SIL to the rescue. Forever in his debt.

Is there a 'drain' function to remove water from the sump at the end of the wash?

For a couple of years I had a bad smell from the sink that I remember from childhood - dirty floorcloths that were left wet outside the door for years, full of bacteria obviously. Treated the sinks with caustic soda loads of times, poured down gallons of bleach, even called a plumber who said his wife complained of the same smell but he didn’t know what caused it!! Eventually I called in another plumber who said it came from one of the washing machine pipes, he altered the angle I think of one of the pipes and, hey presto, it vanished overnight. If I’ve been away for a few days I smell it faintly on return, but it disappears with the first wash.

I love bicarbonate of soda! It is a disinfectant and easy to use. I put it in the drum with my washing. It is great at removing smells.

Like many others, I leave the door open wide at the end of the wash and also wipe out the soap tray and leave it sticking out.

I have been lucky and not had any smells so far in about 48 years of washing. However I do periodically give my machine a clean out with the specially made machine cleaners. I do this with the dish-washer too.

If you don't like fabric softeners and you use a tumble-dryer, you can put a couple of screwed-up balls of aluminium foil (baking foil) in with the laundry. It helps to keep it soft.

I had a front loader machine for a while and it developed these sinister smells too. I went back to a top loader and what a relief! No more smells.

I alternate between using powder on hot wash, and liquid on cooler wash for coloured and darks. I never use the dispenser drawer for putting the powder or liquid in but put straight into the drum with the washing. What I do put into the dispenser drawers is cheap white vinegar with a very small splash of fabric softener in the softener drawer.Always leave the door and dispenser drawer slightly open between washes and check the filter every so often to make sure it's clean. Once in a while run the hottest wash possible using just washing soda in the drum and white vinegar in the dispenser drawers and this keeps any build up of bacteria at bay. My last washing machine lasted 17 years using like this before it finally wore out and the engineer said not clogging up the dispenser drawers with powder and liquid had contributed to its long life.

White vinegar

I think it's a combination of liquid gels/low temp washes. I cured mine by doing all my tea towels on a hot wash with bio powder as often as possible. I used to do a lot of 20 degree /20 min washes and I think the gunge just builds up.

run an empty wash through with a cheap mouth wash it kills bacteria bad smells works for me

I use bio powder and leave the door ajar between washes and don’t get a smell.

DD1 keeps her door shut to keep the cat out and had smelly problems so now runs it with a good dose of washing soda in the rinse only cycle. This seems to have fixed it. She also put washing soda in the bottom of her dishwasher. Wonderful stuff, washing soda!

It is likely the smell from the cleaning process is a good thing, as it must have dislodged some gunge somewhere. Keep at it, but once the specialist cleaner is through, bio powder is the way forward for now, as gels and capsules do make it worse

Only things to add: check that the tube you use to drain water before cleaning the filter isn’t silted up (ours was once completely blocked & we had to remove & massage (!) it all out. I now use the ‘tub clean’ prog every week or so, draining the tube & cleaning the filter afterwards. Also, NEVER close the machine door completely when it’s not in use - I put a clothes peg on the catch.. Ours never smells now.

Definitely use bio powder to kill off any nasties lurking. Gels will not kill off the bacteria. I rarely clean my machine and it’s over 15 years old. Never smells musty. Don’t use conditioner either. Can’t stand the sliminess.

I found that the washer, which was connected to the kitchen sink drain, had a dip in the pipe. This resulted in water and gunk collecting in the dip. I had a new drain put in, through the wall and directly to the outside drain, and the problem was solved