TLDR - You can reply to any of the questions below that you have a citation or knowledge about please and thanks. But basically I hang dry my clothjng and have had a problem with them getting that mildewy smell . Please help
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Im talking about a whole 2 cups of citirc acid per a load of clothing. What notablw effects on the clothing wll this amount have? Also I plan on leaving the citric acid solution on the clothing after rinsing away as much detergent as possible. Bad idea? Should I do a 24 or 8 hour citric acid soak? Nope ?yes?
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Also it should be noted that most of the clothing is heavy cotton as in 325 GSM or more cotton. Only like 1 or 2 of those peices of clothing are made of wool or polyester or spandex.
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Also citirc acid may lighten the clothing no? Or will the citric acid only lighten the clothing if it clothing is out in the Sun for too long, right?
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Will the citric acid impart its own smell to the clothing? Will it destroy it?
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Can I combine this solution with placing the citirc acid solution on the clothing and l then once its hang dried a bit I can then use a drying machine to dry it even more thoroughly to ensure that rhe mildew is like double dead? Also I cant dry my clothing when its wet as Im super skinny and that would make my clothing stretch far too much.
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Could the problem be that Im using too much detergent?
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Ive tried to look for other solutions to this and apparently drying the clothing after the mildew is already there will not have a drastic enough effect to get rid of it. Is this true please.?
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Should I just dump boiling water onto the clothing after it has washed or will this make it stretch?
Ive found I have this problem when I hand wash the clothing or machie wash it but surprisingly hand washing and then hand wringing it makes the smell of mildew less prominent.
Also I live in an apartment that has a public laundromat and the cleaning of the machines’ filters is a sporadic frequency as of now so…
And yes I do now know about mangles to wring dry clothing. I live in canada so if anyine knows any brands that arent absolute garbo please do link
Ive deided to not use the washing machines until. the maytag mechanics fix the problem of to dirty filter and the mildew. I live in an apartment with a public laundromat and the maytag mechanics for the machine come in sporadically
Thanks to all who answer.
Vinegar is great But it is an acid and will react with a lot of detergents. So i use it in the softner side with rosemary oil (antibacterial) which thr machine adds after the wash. For heavy things that still need drying after i spray it with a mix of vinegar, alcohal, and rosemary oil. Kills most eveything on it but by the time i use it its safe to the touch.
For that rosemary oil, vinegar, alcohol combination you spray on can you pleaae get into the specifics of how you make that mixture please? What litres or millilitres ofr each of those things do you use to make it? Also where in the hell can I find rosemary oil please? (Ill add that I dont use amazon) I have never seen such thing as rosemary oil in real life …or maybe I havent searched hard eniugh 🤷🏿♂️
They sell rosemary oil at the health food store where i live along with some local people sell essential oils.
For IN THE WASHER just use vinegar. It’ll help soften the fabric and kill some mildew/mold. Oils will stick in the wash and since it’s shared might not be ok with everyone. Alcohol can break down plastics.
I do probally 2/3rds vinegar (5% acidity is fine) and a 1/3rd everclear (190 proof). Just a few drops og rosemary is enough for a good smell tbh. You can also mix peppermint for things you want bugs to avoid but rosemary has the lasting antibacterial effect.
You can isopropal too, though i dont like how it dries as well but you can use less making it like 1/4 instead of 1/3 of the mix.
On the essential oils though they are 100% extra. Vinegar is good enough, alcohol helps more, the oils are mostly just smell goods with some evidence showing that they’ll help
The mildew is likely not in your clothes, it’s in the washer, which contaminates them every time you run it. If you leave the washer closed immediately after unloading it stays damp and grows stuff. Does the inside of the washer drum (while empty) smell bad?
If top load, fill washer as much as you can with warm/hot water and shut it off. Treat it with a fuckton of bleach, mix it and let it sit 30 minutes then drain and run a rinse cycle. If it’s a side load washer fill it with bleach and let it run without clothes.
Always empty clothes immediately after the wash cycle is finished, even letting them set 15min can begin to increase mold/mildew.
I smelled the innards of the machine about 10 different times on 10 different days for the last couple of months and all of them smell like a coombination of mildew and vomit. Very few of them ever smelled completely like nothing. Its a public washing machine cause I live in an apartment building with a public laundromat.
Also thanks. Ill try it.
Its a public washing machine cause I live in an a partment with a public laundromat.
This is the problem. It probably never gets cleaned properly.
Bleach is a good idea. You can also add a bit of white vinegar to your laundry load - keep it to 1/4 cup (60ml) and it won’t affect the smell of the clothes.
