My first thought reading this was, "it's in the plumbing, not the washer." So I waited till dh woke up and asked him about it. Here's what he said:

Next time you wash, put your nose to the place where the drain hose goes into the pipe. Is the smell coming from there? Do you hear a gurgle as the washer pumps out? Perhaps you have no trap there (to keep the air from coming back thru as the water pumps out). Some duct tape around that would be a quick fix.

Other possibilities - do you have a floor drain in your laundry? There might not be a trap there either. Or, climb up on your roof (if you live in a house) and see if your vent is clogged.

Though I would definitely do the bleach/cascade thing too.
Good Luck!

Jesus Christ! How much work can leaving the door open BE??? In fact technically it requires less effort than to shut it! *rolls eyes*

Yes, to me as well that is too much work and was a big enough issue to push me to a top loader. I don't want to find I haven't dried my washer properly and end up with mold.

Coincidentally I was talking to a friend today who has a Maytag Neptune and loves it, except for the mold and mildew. She never knew to dry it out -- and now she's having a really hard time getting rid of the mold.

So, aquarius, if you have no FL problems then that's great. But no reason to chastise Gail who had mildew in hers.

Nobody I know in Europe, where frontloaders have been the norm for years, has suffered from mould problems, and I have seen/used many frontloaders. Thats because everyone leaves the door slightly ajar. What do Americans want next, a door that locks itself open and/or a special anti bacterial device that sprays the door seal?

Nobody can come on here complaining that they have mould/mildew problems, then blame it on the machine because they didn't practice the proper precautions in the first place.

Jon

All the best, take care,

Jon

So I decided to rip the machine apart! To see pictures of the inside of the machine go to the following link:

http://www2.tdux.com:8090/images/personal/2006/Washer/

You might have to cut and paste this to you browser.

The mold was inside at the top of the front and back of the machine and caked behind the drum. As of now the machine works good as new believe it or not! The odor is gone and the clothes are clean once more! If they had used stainless steel behind the drum most of the mold and debris would never have collected and if they had of added a few carefully placed cleaning jets and a special cleaning cycle then this problem would never have happened!

I took a big chance tearing the machine apart. I do not encourage anyone to take this drastic measure but I figured I had nothing to loose! I could not keep using the machine the mold and smell was making my family sick!

NOTE: I would only use the special detergent they suggest!! The picture of the back side of the drum shows about 1/2 inch layer of mold/detergent and dirt. This would have been drastically reduced if we had started out using the correct detergent!

NOTE: Always remove clothes as soon as wash is complete! leave door open and open soap tray! This will help to dry the machine!

NOTE: The mold would have never happend though if they had of designed the machine correctly!!!

Any comments? Email duck@tdux.com

Besides leaving the door open, it also helps to do washes occasionally with bleach and/or the hottest water possible (your machine has no onboard heater, unfortunately), and to do an occasional 'cleansing' wash with no actual clothing (or maybe just some rags) and a quarter cup of Cascade Complete dishwasher detergent (the enzymes help digest some biofilm). - DR

The problem with the HE3 front loader I have is that a small amount of water is getting on top of the drum housing and causing mold. (spin cycle and condensation) There is no was to clean the mold no matter what you use without resorting to drastic measures once the mold forms on top of the drum housing. During a normal wash cycle any bleach or other chimicals would normally slosh around roughly 50 - 75% the height of the inner drum on the sides of the drum housing not the back side of the drum. The wash cycle ends the machine drains then the spin cycle starts. If there was a way to make the machine go threw a spin cycle with the bleach or whatever you use to clean the machine still in it then this might be able to clean the top of the machine and get rid of the mold. The link I posted shows pictures which clearly illustrates this.

Almost all of the mold was on the top front and back of the drum housing. The rest was behind the drum towards the center where again the water normally would not go during a normal wash.

My machine would let off a foul smell with the water discharge like spoiled eggs if the machine sat several hours. I had already removed the lower hoses of the machine and made sure they were free of mold. I tried dozens of suggestions on how to get rid of the mold and smell and the machine would smell clean after the wash. If the machine sat for an hour or two when the wash was done with clothes in it then the clothes would smell like mold although the inside of the machine did not smell bad inside. I though it could have been sewer gas or something coming back into the machine so I placed the discharge hose in a large bucket and let the machine sit for several house and did a drain/rinse cycle and the discharge water still smelled very bad. This eliminated the sewer gas idea.

After trying everything I could think of and all suggestions I could find I decided to take drastic measures as noted in my previous post. I was extremely nervious about taking the machine apart but I could not go on wearing clothes that smelled real bad! My two year old would cry if we tried to put put certain clothes on him because of the smell. My only regret taking the machine apart is that I did not photograph each step ehough! I had several screws of different lengths I am not sure if I placed then back in the right spot or not.

Results of extreme cleaning I did:
1. The machine smells clean hours and even days after a wash!
2. I know for a fact the mold is gone!
3. The machine seems to wash much better! It seems to fill enough to properly wet and wash the clothes!
4. The clothes feel, look, and smell much cleaner!
5. My clothes are no longer making my family feel sick any more!

