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This is our Miele novotronic W864 machine. I live in a shared house I am guessing this is quite an old machine and I am also guessing years of low temperature washing with those liquid-tabs and possibly a closed door or two is the cause of this mould.
I would have provided a picture of the seal before I cleaned it but I never thought to at the time but believe me that was far worse than this.
I have been using milton sterilising fluid but could anyone recommend a brush to use or a particular cleaner?
Or would you say this has had it.
ThanksIs this mould problem beyond repair?
Totally dismantling the dispenser cavity then jet wash would be the only chance. Though a total replacement will be the only true solution.
The thing is, that is the mould you can see. What you can’t see is the mould is also manifest throughout the entire internal services if your machine. The inside if the tub will be a tropical jungle of bacteria. The tub inlet and outlet hoses likewise…..yuck!
Re: Is this mould problem beyond repair?
See this is what I dislike about landlords.
Particularly ones for Student houses, they believe just because we are students occupying the house that we won’t care.
Or they are just genuinely that naive they never think to check they’re appliances each year before new occupants come in.Re: Is this mould problem beyond repair?
Generally landlords buy cheap appliances that break down long before bacteria as bad as that develops. The cheaper appliances often last 3 yrs or less. Break down at some point in that time. Rendered beyond economic repair and replaced with new. Sadly in this case a high quality machine that rarely fails is what you are stuck with and the state of it is in is a little beyond the remit of most tenanted properties landlords.
Unless you insist the landlord replace the machine under whatever tenancy agreement you have then there is little that can be done.
Re: Is this mould problem beyond repair?
That’s what I mean. Its such a shame because it is such a brilliant machine.
If it had been kept in good nick there would be no reason this couldn’t last a lifetime.
You cannot fault Miele appliances.
I am assuming it was a previous machine he owned and knew no matter how it was treated it was going to last a long time so he decided to leave it in this house.
Well anyway i’m keeping up with the maintenance washes and using milton disinfectant.I’ll try cleaning all inside that area and we will see what happens.
I’ll have a word with the landlord too.
Re: Is this mould problem beyond repair?
I would forget about Milton fluid, it isn’t aggressive enough.
You need to use a far stronger bleach, such as Domestos. Domestos contains a detergent alongside the bleach, to improve the cleaning efficiency. Unilever also do a Domestos trigger-spray version, containing chlorine bleach. Other brands may be available, but you’re looking for chlorine based bleach in the ingredients, as well as the built in detergent.
Wear some old clothes and be cautious of getting bleach near your eyes – wear eye protection. ❗
Put on rubber gloves, apply a spot about the size of a 50p coin to a damp Spontex ‘Moppet’ sponge (Tesco usually sells them in standard or thick varieties), vigorously wipe and frequently rinse. Repeat as often as necessary to remove and kill the mould.
Remember to scrub the ceiling of the soap box cavity, preferably with an old toothbrush, and don’t forget the drawer-runner channels, floor, side walls and back of the soap box. Also clean the bottom inside front of the soap box, which is hidden from view, in the area of the drainage hole which leads directly to the tub.
Do exactly the same to the dispenser drawer, paying particular attention to any hidden crevices, fabric conditioner syphon channels and the underside of the drawer.
Then you need to rinse the machine out, using the rinse programme.
Now do a 90°C maintenance wash on the longest cottons programme, using a quality bio POWDER detergent, such as Ariel. Activate “intensive” or “wash plus”, as well as “Extra Rinse”.
Leave the door ajar when finished.
Re: Is this mould problem beyond repair?
And Ryannnn, as you use liquid I’d bet dollars to donuts that the outer tank of the machine won’t look too dissimilar either as there’s no bleach in the liquids.
Mould like this is bacteriological and, whilst you can get it better and maintain it, it will need to be maintained as it will always return once it forms. You can’t kill all of it unless you clinically sterilise it which is not practical, if even possible.
The cleaning suggested should sort it but, you will need to keep cleaning it fairly regularly.
The only true cure is, as Martin stated, replacing the whole drawer.
K.
