Technical Tuesday: Washing Machine

Technical Tuesday….

When talking about love/hate relationships, this appliance places in my all time top three. Lets talk washing machines!

…Over the last 10 years a lot has changed in the washing Machine Industry. The once ever so popular top loading, laundry swallowing, and water consuming BEAST has been replaced by a sleek front loading, moderate loadable, efficient water using Pussycat. I bought my first washer for $75.00. It was a used Whirlpool High Capacity washer with limited features…I think the options were water temperature/ cycle and capacity of the load. Thats it folks! What more did you need? Once a week I would feed that monster a 5 course meal, stuffing its drum to the point the lid would not close, and I never had any problems with it. I loved it - it took care of me and I took care of it. In the 5 years I owned it, I had to replace a piece for the agitator once, and other than that the only issue was the occasional un-balanced load - which to its defense, was my wife's fault for not filling it with enough laundry!

One sad saturday morning, after having withstood several cross country moves and the customary loving abuse, its fate was sealed when it would not turn on. It was probably a cheap fix, but Trisha had already been eyeballing washers at Lowe's and HomoDe-Pot for the past 6 months. This was a no win situation, so I did not even step up to bat!

…Enter into our family the new sleek, upright, front loading, space machine looking, spin cycle sounding like a jet engine, too many features, no water using, dry cleaning, ironing, and the MOST FOUL SMELLING WASHER in the universe. WTF?!? Yes my friends you heard it here and if you have a front loader, then you already knew it!

If not used and maintained correctly they will make your laundry smell sour and stink up your laundry room. The good news is that after you finally figure out what the hell is going on, you can fix it. First lets understand what happens. Since the entire drum is never filled with water, and the clothes slosh around in about 3 cups of water in the bottom of the drum, dirt and grime accumulate at the top of the washer (in-between the drum and the outer tub) when the laundry goes into spin cycle. If not maintained/ cleaned properly your washer will smell like Arse. Ok, so here are some fixes and helpful hints

1. Once a week run about two cycles with a couple heavy towels on sanitary with a bunch of bleach. This will break up the build up or possible mold forming. Wow, real efficient eh - having to run extra cycles using water and energy! Note: this problem takes about 6 months to develop. It's not something you are going to see as soon as you use it.

2. Leave the washer door open! This will reduce the chance of mold forming in-between the drum and outer tub

3. Transfer laundry immediately to dryer - due to the washing chamber being air tight, anything left in there longer than 24 hours will start smelling sour. The old washers were not sealed and had some minimal airflow which allowed for a longer sit time before rewashing was required.

4. Limit your use of Fabric softeners! All fabric softeners are made up of water and fats, and these will increase the accumulation of unwanted deposits in your washer.

So there it is. I told you it was a love hate relationship. I used to love my washing machine, and now I hate it! If you have any questions regarding fixing some of your washing machine problems just post questions in the comments sections. Until next week Milfians! I wish you technical harmony and the clean smell of the old top-loaders!