I understand China and asia sending us lead in our toys and pioson in our shrimp and fish...they dont like us!
But for whirlpool and Kenmore to do the same thing...short of the class action suit to hit them where it hurts a total boycott of their products is in order.

Watch for the class action and jump on board.
AND stop shopping at sears (boy would that hurt!)
avoid the whirlpool and kenmore names in all other appliances.

My machine and laundry REEKS of mold and mildew. I have tried bleach, detergents, Febreeze, straight vinegar . . . nothing works. I have taken to going to the laundramat now to do laundry, because I can't stand to wipe myself dry after showering with those awful smelling towels.

From reading these posts, I presume that the only thing to really get rid of the smell (from this $1300 machine!!!!!) is the get rid of the machine!! I am so mad, this is not fair and Sears said that there is nothing wrong with the machine, that I must be leaving my laundry in there too long, etc., etc. Socks and other clothes are constantly getting caught in the rubber gasket, and just six months ago it cost me a whopping $400 to get that gasket fixed because it tore away from the machine. The repairman said he has never, ever seen that happen.

By the way, my Sear vacuum sucks too . . . this is number 2 in the last five years. Will never, ever, shop at Sears again. What a shame, Kenmore used to be a great brand that you could count on.

I had the problem too but I changed a few easy things and have NO odors anymore and didn't get rid of my machine!

First of all, I changed to powdered detergent-- and use on half the recommended amount. I do not use fabric softener. I use vinegar. It works WONDERFULLY.

I also wipe the glass of the door and the boot when I am done doing laundry for the day. I have a rag that I use specifically for this and then I throw the rag over the door so that the door doesn't shut tightly--- and PRESTO, no more odors.

Before I switched to powdered detergent, I would always get some type of scum (biofilm) from the bottom of the glass on the door but now the rag stays clean.

I love to shower now-- no more stinky towels!!!

Lori JR

Here is a free and easy to prevent mold:wipe the door seal with a rag after use and LEAVE THE DOOR SLIGHTLY OPEN,so it can dry out. Mold can't grow if there is no moisture.

Lorijr- you might try the Affresh tablets that Whirlpool is making now. They are supposed to do the trick.

Also I read that LG machines recommends you use a product called Whirl-Out in there machines. You can get both of these at Home Depot and order them also.

Thanks,
Carol

I'm working on a friend's early-model Neptune (blown door lock), and it has a bad case of the ickies. I tried a dose of Affresh (three tabs), it didn't do much. Perhaps more treatments would help, but I imagine the machine needs disassembly for proper clean-up. I offered to do that, but the friend doesn't want to put that much time and effort into it. They have it at a ranch house for the farm-hands to use.

Ive since switched to powder based (Sears Ultra Plus with FS), and I could swear the washer smells better. More like no smell at all, before it smelt like Tide HE. Maybe mine just wasnt too far gone yet, but to keep it that way I leave the door wide open when not in use and clean off (and under) the boot, the glass/plastic on the door, and even the detergent drawer (I leave that wide open when not in use as well).

As a previous poster said, its not much extra work. I dont mind putting in the extra little bit of time because of the return Im getting on the HE washer/dryer. Washing and drying is almost a 1:1 time thing now, so I can get a lot of laundry done in one night.

-Chris

kizdar,
Where do you get the Zep Odor Control?

The first thing I did was wipe down the rubber around the door with petroleum jelly to remove any mold buildup. They recommended a cotton cloth, but I just used paper towels.

The second step was to add 1 gallon of vinegar to the washer and run an empty load on the hottest setting. I poured the vinegar in thru the detergent dispenser.

It has been about a month and the smell is still gone. I use a liquid laundry detergent, but only about half of what they call for. I also leave my washer door open in between loads.

I hope this helps!

If you want to see scum come out of your cloths, just add 20 Mule Team Borax to your detergent and watch all the scum lay on top of the suds as the washer empties. Of course, you would have to have a stationary tub catching the water from the washer to see what I mean. After a while you will notice that your the suds in your stationary tub won't show so much scum.

If you will add 1/2 cup in every load, you won't have a foul smelling laundry. Of course, it is an age old laundry practice that has been lost in time.

You might have to ask your store to stock this for you.

Here is a link that tells it all ...

Top loaders can have mold/mildew problems. I first encountered moldy towel and sheet odors from a top loader. Upon inspection, the fabric softener dispenser located on the top of the agitator had a moldy odor. I used a flashlight to look inside it and it was coated with black mold. I filled the dispenser with bleach to kill the mold. I used a water hose to pressure rinse the dispenser. Thick black mold pieces large enough to pick-up with fingers came out of the dispenser. Fabric softener residue build-up is a great place for mold to grow. So whatever washer you have, be careful with the fabric softener amounts and build-up.

I currently have a front loader and I dilute the fabric softener with 2/3 water. There is no build-up in the dispenser drawer. My front loader has stainless steel outer and inner tubs. It is expected that the washer door and dispenser drawer should be left open when not in use.

