Heat + oxidizer will clean the washing mashine. Let it run on max heat and put some oxidizing powder in there. Empty, obviously.
Afterwards, your machine is basically sterile and the odors should be gone.
this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2026
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I do wonder about giant solid objects thst are stuck in the filter and cannot be easily removed even with oxy cleaner.
Like in this video :https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vljDVdRieio&pp=ygUcd2FzaGluZyBtYWNoaW5lIGZpbHRlciBjbGVhbg%3D%3D here this dude finds coins, drill bits, etc.... other big objects that wont be clesned out with an oxidizer or hot water rinse.
Ignore them. Anything that does not get dissolved will most likely not be an issue for your laundry.
Does not removing such things lead to eventual destruction of the machine? Also those things could form a ' barrier' if there are enough of them and this barrier will make the oxidizer clean FAR less effective no?
If the water is not able to pump off, you wouldn’t be able to open the door. So water flows, meaning the pump is able to work. Don’t worry about the big objects, the pump itself is protected. Odor comes mostly from bacteria, which is killed by heat. Dead bacteria still smells, which is why you use a oxidizer or tensides to get rid of those.
The oxidizer is quite impressive at decomposing anything organic, including hair. So just go ahead and try it.
bleach isalso a deoxidizer? If you know ehat is the cheapest, buy-in-bulk deoxidizer I can get my hands on legally please?
Bleach is not the name of a chemical, but a group of chemicals with a specific property. In this case, the oxidizer (usually hydrogen peroxide or sodium percarbonate) is also acting as bleach. The same goes for chlorine.
Don’t use clorine in a washing mashine. It will disinfect the machine, but it does not react the same way as hydrogen peroxide or sodium percarbonate. Additionally, chlorine might attack synthetic materials that are needed for the machine to work.
If you have a dish washer, put one of those tabs inside the washing mashine directly, then run it on max heat, full cycle. If you don’t have that, buy something with “Oxi” in the name. There should be a few cheap brands.
But surely sodium hypochlorite in a washing machine can be used in place of sodium percarbonste for this same purpose right? Or are they very different for this task?
They are chemically different and have different effects. Use “Oxi”.
Don’t use clorine in a washing mashine. It will disinfect the machine, but it does not react the same way as hydrogen peroxide or sodium percarbonate. Additionally, chlorine might attack synthetic materials that are needed for the machine to work.
....Then why is sodium hypochlorite recommended to clean white clothing in washing machines? ...Wot?
The amount matters. Sodium percarbonate is much safer to use compared to sodium hypochlorite. And again, the sodium percarbonate does much more than just bleaching.
Sodium percarbonate is a mixture of Sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide, that's an oxy bleach, which is essentially super alkaline, it will kill proteins (urine, some vomit, grease, blood, faeces etc) but it's more so designed to do so on clothing, it is the least harmful bleach on clothing, (except certain materials like wool or silk, it will absolutely harm natural fibres,as that's what it targets, kinda)
For woollens, silks etc use wool wash only. And use a very small amount, you only need a teaspoon to a tablespoon amount in a full washing machine load.
If you go to websites, you will find the ingredients or active compounds of different detergents, brand names might put the price up for the brand preference, but you want to look for something that's not too cheap, a slightly more expensive brand (not crazy expensive, just mid prices) would have more put into the working efficacy of the product.
Less or no fragrance, never use fabric softener. It quite often shortens the length of your products and worse.
You can use laundry sanitiser, in place of fabric softener which I would highly recommend when using a communal machine, canestan make one.
IF YOU WANT TO TACKLE CLEANING THE MACHINE.
The smell is likely coming from built up skin, hair, fluff decomposing in the machine. If you fold back the gasket (rubber door seal bit) and have a look in the grooves, what does it look like? What does the machine smell like in the drum? Which model is it?
Once I found the answers to these questions, I would look up the model and the cleaning recommendations. Follow them, you probably want a toothbrush to get in the grooves, and give it a losen run a tub clean cycle, or hottest wash WITH NO DETERGENT. See what happens, did that improve the situation?
Still awful? Some machines can tolerate and recommend vinegar, which can do a lot for killing the fungal elements, mould etc. But check if the machine recommends it first. If not, you can get descaler from a store (labelled washing machine cleaner specifically) and run that.
If you can't remove the drain filter, the question I would be asking is, does it still drain, if yes, use it, if no, it might need a technician to deep clean and remove, troubleshoot and replace any parts not working (find out who you talk to about getting that going?)
I would pick a couple of rag towels or something you don't care about and run a quick wash to see how it comes out.
If you do get the drum clean, and remove the smell enough, good to go, and I would carry a rag to wipe out the gasket before and after use, to slow that sludge and mould build up, they can get.
I'm assuming front loader, because you showed a front loader yt clip, let me know if you need tips on top loader.
