Musty Smell – Washing Machine

Great info as always from the minds of IDO. Thanks a bunch!

Smelly washer works. It is a good product developed by a local appliance repair guy. Smelly Washer

However, even he said you do not need it. He had 3 tips.

1) Use powdered detergent not liquid
2) Use the reccomended amount of detergent. In this case more is bad.
3) Occasionally add a cup of baking soda to a load of laundry. The smell is from soap scum and the baking soda acts as an abrasive to remove the scum.

There was an article about him and his product in the StarTribune a couple years ago. We have followed his advice and it solved the problem.

Make sure your using HE soap and wipe the front booth out with bleach, also don’t use anymore soap than you need, with HE soap a little goes a long ways.
Shy away from cold only washing temps, soap doesn’t/may not work well under 65-70 degree’s

Al

Also most front loads are HE machines and require HE soap which is basically a lower sudsing soap. If you use or have used the regular soap for awhile the suds build up and causes the moldy smell. I have a used FL washer and have been using the HE soap and Tide washing machine cleaner for a couple weeks now. And I keep the door open. I can still smell the mustiness but not as bad. There is also a product called Smelly Washer that is supposed to work good too but haven’t tried it.