How do you get the mold smell out of washing mashines and dryers?

Question

I have a horrible mildew/mold smell in my dryer and washing machine. I sprayed it with fabreeze and ran it with bleech but does anyone else have other ideas. It grosses me out! Thanks

Answer 1

You must have a maytag washer. You should take the top off. you see you have a plastic tub on the outside of your washer what happens is mold grows inbetween both tubs because it doesn,t have any way for the moisture to excape. fill the tub with some water and bleach get a skinny long brush and scrub then run it thru a wash cycle and let it drain and do it again (bleach and water not the scrubbing part) after you scrub put the top back on before you try to run it to empty. There are usally two spring clips in the front of the washer to release the top need something flat to push it in, if not use a s***w diver to pry apart. Good Luck

Answer 2

I can help with the machine -- not sure about the dryer.

You probably have a front-loading washer; as others have said, the problem is one of having the machine closed up with warm water in it.  You have developed what's called a biofilm, and it is pretty nasty what lives there.

The absolute best way to remove this stuff isn't available to the general public.  The second-best way is to run three cups of bleach in the machine.  THIS IS IMPORTANT:  run it with cold water -- some of the heaters will burn out even if a little hypochlorite is around (like in the incoming water).  I would also use Clorox HE Bleach; it is formulated to protect the parts of HE washers, which use an alloy that is rather sensitive to regular bleach.  

This will knock down a lot of the smell; you may have to do this a couple of times.  Also, you will want to run a bleach cycle through once a week to once a month as maintenance.  And as others said, leave the washer door ajar between washes!

Answer 3

You might want to check under the agitator cap, i took my cap off not to long ago and cleaned it good, that might be where the smell coming from, you would be surprised what grows under there!!

Answer 4

Like the others say to clean it out, BUT also you leave the door of the washer and the drier open and not Latched to allow the air to move around, same as you would do with a fridge if you need to store it.

Answer 5

For your dryer, clean out all the airways going out of your dryer. Remove and clean the exhaust hose. Stick a vacuum into the exhaust port of the dryer and vacuum that out. Clean out the lint filter. Wash the lint filter using mild dish soap. Clean everything thoroughly and allow to dry completely before re-using it.

For the washer, run 2 cups of distilled white vinegar in an empty hot wash cycle. Then use 1 cup vinegar in the rinse. You may also want to use a brush of some kind and scrub the drain the washer runs into.

If it persists after doing all of this, move the washer and dryer and see if maybe the smell is coming from under the machines, not inside them.