My Purchase of a High-Efficiency Washer and Dryer
About 10 years ago, I purchased my first front loader high efficiency (HE) washer machine and dryer. High-efficiency washer machines use less water and are more energy efficient making this a great purchase right?
Well yes and no… let me explain my struggles. I remember when I first brought my new washing machine home. I did my first load of laundry and thought something has to be wrong here.
First, it sounded like a plane was taking off in my laundry room! Second, there is no water or very little water at that when my clothes were washing! How can these clothes get clean?
So I called the manufacture and started to ask questions. This was normal and she assured me the clothes would get clean.
Why Aren’t My Clothes Getting Clean?
So over time I accepted the loud noises coming from my laundry room and learned to accept the really low water levels, but I do have to say that I was and am not impressed with how these HE washer machines clean my clothes.
I have to pretreat my stains and pretty much get the stain out before I put them in the wash or they just don’t get clean. Now I should put a disclaimer on this. I have always been the type of person who just throws my laundry in the wash, adds a bit of soap and expects them to come clean.
Laundry isn’t one of my favorite chores, to say the least. So maybe if I put a little more effort into pre-treating my clothes I might have better results in this department.
There is one challenge that I just couldn’t conquer however and that was the smell that was coming from my HE washer machine!
What is that horrible smell?
So over time, my washer machine began to smell. Not only did it smell moldy and musty but my clothes were starting to smell this way too.
I researched what to do about it and there was advise all over the place on what you should and should not do for bad smelling HE washer machines.
I hired someone to come out and clean and balance my machine. That worked for a little while but the smell came back in a few weeks. I kept my washing machine door open when not using it so it could dry out, but that didn’t fully work either. I purchased the expensive HE washer machine tablets to do on a monthly cycle but those failed very quickly.
Finally, in a last-ditch effort to have clean smelling clothes, I added this one ingredient and everything changed!
Add this one ingredient to every load for fresh smelling laundry & for a clean HE washer machine!
So just what is this ingredient I am talking about? Well, it will cost you about a $1.00 per gallon and can be found in any grocery store! Wait for it 🙂 ….alright, it is vinegar! Vinegar you ask…yep, that’s right vinegar! Now I use plain white vinegar and here is how I use it.
Just like you buy laundry detergent, I buy a gallon of vinegar and keep it right next to my washer machine. I load my HE washer machine up with clothes, add my soap and then in the bleach dispenser, I fill it all the way to the top with white vinegar.
The vinegar helps kill the bacteria that grows in your washer machine and kills the odor. Not only does it kill the odor, but it helps with cleaning my clothes too. If that wasn’t enough, it also softens your clothes naturally.
Is Vinegar The Answer To Everything?
So let’s take a look at this: vinegar cleans clothes, gets rid of nasty smells in laundry and in the machine and it softens your clothes too!
Wow, I would call vinegar my little miracle in the laundry room! Who knew one little ingredient could do so much!
So finally I have clean soft clothes and a washer machine that doesn’t smell. I still have a plane taking off in my laundry room, however, but I can live with that :)!
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thanks for the tip. i already use vinegar as a rinse & did slow down the smell but i never thought to put it in the bleach compartment..cant wait to do another laundry to try it out
I have been using vinegar in my clothes for a year now, I think it brightens colors, removes odors (car oil), and really brightens whites. I too have a Front Loading HE washer (it will be my last!), and have the odor problems. If my door stays open then that helps tremendously! But alas, I still have to use the expensive washer cleaners (makes no sense to me HOW can a machine that cleans get dirty?) anyway, my question prior to my rambling was…do you now leave your door shut?
I keep the door open all the time
For accuracy’s sake, vinegar (acetic acid) is more of an anti-fungal than an anti-bacterial. It may have some bacteriostatic activity, but it is a wonderfully thorough killer of all kinds of mold and fungus, which are major culprits in causing odors. Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is also a wonderful anti-fungal, and using it in powdered form (just 1/4 tsp or so) in your flour bin (and other similar foods, e.g. rice or oats) will eliminate mold (and weevil) growth.
