Ok this one has been driving me mad for about 8 months so I’m finally coming to the wise sages or Reddit for help!
No matter what I do when I wash my clothes here in Japan I seem to end up with these odd stains on my black clothes after a wash and abit of an odd smell.
https://imgur.com/gallery/hlClAQA
I have tried pretty much everything I can think of and at this stage it is prob easier to write a list of things I’ve tried to fix it.
– Change amount washing Liquid/Soft
– Change washing Liquid/Soft
– Switch to washing Pods only
– Made sure not to overload cycle
– Ran without drying function
– Drain unblocker used before hand
– Used washing machine cleaner
– Got a new machine Toshiba tw127xp1
– Ran maintenance cycles
– Called an Engineer to check all parts
– Engineer says machine is in great condition and we are using correctly and seems to have no idea the cause thus it is “acceptable”
– Checked the water inlet and it’s clean water not bath water.
Settings
https://imgur.com/gallery/QHYebb9
I’m prob forgetting a few but I’d appreciate any help possible to solve this mystery.
Happy to invest money or pay to have a recommended engineer visit us near shinjuku. It sounds small but this has really driven our household abit mad so any advice or help would be massively appreciated!
*Updated*
Thank you all for your amazing help and advice! It has been a fair few wash loads since I last responded trying different combinations of fixes to try and isolate each of the problems! Long story short we have some fixes!
So it turned out the grey stains on the clothes was some form of soap suds left on due to only performing 2 rinses with the same water. Upping this to 4 rinses with fresh water each time fixed the stains but still left the clothes smelling bad.
Next we swapped through a few different detergents and found the best result for blacks was from this as it doesn’t have bleach
Ariel Concentrated Compact Laundry Detergent for Automatic Filling, Liquid Refill, 22.9 oz (650 g), Automatic Washing for All Clothes and Washing Machines + Mildew Resistant https://amzn.asia/d/4RYRclb
This smelt abit better but not great.
Lastly we invested in scented beads and this made our clothes smell amazing!!!! And most of our house!!!
Lenor Happiness Aroma Jewel Fragrance Beads, Pastel Floral & Blossom, 15.9 fl oz (470 ml) https://amzn.asia/d/94ejtqJ
It’s been 8 months, 2 machines, 1 engineer visiting twice, countless calls to biccamera+Toshiba, 5 liquids, 2 powders, 3 tabs, 4 softeners, 5 drain unblockers, 3 machine cleaners and countless wash loads but we finally have clean clothes that smell great thanks to you lot! Cheers redditors!
tldnr;
If your clothes have faint stains and don’t smell great in Japan, make sure you have the machine do as many rinse cycles as humanly possible to remove soap stains, to improve fragrance because japanese washing detergent smells weak post wash grab some smelling beads and pop em in! CASE SOLVED
Thanks to everyone that gave time and advice to help solve this! True MVPs!
by giveitsomedeath