Maytag DC leaving owner breathless!

[stevet]

My sister called me nearly frantic yesterday telling me that her washer, a Maytag Dependable Care model LAT9416AAE serial number 23274741UK is leaving a moldy, musty smell on her clothes.
She says that despite using hot water, bleach and powdered detergent, the machine develops a musty odor that seems to be getting on the clothes. Her husband took out the softener cup and made sure it was clean. Cleaned out whatever he could see in the agitator and has run a few cleaning cycles but my sister still claims to smell the smell on her clothes.

Has anyone experienced this with a similar unit? Could it be the Lint filter that is part of the agitator that may not be self cleaning anymore? If so, is it a bear to get the agitator off?
I am open to any and all suggestions.
Thanks, Everyone
Steve

 

[mrb627]

Scrud Buildup

probably under the tub ring. He will need to remove that to be able to clean it completely.

Malcolm

 

[roto204]

Self-cleaning filter?

If this model uses the self-cleaning lint filter basket inserts, they could be clogged with crud and a breeding ground for yuck.

 

[nmassman44]

The agitator comes out easily , just loosen the set screw at the base and pull up. The self cleaning filter or filters, snap out easily and can be cleaned and then snapped back in. But I doubt that the filters are the culprit here...if this washer has that Load Sensor agitator and she uses softener, the center of the agitator never flushes clean. When Scott and I got together, he had a Maytag DC washer and did it stink. He used that Xtra detergent and lots of softener with cold water, so when I saw the washer, more like smell the washer, I took it apart and cleaned out the agitator with hot water and a long round brush and got the gunk out. I took over doing laundry from then on and I banned Xtra detergent from ever gracing this Manse ever again. The agitator barrel had layers of scrud and it took a good hour or so to clean it properly.

 

[stevet]

No Lint filter

That was anywhere in the tub or agitator. Pulled the agitator out and there were no screens under it. The only thing there was a snap in fine mesh filter that was pretty much clogged with hard water deposits even though they have a water softener and lint that accumulated on it. It really had no foul odor and I cleaned it with White vinegar until it was pretty much clear.

What does that filter actually do?

I didn't have time to pull the top tub ring apart to see if there was a buildup on the outer tub which would not have surprised me. That will have to wait for the next visit. The only place there was a foul smell was at the bottom of the softener cup and there was some lint inside the agitator where the softener drops out of. Cleaned it all out and we will have to see what happens.

 

[DADoES]

 
<blockquote>Pulled the agitator out and there were no screens under it. The only thing there was a snap in fine mesh filter ...</blockquote> A screen like this?  Fits into a sort-of kidney-shaped cutout in the basket under the agitator?  That is the self-cleaning filter.  The agitator pumps water through it, then collected lint is flushed off during spin/drain.  Same concept as the under-basket filter Whirlpool put into use when they eliminated the pump-recirculating self-clean system, and on majority of the direct-drive models.

 

[iheartmaytag]

What does the filter screen do?

Pretty near nothing.

 

[stevet]

On the head!

Yes, DADoES, that is the filter and where it is located in the tub. And Yes, Harley, I agree, it cannot possibly do very much to filter out lint at all. At least the old WP DD's had a comb like filter under the inner tub and that almost looked like it might work in theory but the Maytag was a total joke. I have to think they added these gimmicks to their machines just so they could say they had a self cleaning lint filter.
Well, her husband had already run a cycle of Tide Washer cleaner and the inner tub was spotless. But there was schmutz under the agitator itself as well as in the area it covered in the tub. I cleaned that all out with vinegar and it all now shines like it was new.
I guess time will tell if any of this work has made a difference.
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions here and on other related threads.

 

[tomturbomatic]

They went to those "filters" when the phosphate ban made filters accumulate a rock-like mineral deposit. They figured that with the mesh inserts, they could still claim to have filters and when they clogged up no one would notice. If the owner had soft water and/or used a good detergent, the filters kept working. Many old lint filter agitator Maytags we encountered looked like the filter had not been pulled out of the agitator in years so the generation that grew up doing laundry in coin-ops did not know or care about filters.

Not having a way to have the softener flushed out of the agitator was a weakness and often the people who used the most softener cared the least about maintenance.