We use vinegar as fabric softener and also with the final spin cycle when doing cloth diaper loads. Finding a good cloth diaper cleaning routine can be a task but the vinegar really helps strip the cloth so that it maintains absorbancy and rids it of odors. We’ve had a front loader for 5+ years and love it- ours it actually much quieter than the old top loader which is nice since the laundry is adjacent to the kitchen.
I balance my front loader with a piece of cardboard under one corner as mine to sounds like a space shuttle going off. Thanks for the vinigar tip, mine too smells terrible and I am forever cleaning the mold out of the dispenser. Do you also need to add vinigar to the softening dispenser for that cycle.
UGHHH..I hate my front loader. Have a LG one. Have the smell and the clothes are not clean. I have used vinegar for a long time. Still stinks! jan
Jan I have probably the same model as you LG… Not impressed and it wasn’t cheap either!
We’ve had our LG Tromm for several years now and love it. We do use vinegar for fabric softener and add some lavender essential oil to the vinegar. We make our own liquid laundry soap, and we use hydrogen peroxide in the bleach compartment. We do drain in out at least once a week and clean out that filter at that time. We also leave the door open to air it out. We haven’t had a real bad odor ever, but my mom’s had the odor problem and started using vinegar and it has helped her. For her it was the fabric softener build up causing her the problem.
I bought a Samsung front loader about 2 years ago. I love it! I have never had an odor problem. I leave the door open and never use commercial fabric softener. I make my own detergent. The salesman told me the way to avoid the odor common in front loaders is to never use liquid fabric softener. It builds up in the machine and then starts to rot. I sometimes use vinegar (when I remember). I also run a cleaning cycle when the machine tells me to. I picked the Samsung because it has it’s own cleaning cycle and does not need the expensive washer cleaning tablets.
It is not just the he machines that smell. I have a top loading machine that is one of the quiet machines where the clothes do not agitate back and forth but are pulled down. It has 3 water levels but I have to clean it every month or so. I wish I had never got that type but you live and learn. It cost about as much to keep it clean as you pay for laundry detergent, I am glad to learn of the vinegar and will definitely try itl Thanks for the article!
Sarah
Thank you SO much for this information! I LOATHE my front-loading HE washer because it always stinks no matter what I do and my towels never smell good. Today I put vinegar in the bleach dispenser and now my towels smell fresh and clean for the first time in almost a year! Whoo-hoo!
I’m glad to hear others don’t like their HE washers, it seemed I was the only one. I bought a frontloader HE about 10 yrs ago. 3 months later I insisted the store take it back. NOTHING came clean! Their claim I could wash 20 pairs of jeans or towels was totally bogus. I couldn’t wash 4 pairs of jeans well! I bought a used top loader/agitator washer again, and voila, clean clothes. I used it several years and it finally died also, and I was forced to pick out another HE because that is all you can find now (was told toploaders are not being manufactured any more). I used That washer for 6 months and HATED it! NOTHING came clean, and watching it wash, no wonder! It didn’t move the clothes at all and there was no water! Even pretreating didn’t help! I insisted Lowes take it back, but was again forced to buy another HE. In deep humiliation, a MAN made me watch videos there in the store on “how” to wash clothes in an HE. I was so mad, I told him I’d raised FOUR boys on a farm, we had never had trouble with having clean clothes until now!! Anyway, this one I have now is a bit better, but to be honest, I’ve never wanted to say this outloud, I’ve never been satisfied on the efficiency of it cleaning ‘under garments’ or socks. I think that is why the popularity of the dumb commercials for toilet paper keeping your undies cleaner and stuff has gotten so popular, because these newer washers aren’t doing their job!! Thanks for the tip, I just needed to vent about these stupid washers. I told my husband I’d be looking for an old wringer washer at this rate! (yes, I’ve owned those also!) I hope none of you ladies are ever forced to watch videos on how to wash clothes in a Lowes store like you are a moron. I will try the vinegar, I use it in my dishwasher, and for other things, so this has got to be a good thing, even if it doesn’t really help remove dirty sock stains, lol.
Geeez … Let me just say I am very glad I read this before purchasing a new HE front loading machine because now I def won’t be ! I’m sorry you ladies had to learn the hard way. That is SO not right !
I understand the HE top loading machines are just as bad and leave clothing dry with dry soap at the top of the wash load when the cycle is finished