Re: Is this mould problem beyond repair?
I do actually use Daz powder ocassionally.
This is a student house, so the machine was in this condition before i arrived here. In fact the drum was absolutely horrific until i started using milton and doing a maintenance wash.
practically all of my housemates use liquid or gel, and I can’t really force them to switch so doing that maintenance wash every month is essential now.I think i have done about 4/5 of them by now because I remember doing 2 of them fairly close together.
I still have a few pods left, but after I am considering completely going to powder.
Re: Is this mould problem beyond repair?
I work for a property letting company in central London, we have 36 machines installed in our studio flats.
We actively look on eBay for older Bosch machines which are able to have bearing changes, and don’t come with as many fancy electronics. We’ve found these are much more cost effective than the £200 sealed tub jobbies from the likes of Argos or Currys.
I always keep a couple in stock, which are stripped down, cleaned out and serviced. We leave a laminated “cut down” version of the user manual, with the instruction to do a monthly service wash at the highest temperature, and to leave the machine door ajar and occasionally clean out the soap drawer, which most of our tenants actually do, !
We get very few complaints of smelly machines.
Last year, our total outlay for spares, repairs and buying 3 machines off eBay was just less than £560. When we used to use the cheap £200 machines the annual outlay was over £1500.Re: Is this mould problem beyond repair?
Thats great to hear!
I am assuming you just let out to regular old folk though right?
Seems student housing landlords just hope and assume no students cares enough.
Which is odd as even mould in peoples homes has been know to kill people.Re: Is this mould problem beyond repair?
Ryannnn wrote:I am assuming you just let out to regular old folk though right?
Not that you’re ageist uh? 😉
Ryannnn wrote:Seems student housing landlords just hope and assume no students cares enough.
Or, aren’t smart enough to string a sentence together that is grammatically correct let alone do laundry or, heaven forbid, cook much more beyond a pot noodle. 😆
If you give it out, including stereotyping people… prepare to take flak back.
Ryannnn wrote:Which is odd as even mould in peoples homes has been know to kill people.
In extremely rare circumstance, yes. But it is incredibly rare and requires a lot of unique and exceptional conditions to happen that will ordinarily have with nothing at all to do with mould in a washing machine or any other appliance. It could (maybe, perhaps) be an indicator but, extremely unlikely. I’d reckon the odds of perishing in some other freak circumstance are likely much, much more likely.
If you research it, beyond the media hype that gets touted, you’ll find that it’s largely caused by dampness leading to fungicidal mould and is only deadly in extreme cases that are also positively extremely rare.
Research, cornerstone of student life I would think. However, the trick is using that research and acquired knowledge for practical use and to see beyond the tabloid headline nonsense.
Or, you could just suppose that it’s been a bunch of manky students that never bothered to clean the machine and a landlord that maybe thought, what’s the point of it, the next bunch of manky students probably won’t care either.
Not that I’m stereotyping of course, landlords or students.
K.
Re: Is this mould problem beyond repair?
“Ryannnn wrote:
I am assuming you just let out to regular old folk though right?”No, our youngest tenant is 19, a student, the eldest is over 70.
The 19 year old is the cleanest and tidiest resident I’ve ever seen, her flat always looks like a show home.Re: Is this mould problem beyond repair?
I was hardly stereotyping, I was just looking for a way to describe the general public who work, so that he wasn’t confused with me meaning students.
It’s amazing how easily offended people get these days…
And as for the grammar… I have seen a lot of your posts where you put a lot of s’s where they don’t need to be and you get words the wrong way round way worse than that part you just picked out.
So yeah, perhaps before you attempt to insult me. Have a little check of your own posts first.
Re: Is this mould problem beyond repair?
I never claimed to be perfect and I wasn’t trying to insult you at all, had I been it would have been clear. 😉
The point is however, this is not a big deal, not uncommon as well as not a health issue. To say or allude otherwise is scaremongering in my opinion.
I would acknowledge it doesn’t look good but, that’s about the biggest danger unless it really is extreme.
Give it a clean as directed earlier and it’s not a problem.
K.
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