If you’re willing to spend a little money on it yourself, you could run an actual washing machine cleaning product like this through it:
Or complain to your landlord, try to get them to clean the machines.
Also if you can find the model number look up if it has an accessible filter that you can clean:
https://www.southernliving.com/how-to-clean-washing-machine-filter-12007426
It’s probably full of old gunk. Not all machines have them, but if this one does then it’s a problem you can fix by yourself in like 5 minutes.
I complained to the landlord they said that only the maytag mechanics can clean the machiens and machine’s filters
The maytag mechanics move at their own schedule and they dont come inside often.
Also about cleaning the innards of the machine with a washing machine cleaner, I was told that bleach or oxy clean does the same thing , is this true or false?
First a warning: don’t mix bleach with vinegar! Or citric acid. Or anything really, it’s quite dangerous.
For the cleaning a specific product would be always better, bleach OR (don’t go mixing cleaning products!) oxy might do the trick.
Clean the filter, I only have experience with home machines but it should be somehow accessible given that’s a maintenance operation that should be performed frequently. When it’s dirty some water stays inside the machine.
The door must be left open when not in use.
I complained to the landlord they said that only the maytag mechanics can clean the machiens and machine’s filters
The maytag mechanics move at their own schedule and they dont come inside often.
OK, sounds like your landlord has a service contract for the machines. That is both good and bad, as you already know. Definitely talk to the service guy if you can.
Don’t go looking for any panels to open or filters to remove like I said before. You might void the terms of the service contract, which you’d be potentially liable for.
Also about cleaning the innards of the machine with a washing machine cleaner, I was told that bleach or oxy clean does the same thing , is this true or false?
Well, bleach and OxiClean do different things. Bleach (sodium hypochlorite) will kill most microbes, but it’s not a detergent so it won’t remove any buildup. OxiClean is a line of various cleaning products, but the main ingredient is an oxidizer (per the name) which will kill some microbes and break down some types of chemicals, but won’t actually remove dirt. To really clean the inside of the washer, you want to do one or both of those things, plus run an actual detergent through it (which is what the washing machine cleaners do).
Standard warning: don’t mix cleaning products that contain ammonia and bleach. Read the ingredient labels to confirm if you’re using multiple products together.
Don’t overlook the usefulness of white vinegar as a cleaner. It’s cheap and very effective, especially if you have hard water.
So I run a hot vinegar cycle inside there with. no clothing , then a hot cycle in there with no clothing again, then I put in my clothing with the detergent and clean as I normally would , right?
Also how much vinegar do you think I should be using per load? We have those standard maytag commercial washing machines.
Also thanks
Speaking for myself, you can dump in as much vinegar as you like because you’re not doing it with the clothes but before. When we wash clothing with vinegar because something in the load needs that kind of cleaning, we use two to three cups and then run it again a second time with only detergent. There really is no limit as long as you rinse really well or run the load again with just soap: vinegar dries without smell. (If you can smell it, it’s not dry.)
Also, there’s no need to do an extra cycle between the vinegar cycle and your clothing cycle: vinegar is itself a laundry agent. If your machine is draining properly there won’t be enough left to detect once you get the detergent and the clothes in for the next round.
If you were to run your vinegar-only cycle with a few old towels and vinegar, that would ensure that you got the walls rubbed down as well as having the effect of the vinegar itself. Because you’re dealing with mildew, I’d also take an old towel, wet it thoroughly with vinegar, and run it all around the rim and especially the inside seal on a front load, all the creases/crevices and wherever you can reach, because that’s usually where mildew likes to hide. Then throw that towel in for the hot vinegar cycle too.
All this goes for both front and top load machines, though honestly if it’s truly bad I already know it’s a front load because those inside seals are hell for collecting mold and people don’t like to leave the doors open. But that constant airing is really the only long-term cure unless people using them are really careful to clean the seals constantly. A top load you just leave the lid kicked up permanently whenever you’re not using it and that alone resolves any mold and mildew problem.
Citric acid is better than vinegar in this application. Chemically it’s 3 times more powerful. A couple cups of crystals in an empty cleaning cycle is better than filling the while machine with undiluted vinegar.
Can you talk to your neighbors and encourage them to complain to the landlord also?
This. Also not sure what the law is like where you live, OP, but there are often cases where it is permissible to withhold part or all of your rent payments if the landlord refuses to perform necessary repairs and upkeep.
