Bad Smells

Hi. Thanks for the quick reply. It drains into the ubend under the sink. The drain hose connects to a dual connector for the washing machine and dishwasher. This was fitted when we had kitchen revamped a few years back. No smells come from sink drain, but I've not tried smelling the sink drain when washer running...

Hi Chrish. Yours is a little unusual as the smell is usually all pervasive, though maybe it’s in the early stages yet.

My first though is that there is a build up of gunge and nasty stuff coating the outer drum inside and is giving off smell when warmed up.

Peel back the door seal at the lip of the inner drum. Have a good look underneath the door seal. Is there any “gunge” there?

Do you use liquid detergent? Do you mostly use low temperature washes?

Have a good read of my article here and some of the relevant links within it Why does my washing machine-smell?

Thanks Andy. I'll have a look at the door seal. My wife does clean the seal regularly but prob didn't peel it back. Yes we do use liquid detergent as the machine has issues with powder, no matter how little is put in, it foams up so badly it leaks!!. We mainly use 40degree cycles. We used to do a maintainence wash every week, the machine had a drum clean setting, to try and cure the foaming issue, but now use it once a month. We have done washes with bleach in, as we used to have issues with a smelly drums, but this has now gone away, and there is no drum smell at all. When we do a wash with bleach it to get rid of the drum smell, the washing machine repair person, said just get it so the bleach froths up, then switch machine off and leave overnight, and drain the the morning. I'm at the point now where I will try anything .....😒

Had a look at that part of the seal. There is some muck,and what looks like mould spots there. Also rather worryingly there is a coating of grey sludge, although it doesn't smell at all. I've added a photo. Thanks for the help...

Also of note, it was doing this today. I noted the main area for the smell is around the detergent drawer. The other half noted that it doesn't seem to smell on mini 30 washes,just normal washes.

How old is it Chrish?

It's only around 2yrs old. It gets a fair amount of use though.

The edge of the door seal looks like it’s breaking down and soft, tacky? That’s not to be expected at such a young age. Could anything unusual other than detergent and fabric softener be getting into it?

Not as I know of.... We only used to use washing liquid, only recently started to use fabric conditioner as well. Could this be the cause of the smell .... We did used to use powder and tablets, but this caused the washer to badly foam up, no matter how little we used.

Sorry for late reply, Chrish. The rubber deterioration I can see is usually associated with when people used to use nappysan to per soak cotton nappies (that's mostly fallen out of fashion, I'd have thought) or doing boil washes all the time. The rubber is breaking down, and that's not normal wear and tear. It's usually caused by excess heat or some sort of chemical reaction.

When you say washing liquid, I presume you mean liquid laundry detergent and not washing up liquid Even a small drop of washing up liquid would cause a lot of excess soap suds inside a washing machine.

Liquid detergent is rubbish as far as my experience goes. It doesn't contain bleach, and especially if combined with mostly low temperature washes it typically results in a nasty build up of gunge and slime inside the washing machine and hoses, and seals. This rots them and causes bad smells.

I wonder if your experience of excessive foaming and soapsuds made you not only switch to liquid detergent, but be extra careful about the amount of liquid detergent you put in? I would say if you switch to liquid detergent, wash mostly at 30 or 40 degrees, and also not use the exact amount of detergent specified that would cause a bad build up of grime and grease inside the washing machine.

It's not normal at all to have excessive foam in the washing machine when using the correct amount of powdered detergent. Read my article here - what causes too much foam and soap suds in washing machine?

Mains suspects would be if also using anti limescale tables, have some sort of water softening device, or having soft water and using an amount of detergent appropriate for normal or even hard water. In the past, another suspect used to be using the wrong type of detergent. But that was when twin tubs were prevalent, and you had its own formula for twin tubs only.

Thanks. Sorry for late reply. Yes we now use liquid, all normally at 40degrees. We never had an excess foaming issue on any other machine we have had. We have never used nappysan on this machine, kids are teenagers now 😆😆. I am at a loss, the smells getting worse but only when water in machine up to temp. Once temp drops machines stops smelling...My wife also mentioned it didn't do this when she occasionally uses a mini 30 setting. Last night we but some bleach in, to let it fiam up, and leave overnight. It never foamed up, so we left it to run with bleach in, on a 40 wash. It didn't make any smell..... I am going to try a wash with just the liquid we use and no clothes see if it smells as I'm suspecting the liquid is reacting with something once water gets warm. We have used 2 variety's of liquid so far. Any more advice would be gratefully received as I'm about to chuck the machine out. I was also going to run with just water in, and then try with done soap powder in.

Hello Chrish. It sounds to me like there is a possibility of a big coating of gunge and maybe undissolved liquid detergent all inside your washing machine. This could account for both the smell, and excessive foaming. The bleach that you put in may have suppressed the foam.

If you put the washing machine on a hot wash without any laundry in, Do you get a lot of foam in the drum after 20 minutes or so?

how about could it be drain smell? or some undissolved washing liquid down the drain pipe (of the house, not the washing machine) transferring its way up to the washing machine drum.

