Washing Machine Makes An Awful Smell

[buggy]

My Miele machine makes an awful smell, and it gets worse from maybe a day after using it. The smell takes over the whole house and gets to the back of your throat.

I seem to have tried everything - white distilled vinegar. countless hot washes at 95, water plus.

I've cleaned out the detergent drawer so it is spotless and i've cleaned inside the machine itself. I've also check my U bends, drains and opened the flap at the bottom off the machine and cleaned in there. Also i have a small flexible brush which I've used to clean out every hole/pipe in the machine i could find. Also I check the inlet filter and that wasn't blocked either

When I open the flap at the bottom of the machine and unscrew the cap, the water that comes out smell fairly bad, especially if it is a day or 2 since the machine was last used. It is sort of a musty smell, perhaps with a chemical hint to it. Also there are sometimes soap bubbles in there - should there be?

One mistake I know I made was t put the liquid detergent in the drawer rather than in the machine itself (i misread the manual), and that got quite messy a while back though it isn't blocked or anything. I live in a hard water area so I know that can't help and perhaps mean I should use water plus every quick wash from now onwards.

Like others I do have quite a lot of black deposits on the rubber parts of the machine, although I have cleaned them by hand quite a bit.

The machine is one of the top of the range Miele ones with the 10 year guarantee, so I'm pretty disappointed that it has performed so badly. I haven't called Miele out yet as I'm concerned they will somehow pretend it is my fault and charge me a fortune even though it is under warranty, so want to do absolutely everything I can myself.

I guess I need to switch to using powder next as that will perhaps dissolve better than liquid, I have already switched back to biological liquid from no bio although it hasn't helped much. Also I was going to buy a brush to use on the outlet hose to try to clean that, though not sure where to get such a thing from? Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

thanks

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Hello Buggy and welcome. If you haven't already you need to carefully read this - what causes grease, slime and black mould inside washing machine? Your problem has nothing to do with the washing machine, any washing machine - even the best can be affected. I suspect your problem is mostly related to using liquid detergents that contain no bleaching agents.

[buggy]

Well i've been using bio liquid containing bleach for the last month and the smell is still there.

Should I try limescale removal tablets with the wash next?

I still have to drain the water from the flap at the bottom of the machine each time otherwise the smell becomes unbearable. The water in there contains some soap bubbles even though i use "water plus" - is this normal?

also the washing now seems a little rather damp even though it is a high spec machine and spins at 1600 rpm.

are there any long brushes i can buy to clean out the waste hose thhoroughly - it is corugated so must collect a lot of dirt in there?

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

You need to use the boil wash, it's not enough to just use detergents containing bleach. If the smell persists you should also consider using distilled white vinegar on boil wash without laundry inside. With all washing machines, at the end of the wash there is always at least a pint of water left in the sump hose and pump filter. This water never gets pumped out. It won't normally cause a problem though.

If the leftover water contains soap bubbles it could be that the water isn't being pumped out properly. If the filter is clear it could be that there is a partial blockage somewhere in the plumbing where the water pumps out.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

This new article may be of use - Removing washing machine smells