Why Does My Front Load Washer Smell Bad?
After nearly six decades of being taught how to use a standard top-load washer, Americans had to learn a new way to wash clothes when front load washers appeared in stores. We want to use lots of detergent. We want to see lots of suds. We want to add lots of fabric care products like scent enhancers and fabric softeners to our laundry. When products are used too liberally in a high-efficiency washer like a front-loader—which uses less water—a large portion of the products do not get rinsed away completely. This sludge-like coating of detergent and fabric softener also contains body soil and fibers from clothing. The sludge becomes trapped in a warm, moist machine or drainage pipe, just waiting for a mold or mildew spore and bacterium that are in the air to find a home, grow, and begin to smell. Not only does your washer provide a convenient little incubator for these odors, but your laundry room may as well. Is your washer and laundry room well ventilated? Is your laundry area air-conditioned? If not, more moisture and more heat equal more odor. When companies build a front-load washer, they put it through hundreds of tests. But they conduct these tests day-in-and-day-out for weeks in temperature-controlled, conditioned workspaces. In that clean, air-conditioned laboratory, they don’t let things sit around to grow. While it may seem that you do laundry day-in-and-day-out, many times several days lapse between loads giving the odors time to blossom. That’s why your washer smells less than fresh.
9 Tips to Improve Front Load Washer Odor Problems
There are thousands of people who never have an issue with front-loader odor. These people have found the perfect routine and formula for front load washing. They follow every direction about product use; they have great ventilation, temperature, and humidity in their laundry room, and wash clothes or clean their washing machines frequently to keep flushing away the problems.
The History of Front Load Washers
Front-load washers have been around for many, many years. The front-loader as we know it today was introduced by the Bendix Corporation in 1937 at the Louisiana State Fair. This machine was fully automated and would wash, spin, and drain with no help from the homemaker. The rubber gasket door-sealing technology made all this possible. These first front-load machines were big, used plenty of water, and rocked and rolled so much they had to be bolted to the floor. Then came World War II, and the manufacture of home appliances was put on the back burner as all hands worked on war supplies. After the war in the 1950s, Whirlpool and General Electric developed the twin-tub system of top-loaders, with one tub holding an agitator for the cleaning and rinsing operations, and another tub for the spin-dry process. This design reduced the costs of automatic washing machines and made them more accessible to the public, and top-load washers become the norm in the United States. As Europeans recovered from the war, they turned to smaller front-load machines that allowed the user to wash and dry in the same machine. Front-load washers are still the most popular design in Europe. Americans continued using the top-load design until the early 2000s, when energy conservation concerns—especially water shortages—brought back the front-load washer to U.S. markets. The washers are much more expensive than top loading modes but do offer superb water and energy efficiency, are gentler on clothes than other types of washers, and shorten drying times.
