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.
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.
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.
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.
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.