Stinky washing territory again, I'm afraid

building_with_lego

Hello :wave:

We have an occasional problem with smelly washing and would like your advice, oh wise ones. How do we eradicate that delightful smell of wee from our clothes? You know the smell you get when your clothes haven't dried properly? We're getting it when they HAVE dried properly. :eek: (Outside, sometimes, on a windy day.) Washing is done using bio liquid or non- bio powder in the drawer, 40 degree wash usually, though occasionally a longer 30 degree, and dried outside atm; the weather decides whether washing gets done .

Please help! Much as I enjoy the laundry it does get a little trying washing the same items three days in a row to get the smell out.

LJM

perhaps your machine needs a clean try popping some vinegar in the powder tray and pop on boil wash i put my towels in with it too save running an empty machine always cleans mine out ok and i get soft towels

Rainy-Days

Sounds like a strange smell!

Okay what you need to do is first take a mug of washing soda crystals and put that in the main drawer of your machine. Put your setting to 95 degrees which is the hottest and longest wash cycle and run that through on empty.

Then when that has finished take half a pint of white vinegar and put that directly into the drum (not the drawer) again run it on the hottest longest wash 95 degrees.

The first action cleans through the pipes, the soap scum and all the debris. The vinegar not only flushes through the remainder of the pipes but it also removes limescale. The action of it being on the hottest wash kills the bacteria.

If you live in a hard water area such as the south east you need ot be doing this every couple of months or so.

building_with_lego

Thanks guys.
I have to say I do run a hot wash periodically but haven't done soda crystals for ages. We have hard water so really should remember to do it all more often, shouldn't I?

anguk

Is it only certain items of clothing that have that smell?

My OH had a vest top and one pair of undies that always had that horrible wet washing smell even when dry, it didn't matter how I washed them or what I washed them with they always had that smell. Nothing else in the load smelled like that and they even had that smell when I hand washed them on their own. In the end I figured it must either be the type of material or the dye used on them and I threw them out because I hated it, especially when the weather was bad and I had to dry them indoors, the smell would fill the room!

Agutka

I find once the smell is in, it stays in.
I soak the offending items in a vinegar and water solution - this gets the smell out permanently. Unless it's hubby's socks. No helping them

suzybloo

There can be issues with using the washing liquid all the time, especially if it is a cold wash machine. As the liquid within the pipes does not dissolve properly, which may be worse in a hard water area.
I would clean out your machine with soda crystals and then start using powder for a change and see if that remedies the situation.
My daughter used liquid all the time and her washing machine started to smell like a wet dog! Done a cleaning wash at 90degrees with soda crystals and moved away from the liquid to powder and no more problems.
HTH

Marco_Panettone

25ml i of white vinegar in the drum for every wash should help. Pop it in a liquid ball and in with the clothes.

Rainy-Days

suzybloo wrote: »

There can be issues with using the washing liquid all the time, especially if it is a cold wash machine. As the liquid within the pipes does not dissolve properly, which may be worse in a hard water area.
I would clean out your machine with soda crystals and then start using powder for a change and see if that remedies the situation.
My daughter used liquid all the time and her washing machine started to smell like a wet dog! Done a cleaning wash at 90degrees with soda crystals and moved away from the liquid to powder and no more problems.
HTH

I keep on hearing this, but because I only use liquid infrequently it doesn't affect me. A lady at work called the engineer out to her machine when it broke down and she said he pulled out a great ball of sludge which honked! Apparently the gels are not disolving in the way they should and as it goes out of the machine into the cold pipes it reforms back to a gel consistency that compounds further each time. He told her not to use the gels and to use powder and a minimum 30 degree wash.