How to Eliminate Pungent Odor From Your Clothes Washer

One of the hardest working appliances in the family home is the clothes washer. In homes with large families this appliance is used every day without much thought and with even less maintenance. Most homeowners give little thought to this or any appliance until a problem surfaces.

One problem which occurs frequently and always gets the attention of the appliance user is when the washer begins to emit pungent odor. This usually occurs gradually. A slight odor of mold or mildew is the first sign of a problem. When this occurs the homeowner first begins to look for outward signs of mold or mildew and finding none assumes the problem is temporary and will soon correct itself. Like many problems this is seldom the case and if left unaddressed the problem only gets worse.

Recently my wife and I experienced this problem.

Our clothes washer is about seven years old and has been used at least five of seven days out of every week without any mechanical problem. Last summer my wife began to complain of a musty odor in or around the washing machine. My initial reaction was to check around the washing machine for leaks, but after pulling the machine away from the wall and finding none decided this was probably a temporary problem. However as the summer months wore on the problem grew worse and the odor stronger. We live in a part of the United States which is very warm and humid during the summer, and mold and mildew can be a problem, but I could find no sign of these.

Now, my wife reported that not only did the washing machine smell, but clothes washed in the machine were picking up this must odor.

Something needed to be done. We washed clothes and towels to get a fresh, clean smell, but now after washing they came out musty smelling and almost unwearable.

Again, after checking for leaks and finding none, I removed the hoses bringing water to and from the washer and inspected these for mold and mildew, but found none.

My wife's solution was to run the washer with clear water and heavy bleach concentration. When this did not help we tried adding large concentrations of vinegar to to wash, again with no noticeable improvement.