Get it in writing that you’ve requested your landlord address the washing machines. If they refuse, clean it yourself and then deduct the cost of supplies plus reasonable cost of labor from your next rent payment.
They do. As many of us have collectively talked to each other about jt. She has said the same thing to all of them: talk to the maytag mechanics. Ill talk to some of the mechanics when they come in next and ask them anout how we can resolve the issue of the filters not being cleaned often AND the issue of the mildew.
An appliance tech made a video about cleaning top-load washers and he used citric acid because it breaks up the clumps of minerals and stuff that the bleach won’t be able to attack.
Same idea as the above commenter but dissolve citric acid in the tub instead of bleach.
cant I just use the citric acid on the clothing itself to kill the mildew itself instead of only on the washing machines?
You’d want to use less citric acid on the clothes but you can use a lot in the machine alone. I would mix up a little cup of acid and dab a drop with a Qtip on like the inside of the hem in the back, and let it dry, to see if each item is going to be okay because different fabrics and dyes react differently.
Idk, but why not just stop it at it’s source? Unless it’s shared machine ig. You could try on a small spot of clothing.
Had trouble with my machine. Ended up buying a new one. The clothes kept smelling, so I washed them without softener and sprayed them down with cleaning alcohol when I hanged them to dry. Smell is gone now
Step one: clean the machine. Just like you wouldn’t expect to be clean using a dirty bath or dishes in a dirty sink you won’t get clean clothes in a filthy washer. Options are 2+ cups citric acid crystals or a commercial product based on oxy (sodium percarbonate) run using a self-cleaning mode or full wash at max temperate for max duration. It may take several cycles depending how bad it is. Note: citric acid does not create suds. If you get a lot of suds in an otherwise empty load then that’s the citric acid removing residual detergent. Repeat till you don’t get suds.
Step two: clean your clothes. If they smell musty straight out of the wash then they’re not getting cleaned in the wash. Use the hottest setting the clothing care tag allows, wash for the longest time the machine is capable of, and add extra rinses. For chemistry, use high quality detergents (Tide, Persil, others depending where you live), add a booster product with enzymes (varies on country: Biz if US, Resolve Gold if Canada, Vanish down under), and add a tbsp of citric acid in the final rinse (not in the wash!) Avoid fabric softeners as the can contribute to the stinky buildup in the textiles you’re trying to remove.
Your last paragraph makes me think you really need to run a washing machine clean cycle with a washing machine cleaner in it a few times.
I cam use bleach or oxy clean to do this no?
I think they exist in Canada but Active is the brand of washing machine tabs I use. Tide and Afresh I’ve used as well.
I’d recommend baking soda (natron)
know of any cheap brands avaliable in canada please?
This would be a good crosspost for !cleanit@slrpnk.net I did just add the laundry section to the wiki. I don’t think it fully answers your question though.
thanks Ill give it a try.
Are you drying inside or outside? If inside, you may need to clean any vents/fans/aircons in that room.
Airflow is also important if not using something like a dehumidifier.
Mostly drying inside…
Also airfloe in this apartment is ass- tastically bad.
Huh… I never really thought about cleaning the fan. Umm should I use 99% alcohol to clean the innards and outer parts of the fan ? cause I want to be clean thoroughly but I dont want the fan to short curcuit
90% alcohol isn’t really useful except as a solvent. 70% is what’s recommended as a sanitizer.
Use cleaners, something that can break down oils, as that’s what keeps stuff sticking to fan blades and surfaces. In fact, part of what’s in laundry and dish detergent is for breaking down different types of oils - and that’s mostly something basic like washing soda (or something equivalent).
If it’s a ceiling fan, just dust the blades; you shouldn’t need to do anything more unless you actually see mold. If you do, then I don’t know. You don’t want to electrocute yourself. You also don’t want to destroy the lubrication thus destroying the fan (or possibly even causing a fire hazard if the engine seizes and keeps heating up).
Edit: if you don’t have fresh air flowing, though, this probably isn’t going to solve much; a dehumidifier with air purifier would likely be better.
Why does it take so long to dry your clothing that mildew can grow? Take it out of the machine as soon as its done, don’t dry it in a sauna?
I would guess that citric acid will cause damage, but realistically there shouldn’t be any detergent or chemicals left over after a washing cycle anyway. The final rinse should clear it completely.
You are probably thinking of a steam room, not a sauna.
I dry my clothes in a sauna all the time. Has good ventilation and its warm for a good few hours after a session. Obviously you shouldn’t try drying clothes in there until after the room itself has dried, which is usually 30-45 minutes after I’ve stopped saunaing. If I have a large amount of stuff to dry, I keep the sauna stove on for extra 15-20 minutes to dry the room faster and keep the heat up for a little longer.
