Despite regularly cleaning my laundry machine with specialized cleaners, always keeping it open to air dry, and running the “self cleaning + ion” function, I could never manage to stop some laundry (specifically hand towels and bath towels) from smelling funky. They’d always smell fine after hang drying, but as soon as the hand towel would get wet, it started smelling musty/rank.
My solution:I started adding bleach to my daily laundry in very small amounts. I use a .5:1000 bleach:water ratio. For example, when I put my load in, I push the start button and it tells me “20L” of water will be used. I then measure out 10ml of bleach and add it to my detergent cup with the detergent.I make sure that any white clothing/towels are on the top layer of laundry underneath where the water will pour into the drum – just incase.
(By the way, I tested most of my colored items of clothing with a bleach/water mix on an inconspicuous part of item. There was no effect, so I moved forward with adding it to the laundry. I’d recommend you do the same. Here is how you do it [https://www.clorox.com/learn/how-to-test-fabric-for-colorfastness-to-bleach/](https://www.clorox.com/learn/how-to-test-fabric-for-colorfastness-to-bleach/))
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**The Result:**Fantastic!!! I’ve been doing this daily for two weeks and my laundry smells great. None of my colors have been damaged. I switched to washing my bath towel every other day, and still no mustiness at all.
I’ve had only 1 issue where there was some color bleeding. It was a new green sweater, and it turned some of my whites a little minty. The colors of the minty whites have since washed out and our now back to normal. This is a game changer for me.
**Proceed with caution though.**
I’m not too particular with most of my clothing, but if there is something of my wife’s that she’s really keen on, I’ll skip the bleach for that load.
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15 comments
Stop using biological detergent, and because a lot of Japanese washers still only use cold water some detergent enzymes never break down properly. It’s better to wash then rinse. If you don’t have time you can leave clothes in a rinse and not drain it before getting machine dried. Of course this can shrink some fibers but the main problems with he smell are using biological detergents, especially with cold water.
EDIT: sorry I just reread your post, basically the bacteria on your towels etc isn’t being killed off because of no hot water. They need a high temperature wash, you can compensate by using a dryer. Some Laurette’s also have higher temp washing machines.
I just add one scoop of oxyclean with every load. My tshirts stopped smelling weird after that.
Edit: I’ve been spelling it wrong the whole time, it’s oxiclean lol.
vinegar.
I don’t wanna hijack the topic, but I really wanna know what’s the difference in this country.
Back home, used to dump my laundry in, everything gone, smell, stains, sweat stains. Even without using hot water washing.
Here, the stains don’t wash off properly, sweat stains also gradually get worse. As OP mentioned towels stink afterwards.
Seriously, what’s the deal? Is it the water? Is it the detergent that’s shitty?
I even got myself a “proper” washer, you know front loading with hot water etc. Like, what’s the deal.
Why on earth would you use standard liquid bleach?? Use OxiClean like everyone else. Works wonders and doesn’t destroy your clothing.
Edit: You can buy the large tubs of OxiClean at Costco. We always have a spare on hand.
You can just use the self wash mode with concentrated bleach (without clothes).
It’s a good idea to clean around and UNDER the washing machine. And I run a load every few months of just hot water, Pine Sol cleaner and bleach. This washes out the drainage pipe, which can be another source of smell. Make sure to set the water level at the highest.
>I could never manage to stop some laundry (specifically hand towels and bath towels) from smelling funky
I started using hot water for washing towels. Before it was the same as your situation – it would smell as soon as it touched the water. Now it takes at least 3-5 uses in the case of a bath towel before it starts smelling.
Since my washing machine stand is right next to the bathing room, I just used a shower hose to fill up the washing machine with the hottest water possible and turn on 念入り mode. But I wish I bought a washing machine with a water heater. At least I can reassure myself with the fact that the water heated directly by gas is cheaper. In the future, if I buy a house, then I might consider installing a hot water tap in addition to cold water for the washing machine.
P.S. My wife would not let me use bleach, oxyclean, or whatever other strong detergents to get rid of the moldy smell, so hot water works for me and for her.
I started using クエン酸 (citric acid). Does the same thing as white vinegar, except it’s widely available here. I take a small amount, maybe about a tablespoon, dissolve it in a little water and stick it in the compartment for fabric softener. My clothes smell extremely fresh, and my washing machine doesn’t smell moldy anymore.
FWIW fabric softener is supposedly awful for your clothes and your machine. I was having a lot of smell problems when I was using fabric softener. Switching to citric acid means my clothes are softish, and they smell great!
My front loading machine just ruins stuff no matter what I do when using bleach, so I switched to hot water and citric acid. Stopped using liquid fabric softener too. Small loads get a dryer sheet during the dry cycle, but only if truly needed. My towels smell stupidly fresh now. Before the citric acid, no matter what cycle I washed them or what product I used, they smelled vaguely poo-ish. So nasty.
Firstly, I’d like to thank you for your experiment and sharing your result. But I’m sorry I would like to confirm first. are we talking about the normal bleach for white cloth (漂白剤) or bleach okay for color cloth(é…¸ç´ ç³»æ¼‚ç™½å‰¤)?
I just bought the latter and wondering if it’ll give the same result?
You can get sodium percarbonate in bulk on Amazon.jp. It’s a lot cheaper than Oxiclean, but the same active ingredient.
Add a bit of citric acid in the slot for rinse cycle
I don’t have a issue with smell but I completely take apart the drum on my washing machine to give it a deep clean maybe once a year or so. I use mold killer every other month to do a cleaning cycle and there always still a nasty build up.
Depends on whether you are using the traditional top loading twin tubs Or a front loading machine, but the front loading machines have a seal around the door, check that it’s not got gunge growing in it. Also there should be a little flap on the front of a lot of machines which has a screw out filter ( it gets clogged) and a drainage pipe that also gets clogged cleaning these makes a massive difference