Washing Machine Powder/Liquid advice

kindofagilr

I am obv not the original poster but some great tips here as my OH's undershirts could do with a seperate harder wash lol

Bogof_Babe

This has been most enlightening, especially about the liquid/gel leaving residue. I changed from powder as I was getting white streaks left on the clothes, but that could be because I was overloading the machine . Our machine has been pongy for a few weeks now, and nothing seems to improve it.

Think I'd better go back to powder and wash fewer items at a time.

BitterAndTwisted

Vinegar in the final rinse instead of fabric conditioner will leave washing fluffy and smell-free, even towels. The odour disappears completely once the fabric has dried. Give it a try, you've got nothing to lose except saving quite a lot of money.

bubblegumcola

I used Ecover liquid for months and months and months and then got my machine serviced and was asking the engineer about powder versus liquid. He said to use powder and also to do an empty hot wash with biological powder to kill/eat the bugs that build up in you machine. I've been vinegar in my machine with bicarb of soda as well to clean it but fancy trying the soda crystals as it works out cheaper.

So on the advice of the (independant) engineer I only use powder now and try to do a hot empty wash every couple of weeks. I do notice if I overfill my machine then the powder does leave streaks on clothes, otherwise my washing comes out fine afterwards. I'm currently using persil naturals powder as it was on offer a few weeks ago, I just use whatever is on offer now for non-bio and have a small box of bio stuff for my hot empty wash or really dirty stuff.

brighthair

when you say still smell, do you mean in the under arm bit? Some of my tops had a build up of deo, and smelt clean but when I wore them smelt like sweat - ugh! Today I tipped bicarb of soad on the arm bit of the top, then distilled vinegar, left for ten mins and popped in the wash - smell gone!

apples1

Our washing machine has black mould on the thick rubber seal bit inside the door. Even if we scrub it hard and use bleach it does not all come off and soon comes back. I have even tried doing an empty wash with just bleach in.

I do use non-bio powder for 99% of my washes altho sometimes do a whites load with bio powder and then straight away wash again with non-bio (we don't use bio as irriates children's skin).

What's the best way to remove this mould and keep it away. I thought hot washes make bio worthless as they work better on 40 or less so I've not tried doing an empty hot wash with bio.

northwest1965

I also agree with distilled vinegar for getting rid of the smell of sweat. I no longer use fabric softener either

To avoid the rubber going mouldy I always wipe uot after a wash with a cloth and leave the door open

Gingernutmeg

I'm not sure you can get rid of the mould once it's there, but I have heard that eucalyptus oil can sometimes shift it. Obviously you'd need to go carefully, and you'd probably need to do a boil wash asfterwards to get rid of the oil, but it might be worth a go. I'd be careful with bleach, as it might rot the rubber ... but if you've done it before and it's done no harm then maybe the Dettol mould and mildew spray might help?

Failing that, there's not a great deal you can do about it - I don't know if you can replace the rubber bit? The best way to get rid of it is never to get it in the first place lol - my OH moans about the washing machine door and drawer always being open but keeping it dry and aired it the best way to stop it going mouldy.

BitterAndTwisted

Yes you can get that rubber diaphragm replaced because I had the repair chap round to do just that when my machine started leaking. It didn't cost that much either

Horasio

I seem to get those horrible white marks on dark fabric no matter how small the load is. It is really getting on my wick:(

It is even worse with powder