And to be clear, I’m talking about a Finnish sauna, not a Greek, turkish, Swedish or russian ones. Those are more like mildly warm steam rooms.
I don’t know where OP lives, but trying to dry clothes in parts of Japan in summer is not fun. I actually dry them inside in front of a dehumidifier some months.
I always immediately hang dry as soon as I am done washing.
And when I rinse I use a TOON of water. I rinse each article of clothing individually inside and out 3 differemt times just to be extra extra sure.
I also rinse with hot water twice , then cold water once. Doesnt help as much as I thought it would.
It also doesnt help that the hot water for the apartment Im in has varrying heat . Like some days the hot water is HELLFIRRRE hot but then other days the hot water is just as ‘warm’ as even the cold water …
If you are washing by hand, you probably aren’t getting nearly as much water out as a washing machine would. You should squeeze them or buy a mangle if you’re really committed to not using a machine.
Actually I just looked up what a mangle is and …wow… why were we never taught about something so importamt to people doing laundry for centuries?
Im sorry whats a mangle please?? Ive never heard about this before. .
And yes I do hand wring each of the clothing individually thrice after rinsing them. I dont know if this is thorough enough or …is it not?
As others have alluded to, you probably need to get the drying time down, and mechanically removing the water is your best bet (mangle or separate spin dry). Your additional rinse might make it worse if the dry time increases.
One way to get the water out, if spin cycle or mangle isn’t an option is to layer your clothes in dry towels, roll them up and wring out the towel. You still need a way to dry the towel, but it will get a lot of water out of the clothes.
Back before I had a washer of my own and I was too lazy to go do a full load elsewhere, I’d hand wash, and then roll up whatever needed drying in a huge towel and walk back and forth on the roll to press out the water. Worked a treat and no wringing wrinkles.
Also the citric acid is only for the mildew cause Im guessing they hate conditions that are too acidic right?
I always rinse thoroughly thrice when rinsing the clothing so I doubt that there’s any leftover detergent inside rhem when Im done with them.
I don’t know if it will help to ask lemmy for advice about the effects of soaking 325 GSM cotton in citric acid. I think you may already be the world’s leading expert on the idea of soaking clothing in citric acid.
Other than that though, if mildew is growing on your drying laundry I can only guess that you might want better ventilation or to wait until it’s not raining.
I never hang dry it when or immediately after it rains. Also I always dry it inside when it does rain.
If you have space in your shower stall/tub to fit a portable washing machine, it’s worth it. I’m in a similar situation to you with this and bought one a few years back and it’s been the most practical £150 I’ve probably ever spent on myself.
Sorry for linking amazon, I just want to show you an example of the type of machine I’m talking about.
No idea what may be causing the mildew smell. However, seeing as how it’s less prominent when you hand wash try seeing if the washing machine needs cleaning. Mold, mildew, and grime can build up in the washing machine and get onto your clothes with every wash. There’s filters on newer machines that need cleaning, rubber door gaskets, etc.
Its a public laundromat with public machines cause I live in an apartment. I dont think Im allowed to clean thethe filters of the machine as much as I want. The landlord said that only the maytag brand mechanics should be cleaning those filters.
But something that Ive noticed is that those MayTag brand mechanics have a sporadic schedule for fixing or cleaning the machines. Sometimes they come in twice a week , sometimes they come in twice a year…
Or do I just need to hang dry the clothign for like a century after washing it and that will destroy the mildew?
Aye , any solutions are welcomed so have a swing at it if you like.
If you’re drying indoors a fan moving air helps.
I leave the window open with a fan on when drying indoors. Doesnt help :/
Ill also note that the apartment Im in has some of the worst ventilation in the world Ive found over the years. If you burned something in thje oven 10 minutes ago the smoke alarm will re go off sometimes cause some of the smoke is still trapped and ittlll go there to the smoke alarm again
Without ventilation the clothes will take too long to dry.
That’s mildew waiting to happen.
Having lived in humid and in really dry climates, I don’t even bother trying to air dry anywhere that isn’t already an arid climate. It’s just too problematic.
Can you dry them in an electric dryer? It’s humid here and air drying can be problematic. I haven’t noticed any stretching of the clothes as long as the washer spins adequately.
If you are washing at a Laundromat do they have an extractor? One of those centrifuge machines? Those leave the clothes more dry.
