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Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Laundry Pods Can Cause Smells in Washing Machines

I had an issue with my washing machine this past six months or so. I have always used powder or liquid laundry detergent. I have never had a problem with gunk or smells in my upright washing machine. 


Six months ago or so, I started using laundry pods. I tried a few different types, and recently I noticed a horrible smell coming out of the laundry room. It smelled like a dead animal. I thought maybe the smells were coming up through the drain in the room. I poured drain cleaner down the drain. It didn't help. I poured cleaner down the drain hose for the washer with no results. 


I then ran a few hot water bleach loads through the washer. It still smelled horrible. Our laundry started to smell horrible. I didn't want to shower as the towels smelled so awful. Even getting dressed was terrible, as soon as I would put my clothes on, it didn't smell good. 


On the suggestion of my repair man, I purchased a washing machine cleaner at Walmart. The box gave instructions of using one and if the machine wasn't clean, do up to three times. I did three washes and it did get a little bit better as the smell wasn't going down the hall. The third time I ran the machine, I put two of the cleaning packets in the washer. It still smelled and was frustrating that after spending money on it, it hadn't gotten rid of the smell. 

I finally just had my repair man come and clean the washer. I wish I had taken pictures or video of him cleaning it out but there was almost like a glue in the washing machine that had collected all sorts of gunk and the stuff stuck to the "glue" started breaking down and caused the smell. The repair man said that fabric softener can build up in the washer like a glue, but I have never used fabric softener other than in the "pods" for the past six months. 


I then realized after talking to the repair man that the plastic coating on the pods wasn't breaking down completely but was becoming a sticky glue and it was confirmed a week later when my dishwasher had the same problem as I had started using the dishwasher pods. I had the repair man clean out my washer about a year ago when I purchased it used, so I know it was clean. 


In my 40 years of doing laundry, I have never had a problem with my washing machine smelling. Since he cleaned my washing machine and I cleaned out my dishwasher, I stopped using the "Pods" and everything has been smelling "rosie" and, I won't be going back to using my "pods" in fact, I got rid of them! 

Check out my video and blog post on the situation with my dishwasher having a problem while using the pods. Here is a link to that post.  

Have a blessed day!

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