Smelly washing machines

Probably the question I hear most often...

"Why does my washer smell?"

There's probably a million things that can make your washing machine smell bad. But most 'bad smell' problems in washing machines are causes by one (or usually a combination) of three things.

1. Too many low temperature washes
2. Misusing (over using) detergent
3. Leaving the door closed between washes

To try and explain and bit more....

Low temperature washes

Low temperature washes might be good for the environment, but they are bad for your local environment once you get a smelly washer. It's not just the smell. The smell comes from bacteria, and bacteria will get on your clothes, your bedding, your baby stuff!!! Whatever you wash really.

Bacteria is introduced to the machine via dirt from your washing. Any wash under sixty degrees is just a breeding ground for germs. But germs are killed when you wash on a sixty degree (or higher) wash. Of course, most materials can't be washed at sixty degrees, but if you want to prevent your washing machine from smelling, you need to find something you can wash weekly on a sixty degree wash. Or just do a maintenance wash without a load.

There are other ways to kill bacteria, which brings me to point number two...

Detergent

10/20 years ago people didn't get smelly washing machines. Why not? Because all the detergents contained bleach, and bleach kills bacteria. But nowadays detergent manufactures want to protect the colours in your washing, so they use enzime to clean your materials rather than bleach. Great for protecting colours. Bad for smelly washers! It doesn't help in our area (East Lancashire) that we have very soft water too.