Washing machine smells bad and smell transfers to clothes
Hey folks. First time poster here. We have the above machine and have had it for about 18 months 2 years now, but it has had a horrible black deposit on all the internals of the machine including the soap drawer and chute running down the pipe into the machine for quite some time. It has also left a black sludge on the inside of the door seal.
Not only does the inside of the machine smell but it has transferred the smell to the clothes, so they are left with a foisty smell once they are dry. The smell is very pungent and it is horrible as it obviously follows you around everywhere. I have bought Hoovers own brand machine cleaner, but that doesn't seem to work. Yesterday I resorted to putting a load of bicarbonate of soda in the drum itself and sqirted some bleach into the soap drawer and ran it on a 90 degree wash, but empty.
We do live in a good water area (no limescale), but I don't know where this biofilm is coming from. We keep and use our machine in a utility cupboard, but all the plumbing is routed out of the cupboard and down the drain.
We did have an Indesit machine a few years ago and that had the same problem and we threw it out after a year. Quite clearly there is a problem, but I am at a loss as to what it is. We are at our wits end as the machine and our clothes are tainted with this awful smell.
Can anybody shed any light as to the problem?
Thanks alot
Malc
Solution Summary
AI-generated from this discussion
This thread was marked as solved. Here's a summary of the problem and the fix, generated from the discussion below.
Washing machine heavily contaminated with black sludge and foul smell affecting clothes
- The problem
- The washing machine had a black deposit throughout the internals, including the soap drawer, dispenser chute and door seal. The machine smelled strongly and the odour transferred to clothes after washing and drying. The owner had already tried the manufacturer's machine cleaner, bicarbonate of soda, bleach in the drawer and an empty 90 degree wash without success.
- Likely cause
- Severe build-up of slime, mould and general gunge inside the washing machine. The accepted reply stated it was too badly affected to be fixed once contamination had reached this stage.
- What fixed it
- The accepted advice was that the machine was beyond recovery and that prevention is the best approach for future machines. No further repair method was confirmed in the discussion.
- Checks to try
- Black sludge/deposit seen in the soap drawer, dispenser chute and door seal
- Strong bad smell present inside the machine
- Smell transferred to washed clothes
- Manufacturer's machine cleaner tried without success
- Empty 90 degree wash with bicarbonate of soda and bleach tried without success
- Parts or tools mentioned
- Hoover machine cleaner
- bicarbonate of soda
- bleach
2 Answers
To be honest, it sounds like it's too badly affected to be fixed. Once a washing machine gets badly gunged up with slime, limescale and mould, it's too late to do anything. Prevention is the best policy. I have an article on this very problem here - what causes black mould on washing machines?
Need Professional Help or Spare Parts?
Excellent. Thanks very much. This problem has been driving me mad for ages. Hopefully no more rancid clothes.
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