One other plus of doing a service wash of 90'c with no washing inside the machine and no liquid at least once a month is that when it empties out of the drum you will have 90'c (well should be over 60'c at least) water going down the houses drain pipes to help dissolve gunge and (hopefully) kill mould that can smell ,like rotten eggs sometimes, which isn't a bad thing at all

other than that , you could try using Dettol antibac laundry cleanser , 1 cap in every wash cycle - it has a hint of smell as well that may help mask the rotten egg smell as well as killing bacteria at lower temperatures (beginning to sound like an advert now LOL)

Good luck hope this helps

Well oddly enough...... As stated we ran a 40degree wash with bleach in, normally to get it to foam up, and then switch off overnight. It didn't foam up, so just let it run the cycle. Got more bleach, and this time it did foam up, so switched off and left overnight. Ran a drum clean cycle day after, and we also pealed the seal right back and cleaned up all that grey gunk on it. For 2 washes now, no smell, although you can still smell it slightly if you get right up to the powder drawer. Going to start using powder and see what happens, and for a few weeks, do the above again, to try and totally clean the machine ...

@Chrish72 - after each wash do you leave the door of the washing machine open as well (even if it is a bit ajar)? and also the soap drawer open a bit? - it might help dry out things like and prevent mould on the grey door gasket and the soap drawer

Thanks for all the replies.

We are doing a bleach clean every week, and pulling out the seal and giving it a good clean every week. Smell now seems to have gone away, but isnt it a bit much to have to really pull out the seal and give it a good clean every week? It really does get full of grey sticky gunge, even after a week. Is it breaking down? How easy are seals to replace?

Yes we do leave the door and power compartment open every night.

Thanks for the update Chrish. I think if you use a good quality powdered detergent, and make sure that you use the proper amount recommended on the packet for the hardness of your water and the level of the soiling, plus you mostly use 40° washes, but do regular 60° washes when possible, or if not do a maintenance 60 - 90 degree wash, with no laundry inside once a month then you should not really have much of a problem.

As I originally said, this problem with washing machines getting guns stop inside with horrible slime and mould is caused by low temperature washes and liquid detergent.

I remember a few years back a washing machine manufacturer (Haier I think it was) bringing out a washing machine with an anti-bacterial door gasket / seal and I thought actually what a good Idea and that all washing machines should have done that by now these days , especially with all the fold's of the door gasket and hard to reach places of it to wash and dry it .

Going back even a few more years , Hotpoint I think it was (think it was called Hotpoint Moon or something) brought out a high end washing machine that got a hell of a slating by end users about smell , I think it was featured on the BBC watchdog programme as well about it. I think basically it would not go over in 40 or 60c and a lot of bacteria and germs (which can make machines smell) can survive through 40c and need something like an over 60c at over an hour to kill them

I reviewed that washing machine Andy - Indesit moon washing machine review and yes it was rubbish, but promoted as though it was a genius new washer.

The best door seal I ever saw was on the short-lived Dyson washing machine. It completely did away with the thin bellows bit between the door frame and the drum. They just used a hard rubber flange around the door frame.

If you look at the photo, the purple bit is the door seal. They achieved this by using an extra frame, a sort of frame within a frame. It's hard to explain, but the main outer frame was separate to the frame around the rest of the machine. Anyway, there was very little to wear out or go mouldy, and extremely easy to replace. It was similar to the door seal on a tumble dryer.

We have reverted back to powder now. Since we gave the very inner part of the seal a good clean and got rid of that grey sludge, it's been fine. No smell and the powder isn't foaming up. God only knows what it was, even after it was cleaned and we were using up the last of the liquid it was fine. We now do a bleach clean once a month, with a drum clean cycle afterwards. Maybe overkill don't know. Thanks for the help......

oh yeah those Dyson ones were cool (well looked it) - I bet they were ultra expensive seeing how they price their vac's and everything else they produce. That washing machine was the one with 2 different revolving drums inside running at opposite revolution to each other wasn't that the one? - the nearest I have seen near it is the Samusung Q-Drive ones I think, the back of the drum went one way and the 'normal' part of the drum went opposite way. I think on them they Had /have 2 inverter motors , 2 belts and 2 pulleys!

strange design , but cuts down on washing times supposedly.

Yep, i suppose on the door gasket type if you dont wipe them down, in those bellows you have water and soap that never get a good chance to get air to the folded parts and just moist turns mouldy eventually.

Yes, though they had 2 motors in to drive it. All way too complicated and unnecessary. It was £1000 about 20 years ago. In many ways the best washing machine I ever had, and if developed and improved it could have become a really great washing machine. I was very disappointed when they abandoned it after just one version.

Did some people complain of torn clothes at the time because of the action of the drum, one going one way and the other half going in the opposite direction?

This is the washing machine i would have got if I had the money , the Samsung WW10H9600EW with an ipad like touchpad control panel, think that was around the near on £2000 price mark that was abandoned after version 1 too:

I don't remember anything about tearing clothes. We didn't have any problem with ours. £2000 for a washing machine is crazy unless it's gonna last 40 years. 😀