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Hi Guys.. have you any ideas on how to get rid of the fusty smell you get in some washing machines that have not been used for a while???
Have tried bleach wash powder softner etc etc hot washes all to no avail..
Hope you can help.
Regards
JohnRe: Smelly Washers
If you really can’t wash it clean all you can really do is strip it and start scrubbing. How to convince the customer to pay for 2-3 hours labour is the problem……….
Chris.
Re: Smelly Washers
take 3 lemons, squeeze out all the juice add to some boiling water, pour into soap draw, leave for a while, then do a boil wash.(dont call me delia!)
Na Deltra that doesn’t work so well as we discovered yesterday afternoon, I’ll let someone else explain that. 😉
Best bet is a good quality detergent, properly dosed but with the machine empty, on a full boil wash. You can clean the soap drawer by pulling it out (depends on what it is how you do that as you didn’t tell us) and then clean the jets at the top with an old toothbrush and a mild bleach solution, i.e. dilute some in water, to kill the bacteria.
K.
Re: Smelly Washers
Problem is customer using liquid ( goes back to the early eighties).
Get customer to use half packet of soda crystals, about 55pence, in the drum on a boil wash and again 2-3 weeks later. Also get her to check filter as can cause scale to loosen. I guarantee it works but get them to use powder. It is geat for whites, tea towels and cleaning greasy overalls.
RobAnother one that needs training! 😆
Just jesting.
There’s no requirement for extra additives, full stop. The powder is doing the cleaning, not the crystals and I used to think that as well in extreme cases until I learned better.
K.
Re: Smelly Washers
Have to disagree Ken. Liquid sticks to the top of the outer tub on first spin and then goes off and smells. The low water levels nowadays has made it worse. Can find many ladies down here who will say the soda works.
RobRe: Smelly Washers
Yeah Robbra I used to tell customers to do that as well, but it is based on information and to an extent, products that were about before the liquids or the lower fill levels. I’d also advise customers to do a boil wash with bleach in the machine, being honest about it, as it was cheap and every house has bleach so the customer didn’t have to rush out and buy yet another product. But, whilst it seemed to work and still should, I didn’t really know why from a chemical popint of view. Unless you understand why it happens recommending a cure can be a bit hit and miss.
Which is why I’ll let some of the guys that have had the detergent training explain as they all should now know why it happens and how to solve it as it is a bit more involved. 😉
Anyway, prevention is better than cure.
K.
Re: Smelly Washers
Got to recommend the training, been doing this job for 15years and me and the missus both learned how to both wash the washing and internally clean the machine. Seems I’ve been giving some rare advice to my customers for the last 14years 11months and 3 weeks. Never mind, at least I can justify new boxers after she (sorry Kevin) realised why the elastic was showing after two washes!!!
Re: Smelly Washers
kwatt wrote:Which is why I’ll let some of the guys that have had the detergent training explain as they all should now know why it happens and how to solve it as it is a bit more involved. 😉
Anyway, prevention is better than cure.
K.
OK – so what is the theory behind using a detergent?
Also while we are the subject, what do you think is the cause of the light brown gunge that coats the inside of some tubs (usually Hotpoints) when you open them up for a bearing job. I have had machines where this is so thick that it virtually fills the gap between the drum and the tub. Whereas others are squeeky clean inside.
I have never been able to establish a common factor to explain this. It does not seem to be dependant on area, degree of customer hygene, powder / liquid etc.
I did used to suspect fabric conditioner but I have been to machines that have the gunge but the owner does not use it?
Andy
Re: Smelly Washers
andy2 wrote:
kwatt wrote:
Which is why I’ll let some of the guys that have had the detergent training explain as they all should now know why it happens and how to solve it as it is a bit more involved. 😉Anyway, prevention is better than cure.
K.
OK – so what is the theory behind using a detergent?
Also while we are the subject, what do you think is the cause of the light brown gunge that coats the inside of some tubs (usually Hotpoints) when you open them up for a bearing job. I have had machines where this is so thick that it virtually fills the gap between the drum and the tub. Whereas others are squeeky clean inside.
I have never been able to establish a common factor to explain this. It does not seem to be dependant on area, degree of customer hygene, powder / liquid etc.
I did used to suspect fabric conditioner but I have been to machines that have the gunge but the owner does not use it?
Andy
Quality of detergent/dosage/temperature.
Re: Smelly Washers
There’s loads behind it Andy, much more than anyone really realises sadly and it does have a huge effect on the performance of the appliances. So much so that we have a training DVD, onsite demos, a book and a toolbox guide to back the training up.
In this case the simplest way to explain this problem (the one that started the thread) is most likely that the customer is using a liquid detergent which will not contain a bleaching agent. No bleaching agent leads to a build up of bacteria without maintenance and that’s the gloop basically. There are other causes of course, but I’d wager that was the problem.
As for your problem I’d bet it was the same, you may even find that it is liquids use as, due to poor instructions and knowledge customers tend to buy what happens to be on offer in Tesco that week which is not nesessarily what is the best product for them to be using. Obvioulsy years of that combined with little or no maintenance will lead to a bacterial build up.
As you say we all know that the fabric conditioner can go all gloopy as well, but that’s generally an overdosing issue.
Anyone that saw the “Gutsy” DVD that we showed at Sibson will probably be mentally picturing the poor housewife that just “puts in as much as I think” or the “I usually add a bit more” one. So common, so bad for the machine as well as the results from it.
K.
Re: Smelly Washers
OK so the smell problem is caused by the activity of bacteria which is what i have always told my customers – I recomend a couple of hot washes with bleach diluted as per the instructions to kill off the bacteria. And then another hot wash (no load) using detergent to remove the loose debris and bleach deposits. Bleach is also a good cleaning agent so it helps removes the gunge that harbour the bacteria.
I have always considered this to be a logical remedy, I know that it can have some adverse affect on the m/c but if done only when necessary it has not up to now caused any problems.
If as you say the prime reason for this problem is detergents without a bleach additive, then using bleach to remove an existing problem seems to make sense.
Are you saying that the use of a good quality detergent has the same effect ie. by removing the deposits that harbour the bacteria you remove the cause of the smell.
Personally i think this is less of a problem than it used to be on the machines that had an alloy backplate. If you remember often these became covered in a horrible jelly like substance and the smell used to be virtually impossible to remove except by having them shotblasted!
Obviously the low temperatures used nowadays must also contribute to the problem as hot washes will kill many of the bacteria anyway. I bet granny who always does a boil wash does’nt have this problem!
How do we define a good quality detergent. Is it one that contains bleach?
Andy 🙂
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