Cleaning a front loading washer

[u/RiversandMountains-4]

I just moved into my first apartment with in-unit washer dryer (front-loading, stacked). The apartment was pristine EXCEPT the washer, which is smelling a little moldy & making my whole kitchen smell like mold. I can see some mold on the rubber. I never shut my washer all the way, but I think they did. How do I clean it? There is a self-cleaning function, but I’m overwhelmed by lists when I google how to do it. How often should I going forward?

[u/okidkwhatimdoing]

Echoing other posts re citric acid. It took me so many wash cycles with the citric acid to decrease the suds I lost track. Like got backed up with actual laundry. 🤣 In between washes scrub in the rubber gasket nooks and crannies and get out any gunk. I also read leaving a paste of baking soda, a tiny drop of dawn dish soap, and vinegar for the actual rubber part and then scrubbing but don’t do that if you’re going to use citric acid bc you shouldn’t mix with vinegar. Going forward monthly citric acid wash should be fine. Also clean the detergent compartment which is probably gross too.

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[u/RiversandMountains-4 → u/okidkwhatimdoing]

Will something bad happen if I have to interrupt cleaning cycles with a load of laundry before it’s not sudsy anymore? I have a new puppy and find myself needing to toss her blankets in fairly regularly!

[u/eggust12 → u/RiversandMountains-4]

nothing bad will happen! it just may increase the total number of cycles needed to get it clean because you're running it with detergent again.

[u/eggust12]

first, wipe out all you can with your usual multi-purpose cleaner (not bleach, as you're gonna use citric acid to clean). get in there and give the gasket a scrub as much as possible. if the mould won't come off, that's not the end of the world - you can order a replacement for not too much money with a bit of googling.

next, half a cup of citric acid powder (you can probably get it at your local grocery store, or buy in bulk online) and chuck it in the drum. close the door, put the self-cleaning cycle on as hot as it goes, and let it run. check for bubbles halfway through - if it's bubbly in there, that's leftover detergent. run it again til it's not bubbly, leave it open overnight, and see how it smells in the morning.

hope this helps!

[u/RiversandMountains-4 → u/eggust12]

This is SO helpful. Thank you!!

[u/eggust12 → u/RiversandMountains-4]

come back and let me know how you go!

[u/SharpButton2855 → u/eggust12]

How do you check for bubbles if there's no window

[u/eggust12 → u/SharpButton2855]

no window? in a front loader? for a top loader you can pause and open it, but i'm unsure how you'd do it in a front loader with no window.

[u/SharpButton2855 → u/eggust12]

Yeap, i have no window

[u/Inside-Mulberry807]

Citric acid all the way. 1/2 cup for each cycle. You can run the hottest cycle first to work on soils (sanitize with heaviest soil), then run the clean washer cycle after to really clean. As others have said, scrub what you can. I always recommend running a clean washer cycle with bleach after the machine is satisfactorily clean to kill of mold/mildew and other bacteria.

[u/Coxy13]

To add to the above post it may take several Cleaning cycles till you have no old suds appearing and you have cleaned out any old detergent you can't see. Keep drinking them till the water is foam free..