But surely sodium hypochlorite kn a washing machine can be used in place of spdium percarbonste for this same purpose right? Or are they very different for this purpose? And yes it is a front loader. maytah commercial brand and model . Ive put a youtube video in my edit that shows a similar looking machine to the one in our landry's room
Sodium hypochlorite is just standard bleach. I've never used it for taking stains out of clothing, I know some people do. It's more a last option, than first go to for machine cleaning. I wouldn't recommend it because it *can errode plastics and rubbers, relatively quickly, especially if not rinsed well at certain concentrates, that you would come close to needing to clean the machine. Whereas the oxygen bleach won't errode the plastics or rubbers, and should effectively dissolve any biological contaminants.
Here's what I'd do, if wanting to try to salvage using the machine.
- Wipe clean, and agitate whatever dirt or sludge in the grooves you can see on the door, gasket, and barrel.
- Set a tub clean cycle or hottest wash setting available.
- Check if that worked. If not..
- Try deep cleaning the machine with oxygen bleach, or oxy bleach it might be called. Run a wash super hot, with soak options. That's the least corrosive, or damaging to clothing or machine, it's also the chemical components least likely to cause trouble with any other so I'd start with that. It's a super awesome component to have in your laundry, anyway, it gets out sweat, blood, stains brightens, great stuff. (sodium hypochlorite, common bleach and the limescale cleaners or standard washing machine cleaners conflict to make dangerous gasses so I'm going to suggest those as a last option).
- Still having issues, it might have to have its drain filter cleaned, and possibly professionally, but you could check what a replacement is and just break it off, without harming the surrounding casing. Can't clean the filter or any of those options?
- Try either limescale remover (standard washing machine cleaner) or standard bleach, (sodium hypochlorite) but not both. Although the smell of that bleach might stay in the machine, and at high concentrates might cause damage. If you use one, don't use the other, they react badly together.
- None of that works? Give up and buy a small hand crank machine, something you can spin, or go to the laundromat?
Go to a laundromat and use their machines or a wash/dry/fold service.
Alternative:
If you’re truly desperate to get away from public machines you can get standalone mini-washing machines that take up little room, and just hang-dry clothing on a collapsible clothes dryer. The washing machine can be sold to recoup some of the costs when you move. At $5-$8 wash load and 25¢/5 min dryer a load around me 20 loads would pay for a mini-machine. You can do laundry at your convenience, at home, and for cheaper as the machine sorta pays for itself in saved $.
Why does lemmy not have a laundry dedicated forum?
Because you haven't made one yet. ;)
Mind you, for a topic like that, I'd expect it to take a good amount of effort to make it "active".
Yeah the Reddit one is still the best place for laundry info. Sucks that it's on Reddit though.
- Probably not enough traffic or interest for one but you’re free to make one if you like. I wouldn’t mind having a comm for it.
- This is covered by your rent/strata fees. Put it to them in an email that multiple machines have a notable foul odour and require sanitising, filter clearing and general maintenance. If you’re renting and the property manager doesn’t action your request, email them 1-2 two more times before escalating it to the relevant government body. Here we can even get electricians/plumbing done and have the bill reimbursed by the property manager/owner if they take too long.
- Personally, don’t increase your labour/expenses to subsidise things other people are responsible for. If you’re getting this because of issue 2, get the property manager to sort it, it’s literally why you pay rent/strata fees. (See end).
- No idea here so have a lame “wool wash?”
Landlords must:
- Maintain the tenant’s home in a good state of repair and fit for habitation and at the landlord’s expense comply with health, safety, housing and maintenance standards.
https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/consumers/renting-a-home/i-am-renting/landlord-tenant-responsibilities
Canada seems similar to Aus in so far as there should some decent government resources to find your rights and obligations as a tenant and how to escalate an issue should you get an arsehole property manager that doesn’t do their job.
I'd also start with a friendly conversation with the landlord - they may not even be aware the washers smell.
You can always escalate later.
Thanks. TIL
Ill admit I have practically no knowledge when it comes to laws surrounding renting in toronto
No problem. The only reason I know is from lazy/entitled property managers who expect to fleece people out of a significant portion of the money they work for and then just do nothing to earn it.
If you pay rent, you’re either paying someone mortgage or straight into their pocket. Keeping the place in a decent or at least liveable condition is the least these people can do. It’s literally their job title, manage the property or else you’d be just paying the property owner directly.
When I lived in a place with shared laundry space I tried for a year to basically focus one machine that I tried to care about secretly so it didn't get over used when people noticed it was better. Started off very gross, I tried a few different store bought items meant to clean your washer which helped a little and I'd empty out the dryer lint. It just sucked was very gross.
After a year I went to a Laundromat and just used there. Much better. Look for places with an attendant or employee working. Best advice I can give you.
As for the wool, idk man check YouTube?
It's because people don't do "whites" anymore.
-
Run a load of white clothing and use bleach and hot water
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Put clothes in dryer
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Wipe the inside of the washer, takes 10 seconds
You have now cleaned a washing machine....
