washer smells eggy or sewery? and darks often come out with spot stains???

[ellairiesmom]

Our washer is only 2 years old but I hate it. It has ruined TONS of dark clothes with dark spots that won't come out. almost like an oil spot or something.

And now it smells. I can smell it around the washer but if i stick my head in there, it's REALLY bad. it smells like a sewer or rotten eggs. when i googled that, i found out about making sure it is draining properly & the elbow in the pipe that keeps sewer gas from coming in existed (something like that)-we had some water coming out so we called the plumber to look at both issues & he found a clog in our drainage hose & took care of that but said he saw no other problems & snaked it far & nothing else is wrong. he said we have the proper elbow with water in it that keeps gas from coming in...

what else could be going on? do i need to get a 2nd plumber in here to confirm?

do you take apart your washer yourself to clean it or anything? dh is not handy at all & i am a little intimidated but it sounds like it's something we are supposed to be doing?

[gini1313]

We sometimes have a problem with odor in our washer. (I hate ours, too). I have looked on the internet, and found do it yourself directions to take it apart and clean between the drums (or something like that), but haven't done it yet. I am intimidated by it, too, and haven't gotten dh (who isn't handy about stuff like that either) to help me yet...

What has helped is baking soda, and NEVER leaving clothes in there. I don't even put clothes into wash at bedtime and change them in the AM. I wash them and then change them. When I am done washing, I put some baking soda in and leave the door open. Then, sometimes, I add baking soda to the wash cycle (with the detergent). That seems to kill the scent when I am doing it regularly.

If you do figure out an easy way to take it apart and clean it, post here. I know I should do it, but it is hard to find time to do it with the kids around (and the fact that I am ALWAYS washing clothes, lol)...

[ellairiesmom]

thx! i was wondering about baking soda. i'll try that. and leaving lid open when not in use too.

i am guilty of forgetting loads in there.

i might tackle taking it apart next weekend-ill update ya

[1jooj]

Do you have hard water? Sounds like sulfur smell and calcium buildup on clothes.

[ellairiesmom]

omg. my mother has commented a NUMBER of times that our water is really hard. i guess i kind of don't really know the difference & certainly didn't think it would impact us.

i'll google more about hard water but please share anything you know!!!!

[gini1313]

Washing clothes/diapers sucks in hard water That is really all I have to say about it, lol.

[1jooj]

We don't have the hardest water, but hard enough, and we have a water softener. Actually, a new one. Our old one that was here when we moved in died over winter. Cost us about $750 to replace (softener+installation). We used to spend about $10 a month on salt for it, now we spend far less. Also, over the week or so our softener was dead, the hard water fried our old water heater. Mineral deposits (called scale) build up in all appliances that use water and ruin them.

It's not cheap to deal with, but soft water also means using less soap/detergent, getting stuff cleaner more easily, and no weird odors or strange deposits.

[gini1313]

I did it!!! Lol, I took apart my washer and cleaned between the drums and all I can say is... OMG!!! Holy cow, seriously, if you haven't ever had your washer serviced, you don't know what is growing in there!!! No wonder my washer had an odor!!!

That said, it was hard to figure out. Maybe mine is a particularly non user friendly model, but I kept thinking, "Why am I not paying someone else to do this?" Lol. Dh says that now that I have showed him how, he will do it every summer.

I would totally either figure out how to do it, or hire someone. That was GROSS!!!