Some of these front load machines have aluminium (Al) spiders connecting the spin drum to the drive pulley.
Aluminium is corroded by, amongst other things, sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) otherwise known as ‘bleach’, Sodium carbonate, Sodium percarbonate, (these later two I found listed on the contents of a popular laundry aid), sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) (this one is sometimes used as a stabiliser in ‘bleach’ but I did not find it listed on the two containers of ‘bleach’ I found in our house).

To demonstrate what ‘bleach’ can do to aluminium just find a piece of scrap aluminium, without any coating, or remove the coating and let it sit in air for a couple of days to develop the naturally occurring oxide coating, then put one drop of ‘bleach’, straight from the bottle, onto the aluminium and leave it overnight. The following morning you should have a nice little pile of corrosion products on your aluminium. This is what can happen to aluminium components in your washer, albeit at a much slower rate because the ‘bleach’ is diluted.

To check if any of your laundry products are harmful to aluminium perform an Internet search for the material safety data sheet for the chemical concerned (e.g. Sodium Hydroxide Material Safety data Sheet).

I know these spiders are fitted to some ‘Kenmore’ (manufactured by Frigidaire) machines, some Frigidaire machines sold under their own name, and some GE machines. Very likely there are many others. Additionally any aluminium component in the water area is susceptible to corrosion.

This information has been passed to Sears and Frigidaire.
Sears advise that the information ‘will be passed to the appropriate departments’ but have refused to pass any further information on to us.
Frigidaire have assured us that they use only the best quality materials and that they will pass on the information to their design engineers, the very people who would have specified aluminium in the first place. Hardly re-assuring.

My wife and I have two Sears 'Kenmore' washing machines built by Frigidaire.
I recently had to tear down the old one (8 years old) because of bearing failure. Nothing to fantastic there, those bearings take one heck of a pounding. In addition to the failed bearings and failed 'spider shaft' seal, likely caused by the bearing failure, the brass sleeve on which the lips of the seal run was scored, by the spring in the seal, rendering it unserviceable.
What I also found on dismantling the machine was a build up of a deposit, resembling powdered detergent that had got damp and 'clumped' adhering, quite strongly, to the spider (a shaft [of steel], and aluminium hub with three spokes) which attaches to the stainless steel inner drum and the driving pulley. This ‘deposit’ would not flush away, as powdered detergent, being soluble in water, would have. I took my pressure washer to ours but still did not get it completely clean. Whereupon I discovered that the aluminium portion of the spider was quite heavily corroded towards the centre with almost no corrosion towards the outer third of the spokes.

At first I thought this was galvanic corrosion caused by the steel of the shaft and the aluminium of the hub. There is quite an informative paper on Galvanic Corrosion, use ‘Yahoo’ and search for ‘UN1001 Reactor Chemistry and Corrosion’ and open the link that gives ‘un1001_Galvanic Corrosion’, the authors are Lister and Cook. The ‘deposit’ though had me puzzled until I researched corrosion of aluminium and discovered that it is normally corroded when immersed in an aqueous solution with a pH value below about 4.0 or above about 8.0 (nitric acid is apparently an exception). Common household bleach (sodium hypochlorite NaOCl) is a strong alkali. I placed a drop of bleach, straight from the bottle, on an undamaged section of a spoke from my spider and a drop of vinegar (acid), which my wife favours, on another arm and left them overnight. The following morning there was nothing left of the vinegar and no signs of damage to the spider. Where the bleach had been was a small pile of a whitish powder, which resembled the ‘deposit’ and was also, for the portion immediately adjacent to the spider, quite difficult to remove.

Numerous detergents are alkaline, they have to be or they would not work, also alkaline are numerous other laundry aids. Reference to the ‘contents’ labels on the containers and the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) on the Internet will give more insight. In addition to ‘bleach’ I have found sodium carbonate and sodium percarbonate in laundry products in our house. Sodium hydroxide, which is sometimes used to stabilize ‘bleach’, is also strongly alkaline, and corrosive to aluminium, it was not listed however on the two ‘brands’ of bleach I found in our house.

For some time prior to the bearing failure my wife had been complaining of a ‘moldy mildewey smell’ coming from the washer and leaving an odour on our laundry, particularly the towels. After I rebuilt the washer, new drum and spider, they are not available separately, together with new bearings and seal, it ran a lot quieter, no surprise, but here is the kicker, according to my wife ‘no smell’. Conclusion, the only thing different is no ‘deposit’. Now does the ‘deposit’ itself cause the ‘smell’ or does it collect undesirable compounds that cause the offensive aromas? I don’t know but it is certainly ‘food for thought’ particularly when I found two references on the Internet to people stripping their washers down and getting ride of ‘deposits’ which cured their ‘smell’. The odours, I fear, will return unless the owners alter their laundry habits.

To see what corrosion of aluminium can do perform an Internet search "Why Kenmore Front Loading Washers Fail" and watch the short video. I do not agree with the comment that it is galvanic corrosion between the spider and the stainless steel drum, should this have been the case one would have expected the spider to be corroded adjacent to its connection to the drum. Neither do I believe the deposit the gentleman showed to be caked detergent for the reason stated above (mine would not flush away).

Good Luck