You can skip #3 and save 10 seconds, the hot bleach water will kill whatever is making that smell. But depending on how bad it is, you may want to do that a couple days in a row. Don't do a normal load after, let it sit for a while.
The stuff that smells bad is stuff growing where water sits, so you want that bleach water to sit there and not be flushed out. One cycle will probably do it tho if it sits long enough.
Make sure your "white" are only white with no colors, texts and other designs you want to protect, before using bleach, it will damage them.
I bleach stuff with color all the time. No idea how and when the machine mixes the bleach, but everything comes out nicely. I've had other machines that apparently dumped the bleach in there and ruined things.
NOTE! Pure cotton will bleach. You don't bleach a cotton T-shirt with color in it!
One more tip: I do the bleach load last and hit the "extra rinse" button. Not sure it makes a difference with my current machine, but it's helped on models I had in the past. Some of those would hold bleach somewhere and drop some on the next load.
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Ah. Thanks for reminding me . Im not even joking I myself dont do whites anynore simply to save money on bleach. ALL my white everything has been donated.
How much is bleach in Canada?! A generic gallon is around $6 at Walmart, which, while stupid expensive for bleach, that gallon will last 16-32 loads (1/2 cup vs. 1 cup).
Even without bleach, try washing whites on hot. And wash them by themselves! I divide everything into black, white and whatever. No fuzzies on the black, white stays white, and whatever. :)
Ill only buy the bleach to do one hot cycle with no clothing to clean out the filter IF I have to clean the filter myself.
No joke I only have 2 colors of clothing . Depressingly Black and Depressingly Gray. Every other color of clothing does not exist to me anymore and has been cleaned and donated away cause I dont to want to spend anything to re-dye any of my blue,red,yellow, green, purple, whatever other color clothing.
It is what it is
Honestly you might want to run the hot bleach cycle with no laundry, or some cleaning rags, rather than anything you care about. Because you might find the hot water is rusty from disuse, so they come out beige despite the bleach.
As for your wool items, there's several kinds of "wool wash" beyond Woolite you can use in your sink. Remember wool sweaters need to dry flat, so only do one or two at a time or you'll have wet sweaters all over the apartment. Squeeze out excess rinse water but don't wring. Roll in a clean dry towel and squash hard, (use a clean surface so the towel will be usable after it dries) then lay it on a mesh rack or another clean dry towel to dry.
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When I need to soak some things outside of the washing machine, I just use a mop bucket. Lately that soaking has been whites in oxyclean to get them looking more white again. Oxyclean (or any similar non-brand name oxygen based agent) is great for organic stains (blood, sweat, oils, grease, food) and smells, but bad for wool. DO NOT USE OXYCLEAN ON WOOL. For my wool stuff I just use regular detergent in cold water and hang dry. If you're trying to get smells out of wool you might try drying them in the sun. Wool also doesn't do great in hot water, but that's okay. Just trade heat for time, i.e. letting something soak in cold water instead of a short wash in hot water. Same principal used to make cold brew coffee.
If there is a filter to be cleaned on a public machine, you can probably check it before running your own through. At the very least give the machine a sniff first. Sometimes a quick rinse cycle with an empty machine is all that's needed to clear out the lingering funk from the last load. If not, the machine needs maintenance.
Laundry advice is weird in that it can be very broadly applied and general (the actual chemistry and fabrics are pretty similar everywhere), but also hyper local. What works in one region might not it another because the water is different, chemicals have different and confusing names, etc. The best advice is really to read the clothing tags (and learn to interpret those laundry hyroglyphs), read/research the detergent ingredients and instructions, group like items together, and test new tips and tricks on less critical pieces of wardrobe before doing an entire load.
I have a foot powered washing machine that is good for small loads but now that I have a house and my own machines I only use it for camping.
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I don't know much about it, but if I was in your shoes I'd question what those compact electric ones are like. Apparently you can get them as cheap as $160 and they don't all need water lines, like you can take a pitcher and fill some from the top, then empty the water in a toilet or such. Maybe they are junk, but maybe not 🤷. Things like this: portable mini washer
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If you can't wait for your landlord to fix it for now. Why not just look for a coin laundry shop in the neighborhood?
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Why does lemmy not have a laundry dedicated forum? How have lemmy been a thing for this long with no laundry dedicated forum?
Because you haven't created one
The washers probably stink because people leave the lids down all the time.
I've also never seen a filter on a washing machine, so...
Let's think about this - it fills with treated water - water that's drinkable. Then detergent is added. Clothes get washed, dirty water drained, fresh water used to rinse, twice.
What purpose would a filter serve other than to be a maintenance item?
Laundry machine filters are in the bottom of the machine and are for the water leaving the machine. They catch things like lint, and pet hair. When the filter is full it becomes a habitat for mildew
A full filter can also make the washer drain more slowly which means the tub becomes a habitat for mildew and the rinse cycles are mixed with old, dirty water.
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