If you are washing at a Laundromat do they have an extractor? One of those centrifuge machines? Those leave the clothes more dry.
They dont have an extractor at this laundro mat . Only the dryers ans the washer. Also th e dryers dont have a ‘Fast, No Heat’ setting(Im guessing that could be used as a substitute for an centrifuge right?) The dryers They all have the same ‘Low Heat, Medium Heat, High Heat’ settings
Can you dry them in an electric dryer? It’s humid here and air drying can be problematic. I haven’t noticed any stretching of the clothes as long as the washer spins adequately.
My clothing ALWAYS stretches when I put them immediately in the dryer after they have been rinsed . I only notices that rhey stopped stretching if I put them in the dryer after theyre dry to the touch… but they take like 2 or 3 days or sometimes more to be dry to the touch.
Yeah 2 or 3 days damp is long enough to mildew.
I am going to recommend wool. I wear merino wool t shirts & underwear and those don’t need to be washed often, can’t go in the dryer but dry so fast even here in the subtropics. Are not too warm either, a thin knit fabric. It’s naturally resistant to the mildew.
I remember my mom being amazed when she went to Egypt - she came back and told me " I could wash my underthings in the evening, hang them under the bed, and in the morning they were dry! " So in the literal desert I guess it’s possible to air dry quickly enough to avoid problems but not here and I guess not where you are. Once they are mildewed I think only a bleach soak will work, and that’s gonna, well, bleach them.
But then the question becomes how in the fuck do you buy cheap things to clean wool with often? You cant wash wool in shit that has enzukes in. it …but like 99% of detergents globally have enzymes in them as far as my search is concerned. I had asked this same question before and all the answers that people gave me to this question were either super expensive detergents I couodnt regilarly afford or super bust detergenrs that had so little cleaning agents in them that you could not practically use it to clean anything.
ALSO I live in canada …so do you know of any brands that sell cheaply here please? ALSO they must be fragranceless wool wash detergents please. Fragrances irritate my skin.
I wash mine in regular detergent, Tide, on cold in the washing machine. Not much detergent and not often, it has survived years this way. Like I don’t even hand wash them. But if you are worried, just use hair shampoo, you don’t need special detergent. I hand wash silk in diluted shampoo, the same one I use on my hair - Malibu C hard water wellness shampoo. Whatever you have is probably fine.
Unbound Merino is expensive here but is a Canadian company, maybe it’s better priced up there? That’s where my best ones came from.
Quince has men’s merino T shirts, that is likely the cheapest not discounted price but if you are really skinny you can likely find small sizes on sale sometimes on Icebreaker too.
Washing soda can work on it’s own. No enzymes, and it’s cheap. Also doesn’t take much at all.
I’ve been washing my clothes with mostly just washing soda for 20 years and other than my synthetic exercise shirts everything comes clean. Those shirts get their own cycle with extra soda and a high heat dry cycle, otherwise they get musty. Air dry is an absolute no-go for them.
Also citirc acid may lighten the clothing no?
It can take away a grey/dull effect from hard water especially on cotton clothing.
But about 1/10 of your planned amount already does that, and you rinse it away at the end of washing. I don’t know what really happens with so much acid!
Source: I have read a book and I do that for >20 years now.
I went through all this with my home washing machine a while back. The culprit in my case was trying to DIY laundry detergent and not knowing what the fuck I was doing.
I would skip the citric acid. I don’t see that moving the needle.
If your clothes stink, it’s probably biofilm left on them because the washer didn’t properly rinse off all the detergent. That comes from 2 places: too much detergent you added to your wash, and excess detergent stuck all over the washer internals from other people.
You’ll know that’s the problem if your clothes smell “ok” but if they get slightly damp it suddenly smells like wet dog.
One-time symptom treatment: make a strong mix of oxyclean and hot water in a bucket. Soak all your smelly clothes in it for at least 4 hours. Then drain and wash them normally.
If it’s in the machine, you’re in kind of a shitty position because the machine ultimately needs to be cleaned. If you have the time and are willing, run the washer empty with a cup of bleach. You might need to pause the washer and add it after the cycle starts - my machine drains when it turns on and pumps out the bleach, but if I add it a minute later it stays inside. Run the load with hot water.
Another thing you can do is run the machine with a cup of washing soda. That’s apparently better at removing biofilm, but imo bleach does a pretty great job on its own.
Moving forward, make sure you use the recommended amount of detergent. Too much and you’re back in the same place. Too little and there’s not enough detergent to actually clean your clothes (but the biofilm will still cover everything).
