How cleaning washing machine properly?

[bammec]

This isn’t my machine that’s affected, but a friend’s.

My friend asked me why their machine might be leaving black marks on their clothes. I first thought bearings, but the machine sounds normal with no excess drum wobble. I advised them to boil wash with bleach, as I know they have been Ariel pods for over a year. They said that during the rinses, they spotted white bits of fluff in the water – so I said this is just the mould breaking away and will disappear after a few more boil washes. I also advised they check the filter and clean it out, which is when they found a small hairpin with slimy bits on it, but no blockages. 3-4 more boil washes later, the white bits are still floating around. I’ve now advised them to do a boil wash with half a bag of soda crystals, followed by a boil wash with biological powder and see how that goes.

I am now wondering if there is perhaps a blockage somewhere, although the machine does appear to drain fine. I am also wondering if I am giving the correct advice and is there something else they could be doing to eliminate the problem faster or even completely?

Any advice is welcome.

[andyjawa]

Hi. What is the make and model number (in full) please. So long as the machine is not a washer dryer, so long as the machine is pumping out fine, and by the sound of things it is. This is what I have done on my second hand 18 year old owned by me for 16 years Hotpoint: doing boil washes alone even with washing detergent does not always work SO I use 1 box of Aqua Softna descaling crystals, you might whant to initially hit the machine with 2 boxes 1st, ( Aqua Softna which is not the same stuff as Soda crystals which is mainly used to shift grease type problems in sinks / drains and if used in a very high concentration to water ratio can affect the aluminium spider sometimes not in a good way! ) mixed with 3 to 4 CAP fulls of liquid lemon Flash. DO NOT MIX THESE 2 THINGS WITH BLEACH. Because we do not know the make or model I would go about this thus: set the machine to a 60 degree or + long cottons wash, press start and allow the machine to fill ( there are NO clothes in the machine ) when the machine has reach its water level open the soap draw sprinkle in ya crystals add the cap fulls of Flash and with a jug of water flush the whole lot into the machine. The trouble with modern machines is that the wash water levels are set too low so what I do even on my 18 year old machine is to add another 6 liters of water manually via the soap draw. All a bit of a faff but I know it works for me. Caversham, where I live, has medium hard to very hard water depending which part of Caversham! All the tank and drum is is a container but over time you can get a thick layer of snow white lime – which is rarely seen these days due to lower washing temperatures and sloppy sludge ( very common ) which ranges in colour from a darkish brown, creamy brown, cream, to even an `oribble orange colour mixed with either no lime or with lime which deposited itself under the actual drum holes, rear of the tank, within the lattice of the aluminium bearing spider AND between the gap front of the drum and rear of the door seal. This suggestion is worth a go.

[electrofix]

there are some guides that may help here

https://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/help/cleaning-maintenance

and

https://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/help/stains-marks/washing-machine-stains

Dave

[bammec]

andyjawa wrote:Hi. What is the make and model number (in full) please. So long as the machine is not a washer dryer, so long as the machine is pumping out fine, and by the sound of things it is. This is what I have done on my second hand 18 year old owned by me for 16 years Hotpoint: doing boil washes alone even with washing detergent does not always work SO I use 1 box of Aqua Softna descaling crystals, you might whant to initially hit the machine with 2 boxes 1st, ( Aqua Softna which is not the same stuff as Soda crystals which is mainly used to shift grease type problems in sinks / drains and if used in a very high concentration to water ratio can affect the aluminium spider sometimes not in a good way! ) mixed with 3 to 4 CAP fulls of liquid lemon Flash. DO NOT MIX THESE 2 THINGS WITH BLEACH. Because we do not know the make or model I would go about this thus: set the machine to a 60 degree or + long cottons wash, press start and allow the machine to fill ( there are NO clothes in the machine ) when the machine has reach its water level open the soap draw sprinkle in ya crystals add the cap fulls of Flash and with a jug of water flush the whole lot into the machine. The trouble with modern machines is that the wash water levels are set too low so what I do even on my 18 year old machine is to add another 6 liters of water manually via the soap draw. All a bit of a faff but I know it works for me. Caversham, where I live, has medium hard to very hard water depending which part of Caversham! All the tank and drum is is a container but over time you can get a thick layer of snow white lime – which is rarely seen these days due to lower washing temperatures and sloppy sludge ( very common ) which ranges in colour from a darkish brown, creamy brown, cream, to even an `oribble orange colour mixed with either no lime or with lime which deposited itself under the actual drum holes, rear of the tank, within the lattice of the aluminium bearing spider AND between the gap front of the drum and rear of the door seal. This suggestion is worth a go.

Thanks for your reply, which is very informative and useful. It is a a Bosch WAQ283S1GB.washing machine.

[andyjawa]

Thx for the model, sorry for the late reply. Well as far as I can tell there is nothing weird or wonderful ref the parts that make-up your machine`s model. So the only I think you can do is as suggested with fingers X`d. You have no doudt checked how the machine is plumbed out – if the end of the outlet pipe is connected to an under the sink nozzle ( common ) it worth while checking the end of the o/let hose and the nozzle for a wedged button that can turn to restrict pump out so a bit like an analogy to a butterfly choke on a bike carb restricting air flow.

[Author]

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