When you wash dirty loads of clothes, muddy and smelly shoes and clean grimy socks, where do the dirt and bacteria go? Some of them are washed down the washer drain. And some of them stay in your washer. If you don’t have a habit of cleaning and maintaining your washer, you should not be surprised to find it smelly one day.
In many washing machine reviews, people give a washer negative points because it smells funny after some time. But the problem is usually not in the washer. Front loaders, in comparison to top load washer machines, are not as efficient in draining water completely. That is due to its normal h-axis engineering. In top loaders, water is drained completely because of its vertical drum.
In addition to that, you can just leave the drum door open all the time. A front loader’s drum door can take up space in small rooms so it is cumbersome to leave it open all the time. As a result, excess moisture is trapped inside. This creates an appropriate environment for mold and bacteria to take up residence in your washer. When mold and bacteria are produced, a bad odor is also produced.
You don’t have to change your washing machine brand. You just need to follow a few tips in maintaining your washer and keep it smelling fresh all the time. If you want to do this, here are the things you need to consider:
1. Open the drum door long enough to dry the excess moisture inside. If you are in a hurry and you do not have enough time to clean your washer, just wipe the interior of the drum with a clean towel and then leave the drum door open. Air from the outside will circulate in your washer and prevent the likelihood of bacteria and molds from ever developing. If your laundry space is too limited, just leave the drum door open for at least 15 minutes.
2. After every washing cycle, run an empty hot water cycle and add a cup of white vinegar. The benefits of vinegar go beyond perfuming your washer. It can even help remove mold and lime build-up in your washer to prevent clogging. While it is in the churning process, pause the cycle for about 15 minutes. This will further help remove the odor and whatnot in your washer. Resume the cycle afterwards and allow the machine to drain it off completely. Run a cold water cycle afterwards to wash off the smell of vinegar.
3. You can also try substituting with baking soda. Not many people know that baking soda has effective smell-diffusing abilities. Run an empty hot water cycle and add a cup of baking soda just like the previous step. It is important to use the hot water cycle in order to completely dissolve baking soda particles. Allow the machine to finish the whole cycle before draining it off completely. If you want to save on energy and water, you can try mixing this cleaning ingredient with a bit of warm water to form a paste. Use the paste to scrub the walls of the washer drum where most of the dirt and bacteria are clinging. When you are done, run an empty warm water cycle to wash the paste up completely.
4. As a substitute to the vinegar solution, try the juice of lemon. Citrus scents eliminate bad odor. Extract about a cup of lemon juice and then add this to the warm or cold water cycle of your washing machine. Also pause it for 15 minutes to allow the solution to work.
5. Here is another tip in preventing bad smell from forming in your washer—make sure you wash off dirt and grime debris first from your laundry before dumping them in your washer. Just pre-treat it or give it a bit of wash under a faucet to remove dirt. These tend to cling on the walls of your washer drum or the drain pipes.
6. Use enzymes to clean your washer. This ensures that bacteria will not breed inside your washer. Imagine the enzymes existing in yogurt. When you eat yogurt, it fights off bad bacteria in your body. That is exactly what it does in your washer. In addition to this benefit, it is a natural cleaning material so you are not harming Mother Nature.
7. Purchase natural cleaning solution. You can easily find this in the market. Choose those with antibacterial properties that can help eliminate bad micro organisms. You can choose from citrus or floral scents.
Cleaning your washer is a breeze if you consider using these steps after using your washing machine.
Posted under How to Choose Your Washing Machine
This post was written by smellywasher on April 8, 2010
