Washing machine leaves stains on any clothes
I leave in a town house and there is a Maytag washing machine.
The washing machine leaves stains on any clothes (see attached images). This is most noticeable on dark clothes such as black and red.
I opened the top of the machine, cleaned out as much of the grime on top of the drum as I could and then found a thick layer of disgusting built-up grime on the outside of the drum. I put a towel behind the drum and spined it until the towel turned black (see attached videos and images). I washed the towel and repeated this over 20 times. In the attached video you can see the gunk coming out through the holes in the drum of the washing machine. The towel pushed all the grime inside (see videos here and here). I repeated the process until there was apparently no grime left on the towel or in those holes. There seems to be no grime now, at least on the outside of the drum.
After that, I used 2 liters (a cup at a time) in the "liquid bleach" dispenser and inside the drum itself, one cycle after another for several hours straight, and used the "clean washer" cycle several times after that. But it doesn't seem to have helped, all the clothes are still stained. I think even though I cleaned outside the drum, there is still build-up grime underneath the drum.
I tried changing the detergent (even though I used the same one for 10 years in other apartments I lived in), using different cycles, cleaning the machine, etc, but nothing helped.
What can be my next steps to figure out the issue before asking the landlord to replace the washing machine?
BTW, when I moved into this house, the washer and dryer were extremely dirty and covered in sticky grime.
washing_machine_2.mp4
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.
Maytag washer staining clothes due to severe internal gunge build-up
- The problem
- A Maytag washing machine was leaving stains on all laundry, especially dark items. The owner found heavy black grime on and around the drum, including residue coming through the drum holes, and repeated manual cleaning plus multiple bleach and clean-washer cycles did not stop the staining.
- Likely cause
- The accepted reply says the machine is heavily contaminated with gunge on inaccessible drum surfaces and likely inside hoses, making it effectively impossible to clean out fully. The stated cause of this type of build-up is mainly repeated low-temperature washes and use of liquid detergent.
- What fixed it
- The accepted advice was that, once contamination is this severe, proper cleaning is usually not achievable. The practical next step is to raise it with the landlord, as replacement is likely to be more realistic than further cleaning. The exact final repair was not confirmed in the discussion.
- Checks to try
- Visible black grime found on top/outside of the drum
- Residue was seen coming through the drum holes while the drum was rotated
- Repeated manual wiping/cleaning of the drum exterior was carried out
- Multiple bleach cycles were run using the dispenser and drum
- The clean-washer cycle was run several times
- Changing detergent and wash cycles did not resolve the staining
1 Answer
Hi. Unfortunately once a washing machine gets that bad it's usually impossible to clean it out properly. It probably does have this gunge coating on parts of the drum you can't reach, plus inside all the hoses.
It is caused by doing mostly low temperature wash cycles and liquid detergent.
My article here explains everything about the problem - washing machine covered in gunge
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