Washing Machine Odor

Another tip-leave the washer door open in between cycles to dry out the inside!

1 mom found this helpful

Vinegar is great in the washing machine! One cup vinegar in a full load of water has worked for me.

I would fill it up with HOT water, soap and bleach, no laundrey.

This happened to me ONCE. Eventually the smell will leave the washer. Try bleach or vinegar. Throw the pants away. That's what I do now if there's an accident. It's not worth the hassle to me for a $12 pair of pants from Old Navy! I will never put poopy pants in the washing machine again. Good luck!

I have heard somewhere just a tiny bit of pinesol in the washer will get out smells i havent tried this but the friend i heard it from says it works great. gl

There is such a thing called Washer Magic. It is washer cleaner and deodorizer. Try that.

B. T.,

I put a cup or two of vinegar into a full washing machine of cold water with a cup of bleach and no clothing whatsoever. This usually cleans out any nasty odor. Let it go through the entire cycle on cold water and see if it gets out all the smell. If not, there must be some nasty water above the washer tub and you will need to scrub with your hands with cleanser and/or vinegar. I would think that would take care of all the stinky smell. It has always worked for me.

I forgot to mention that vinegar is a natural acid so you don't want any to get on colored clothing or it will make weird spots on those areas of clothing and make those areas a lighter color. I always wash whites after using vinegar in the washer so it doesn't matter if there is any vinegar left in the washing machine.

L. C.

fill the washer with hot water and dump a box of baking soda in it with some soap let it run thur then rinse once thur on a short cycle of rinse only with vinger apple cider vinger it should be good that the methood i used when i did clothes diapers leave open to air dry

We have use baking soda and let it run one cycle and then let it set and soak overnight. We had to do this when our cats decided that they wanted to us a laundry basket full of clothes instead of their litterbox. It worked for us.

A soak in vinegar might help. Or Target is said to sell Urine Gone, which is good for cat boxes but also for neutralizing human 'accident' odors.

I would wipe down the washer with Pine Sol

My washer smells, too lately but I have no idea why. It smells like stagnant water but there is none left in. I think I'll try the bleach idea and see what happens.

I would wash an empty load with powder dishwashing detergant. (This is great to get old stains out of clothes if made into a paste and put on the stain,let soak overnight, then wash.)
Leave door open between loads.
Good luck

I used vinegar in my rinse cycle with each washing, it totally keeps the washer clean and odor free. I use baking soda occasionally but the powder does get on the clothes sometimes, so maybe you could do the baking soda with towels and underwear instead of clothes.

Never tried them in the washer but either vinegar or baking soda should work. I'd leave it in water overnight for sure. Good luck!

Run a cycle of hot water and bleach only in the machine. If his clothes smell put them in a load of laudnry add your normal saop and one table spoon of bleach and wash. The smell should be gone. Bleach kills all germs and smells. But you don't want to use alot because it will discolor the clothes if ther edark so just a tablespoon.

I agree with the bleach suggestion ... we have issues with mold in our basement (we live in an older home) and this does the trick! I run one cycle empty with hot water & a cup of bleach. I then run 1 cycle after bleach to get it all out, then open up the lid to ensure everything dries well. Good luck!

I had a problem with my towels having an oder from our water. I now add a half a cup of vinnegar to each load and I haven't had a problem since. Good luck!

Vinegar is excellent for getting rid of smells in the washer and out of clothes. Along with your regular laundry soap, pour in a cup of vinegar and if you can set it for another rinse cycle. Should get rid of the smell, but if it happens again, soak the item in a vinegar and water mix and then wash as usual (with vinegar again). Hope this helps.

For mine...one white towel and the max dose of regular bleach. Run that through once or twice and you should be alright.

I have used the vingar in a hot cycle. Recently I got some kind of oil on my fav. pants, my hubby told me Lestoil would get it out. I finally found it at Meijer. It worked!! Be carefull how much you use it smells like a work shop but my pants didn't have a stain and they didn't stink like I thought they would form the Lestoil. Plus my washer looked brand new on the inside. That stuff works wonders!!

Try running a cycle with just bleach. I have done that and it worked great. Double check your machine, several of the models made in the last 5 years have a cycle for cleaning the actual washing machine.

One word for you girl, BLEACH.

B.,

Have you tried just running bleach through the machine? That might take out the smell.Try bleach and detergent together.

B. do you own a front loading machine? With the front loaders articles in the paper have mentioned to use only HE detergents.The appliance article claimed other soaps have animal by products that produce an odor .
We own one and the rubber seal in the front collects lint in the small brushes. We find cleaning the brushes and leaving the door open after washing the clothes helps and running massive amounts of bleach alone in a load also improves the odor for awhile. Here is a link with some suggestions.
http://homemanagement.suite101.com/article.cfm/washing_ma...

B.,

We just bought a new washer last fall, the new High Efficiency kind and it actually has a "clean washer" cycle.
All you have to do is run 1 cup of bleach through the cycle without interruptions You must let the cycle complete to make sure the bleach has completely cleaned out.
We were told that it is recommended to do this once a month.
They also told us this can/must be done with the older/regular machine style.

Good Luck!!

I wash my own diapers at home, and just use vinegar in between loads when it gets smelly. I never use bleach because it is so harmful for the environment and I have such a sensitivity to the smell. Check if there is a lint trap that you can wash, too. That might help.