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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We also suffered from the problem of clothes smelling very unpleasant immediately after then were washed. It was obviously the Washing Machine that has something wrong. Much research on the interest and the suggested treatments did not help.
I reverted to my swimming pool knowledge and after viewing a video showing what caused the problems, we treated our machine in the following way.
Our Machine has a Trommel Reinigung program (drum cleaning program – we are in germany). So using this program we put the machine through 4 consecutive cycles:
Cycle 1 : using a supermarket drain cleaner (caustic soda would also work). This is very good are removing the greasy/fatty building ups that cause the stink problem. Some of the liquid cleaners may cause a foam problem.
Cycle 2 : using white vinegar (about a liter) and with the drum cleaning program
Cycle 3 : using Cloudy Ammonia (it may be difficult to buy – in germany you can by it from hardware stores in the paint section under the name Salmiak Geist / Ammoniak). Be careful and DO NOT BREATHE in the fumes. This product is very good at removing fat …. but it is harsh.
Cycle 4 : using a cheap supermarket powder designed for dishwashers. We used quiet a lot, about 1 full tea cup of powder.
After this process we appear to have solved our stinking washing problem.
Why are we consumers stuck with HE machines??? We have choices
among cars that are more efficient, so why do we have next to no choices
if we choose “front loading” washers? What “Big Brother” has made
this decision on our behalf???
agreed. I miss the old fashioned agitating top loader
I consider myself an experienced, meticulous laundress. Got my first front loader in 2005. That was the first time I’d dealt with odours. I used the recommended cleaning products but could not get rid of the smell. Replaced the set in December 2013 and once again the odour issue was back. I cleaned and cleaned, read advice online. Baking soda, Borax and vinegar were all supposed to remedy the problem but were not effective for me. Last week I came across a post that recommended switching to a powdered detergent. The theory being that liquid detergent is similar to fabric softener in that it can cause build up. I immediately ran out and bought powdered soap. THE ODOUR IS GONE!! I can now walk into my laundry room without being assaulted by that nasty odour. Not sure if this is the solution for everyone but I thought I would put it out there as another option.
Wow, so happy your odor is gone! Thanks for sharing!
Thank so much for the tip. I don’t like my front loader either because of the mold issue and because i cannot let the clothing soak. If we had not paid so much for it ….I would be going back to a top loader. I use to soak my clothes by opening the cover and stopping the wash cycle. The clothes sat in the detergent for a half hour or so. Worked wonders. Front loaders will not let you soak your clothes and it is so disappointing. I also find i have to re-rinse bleach loads defeating the purpose of saving water. If anyone had found a way to soak in a front loader…please let me know.
I’m not sure why you need to soak your laundry in the first place. I can see a soiled item, but you could soak it in the sink. You can also try using a prespotter such as Zout. I’ve used it for shirt collars, wine stains and other stains and have never had a problem. Read the posts in this column, especially the very detailed one from Andrew in Sept. 2014 about using these machines and give yours another shot. I’ve had mine since 2008 and have been very pleased with it. Since I found the vinegar suggestions here,
My Maytag front loading HE washer is getting that horrible smell and was wondering what I could use because those cleaning tabs don’t quite do it so I am running it right now with your vinegar solution. I will know soon enough if it does the trick. Thank you for sharing!!! 🙂
I can’t believe I spent $1000 on a washer that smells and doesn’t clean the laundry. I will try vinegar but I think I would prefer my money back and buy another. I too dried the machine and left the door open in hopes it would rectify the sour smell -to no avail.
I wanted to say thanks for this post. We just bought an HE washer yesterday and that was my first question, Can I still add vinegar to my laundry? I have 7 dogs and many, many doggy blankets. I use vinegar with these loads and all our bedding. Keeps my linens smelling fresh.
It would seem that there is an agreement in most of the sites I have looked at that you should use powdered detergent and use vinegar in the wash in place of chlorine bleach or fabric softener. Then softener sheets in the dryer.
I guess I am in the minority because I absolutely LOVE my HE washer and dryer. I inherited a Maytag Neptune many years ago and it gets my clothes beautifully clean, however, it does get an odor and requires a monthly deep cleaning to get it out.
I used your tip of vinegar in the wash and now I am happy to say I no longer have to do the monthly cleaning!! I have a feeling the washer is on it’s way out, the dryer just died and I replaced it with an LG steam fresh. (love it!) So will probably go with the matching washer, and a ton of vinegar for it as well!!
Thanks so much for this!
My HE washer had never washed properly. I searched for “how to increase water level in a front loader” on Youtube. It was a very simple adjustment to add more water to every load. Now my clothes come out just as clean as my old top loader while still using less water. It will not wreck your machine.
Simply put the washer discharge hose into a large tote and you can see how much water the machine will use. Originally mine used less than 40 litres of water which saves nothing when you need to wash everything 3 times. It now uses up to 76 litres per wash but the clothes/towels come out clean. My old top loader used up to 160+ litres per wash.
Dean do you have a link on how to do this? I am sure others here would like to research this. Great tip, did not know you could do this!
Hi. I was going to purchase an old style top loader when I found out you could raise the water level. I washed a large comforter( dog barf infused) today. It came out nice and clean.
Here is the address.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9sySGXiGZA
omg thanks alot hopefully this will help me out with this horrible smell on all my so called “clean” laundry im trying it out today!
You are welcome.
I did not realize how crappy my machine cleaned until I did laundry at my inlaws. The water in their top loader was almost black. Ewwww.
For those of you that are done with HE machines, and wants something that actually works without the BS and the headaches, try Speed Queen. Simple, mechanical, old school washer, gets the job done in 25 minutes.
Hello, I am having an HE top loading machine delivered next week as my old workhorse agitator died. So sad. Dreading any problem with the smell, this seems so rampant. Gld i found your article. Question 1: I hate the smell of vinegar, makes me absolutely sick. When you add vinegar to the wash, does the wash come out with any vinegar smell at all, or is it all gone once it’s done? Question 2: Some people said to add it to the bleach compartment, some said fabric softener compartment. What is the difference? I know if you add regular fabric softener, that you to add a fabric softener setting to the wash cycle. I just want to know which place is better to add it, bleach or FS? And want to make sure it won’t smell like vinegar at ALL! Thanks!