Have my Kenmore ELite a year and a half and recently there is a dreadful smell of stagnant/moldy water from the tub and clothes. Have tried washing at a high temp., with bleach, vinegar, etc.. nothing seems to work. I have to keep the door open at all times and it still persists. Called Kenmore and they were of no help. Any suggestions apart from ones already posted, as I have tried them all?
This is a fairly common problem, where a bad odour comes from the washing machine, especially after a lot of low temp wash cycles. There is no component in the washer that can fail to cause a bad odour. In most cases,it will be from an external source, or the way the machine is used. Reasons can cause the problem : - liquid detergent - Do you use liquid detergent? There is no chlorine bleaching agents in liquid detergent and it has a tendency leave the machine smelling a bit after a while. The cure is to do a "Maintenance Wash" (a boil wash with no clothes or detergent in) at least once a month, or you can use dishwasher cleaner or bicarbonate of soda, both are very effective. -Backfilling from the house waste- Incorrectly installed of the stand-pipe outlet and/or U-bend, allowing dirty water from the drain to come back into the waher, via the outlet drain pipe. Check that no water coming slowly back to washer's tub when it's switched off. Good luck !!
Set the water level to it's highest level and let it fill on hot. When it starts to agitate, stop the machine and add 2 gallons of hot water to raise the level above the tub ring. Add 2 cups of bleach and 2 cups of powdered dishwashing detergent. Let it agitate for several minutes and stop it again. Let it sit for several hours. Then let it finish it's complete cycle. This should elimate your odor..
The bad smell is from MOLD in your machine! Read the following and check out the link. We had the same smell and we thought it was external. We were WRONG! I finally got rid of the mold and the smell! No amount of cleaning of the machine would have solved my problem. I checked the entire machine and could not find the source. So I decided to rip the machine apart! To see pictures of the inside of the machine go to the following link: http://www2.tdux.com:8090/images/personal/2006/Washer/ You might have to cut and paste this to you browser. The mold was inside at the top of the front and back of the machine and caked behind the drum. As of now the machine works good as new believe it or not! The odor is gone and the clothes are clean once more! If they had used stainless steel behind the drum most of the mold and debris would never have collected and if they had of added a few carefully placed cleaning jets and a special cleaning cycle then this problem would never have happened! I took a big chance tearing the machine apart. I do not encourage anyone to take this drastic measure but I figured I had nothing to loose! I could not keep using the machine the mold and smell was making my family sick! NOTE: I would only use the special detergent they suggest!! The picture of the back side of the drum shows about 1/2 inch layer of mold/detergent and dirt. This would have been drastically reduced if we had started out using the correct detergent! NOTE: Always remove clothes as soon as wash is complete! leave door open and open soap tray! This will help to dry the machine! NOTE: The mold would have never happend though if they had of designed the machine correctly!!! Any comments? Email [email protected]
I'd like to share my experience regarding fowl order coming from the washing machine. I did most everything I knew how to rid the odor, but no luck. I called the repair service because I took out the warranty on the machine. Low and behold when they arrived they said the knew my problem. I thought GREAT and they did. You'll be surprised to know, often times the machine becomes to full of water. This can happen if you add clothes after the washer as filled up with clothes already in the washer. Therefore, it splashes over the top of the tub and has know place to go. It has laid there for a long time with know fresh air, therefore, causing the air to become stagnant and sending off a VERY vowl odor. Ask you service department the next time to look at the bottom of your tub. Hope this will solve your problem. Good Luck.
I've been there and was able to locate the culprit.
SOURCE: Tub smells of stagnant water
There seems to be a common problem with this where the filter in the bottom of the unit gets plugged, and it can cause the unit to smell. Remove the bottom access panel, unscrew the filter, and clean it.
Make sure you UNPLUG the unit. Even though you won't be touching electrical, there is a very real chance that you can be shocked..or worse.
Let me know if that helps. Even if this solution doesn't work, it is a good idea to clean the unit occasionally. It uses a torx style screw, so you may have to buy the tool...but it's worth it.
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Kenmore eco care system/front loader has the same problem. We have tried the hot water, bleach, leaving door open, adjusted the drain hose, still smell like stagnant water and is getting worse.
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