Investing in Real Estate :What? My Front Load Washing Machine is Growing Mold

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Article Content:
Lately, I’ve noticed a rather funky smell coming from my laundry.

My initial reaction? Blame my husband, of course. I stopped washing my clothes with his clothes, thinking that this eau d’gym sock was because my fresh smelling clothes were intermixing with his odiferous work clothes.

But after a few weeks of laundry apartheid, my laundry was actually smelling worse.  My next step was to be more diligent about using fabric softener sheets and drying my clothes until they were crispy.

I finally realized I was facing a larger problem when I began to notice that everyone in my house smelled bad, except the dogs. The dogs actually smelled better than we did.

I headed over to my laundry room and discovered the culprit.





My front loading washer.


Our laundry room is under construction so the lighting is poor. But when I turned on the lights and stuck my head inside, I saw that there was mold growing on the rubber seal around the door and inside the dispenser. And the washer smelled pretty bad. Aha! Or rather, yech!


After some research, I discovered that this is a common, although avoidable, problem with front loading washers. (Where is that manual?)

Here are some tips for avoiding the problem of mold in your front loader - none of which I have been following until lately:

1. After washing, leave front door and dispenser ajar.

2. Use High Efficiency Powdered Detergent. Don’t use liquid fabric softener.

3. If you don’t periodically use bleach in your laundry, run the machine empty with some bleach monthly. Or, use the System Clean feature with bleach.

4.  Periodically pull out the dispenser and wash with soapy water.

Since making my unpleasant discovery, I’ve run the System Clean cycle with bleach and that seemed to get rid of the problem. Our family laundry is united once again!

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