Sour smelling laundry...

[rapunzel]

If sour smelling laundry isn't the result of leaving it lying around damp to incubate, then it must be poor rinsing. Poor rinsing - the bain of modern water-conserving washers and pin-pointed as an overall performance reducer of same by our CR mob already a few years back. Best cure, using lots of fresh (preferably warm) water to flush all residue from cleaned clothes to prevent build-up in the first place - there is no other or better way.

I know this is a different issue, but maybe that is why European detergents are scented much stronger. I've notice that again this year when my sister and her family returned from a lengthy trip to Europe. Her clothes smelt so strong of detergent/softener, it took several washes and lots of airing to get them to smell normal again. I don't use fabric softener and there is never more than just the slightest hint of a detergent smell left on my clothes.

I also don't understand why modern front loaders have mold and smell issues - they never used to when I was a kid. Again, must have something to do with reduced water use. What once was flushed out every time now gets to stay inside and fester.

 

[kennyt123]

Sour Smelling Washer

Hi. I have a Sears Kenmore HE3t and have never had a smelly washer problem. I wash most of my laundry in hot water. I use plain old bleach once a month on the clean washer cycle. The only thing I use in the rinse cycle is white vinegar. I pour it in the softener dispenser up to the fill line. There's no vinegar smell when it comes out of the dryer.

 

[stan]

I'm keeping

my water hogging T.L machines!
They'll have to tare them from my cold dead hands ! LOL

 

[dj-gabriele]

European detergents are scented much stronger

French ones for sure but Eurpoe wide, I beg to differ!
There are indeed products with strong scent but in the market you'll find plenty of products that aren't as bad smelling as P&G products (the most scented I ever tried!)

 

[countryguy]

I have used a Kenmore He4t for about 8 years and don't have an odour problem either. I use mainly a warm wash/warm rinse and the occasional hot/cold. I use Tide, Downey and bleach. A couple of times a year I use Affresh in the clean cycle. I always leave the door ajar and the dispenser open after use. In August I had the Sears repair guy out for my free annual inspection. When he was getting ready to check the pump clean out he warned me that there would be an awful odour from all the crap that remains in there. He was shocked when there was nothing in the cleanout and no odour LOL I had never cleaned it out either.

Gary

 

[docker]

Load it, leave it & live a little

This smell occurs if the laundry is left in the machine once the cycle has finished. It only becomes apparent after wearing for an hour or two. In the 60's & 70's SKIP ran the "load it, leave it & live a little" ads, encouraging people to buy auto machines. What people did was to run the machine while at work. The damp clothing then lay in the machine the whole day!
As soon as the cycle is complete hang the laundry out to dry.

 

[ronhic]

First things first

Well we've received a refund from Levers for the box of detergent as well as a return jiffy bag and a zip lock bag to send a sample back.

 

Excellent service!

 

So the next step was to drain the sump and check the button trap. No gunk in the trap at all. No mould either and the water that I drained off had no sour smell to it at all. In fact, it smelt very faintly of detergent. 

 

Following that, I've done a 90c cycle with a 1/2 cup dishwasher detergent and 4 old towels of mixed parentage. The only colour in the wash water was from the bleach effect on the old dye (one was burgundy), so the water had a slight 'pink' tinge to it.

 

So my machine was clean to begin with, which I thought it would have been....it's certainly clean now!

 

To test my theory that it isn't the material causing a problem, but rather an issue with the alkalinity of the washing as it dries, I've done the following:

 

- washed 2 heavy toweling dressing gowns

- 40c quick wash (as these are deep rinses)

- 3/4 scoop detergent

- 1/4 white vinegar in the softener dispenser (citric acid is NOT easily available in reasonable quantities)

 

I've tumble dried the lighter of the two and the other is drying on an airer.

 

The one out of the dryer smells slightly of washing powder and nothing else.

 

If this works, and the one on the airer has no sour odour, then we'll know it is an issue with the detergent not neutralising sufficiently by the final rinse and subsequently causing an issue somehow as it dries.

 

[tomturbomatic]

If anyone in your country does canning or freezing, there should be Fruit Fresh or a similar product available to prevent darkening of certain low acid fruits during processing. That is citric acid, but a small amount of vinegar is not equivalent to the commercial sour products used in industrial laundering operations. Sour is usually added to the next to the last rinse since it should be rinsed out. I would bet that the 90C wash killed the odor-causing organisms in the fabrics and that it has very little to do with the remaining detergent. I grew up when women washed in Tide in top loaders with only one rinse and plenty of detergent was left in the clothes and no one smelled musty.

 

[ronhic]

Tom

I do know what citric acid is and what it is used for. Sure, I can buy it in 75g tube in the cooking aisle of the supermarket if I wish to pay $2.50 for it, but I'd rather buy a kilo of it for $6 online.....

 

I grew up with a single rinse machine too that was used in conjunction with a suds-saver. My mother never had washing that was sour either.

 

However, detergents have changed as has the quantity of water that is used. Additionally, this is not a top load automatic nor high sudsing Tide.

 

The formula used in OMO here was changed in the last 12 months and, until then I had never had an issue. I've subsequently asked my mother about any lingering odours in her exclusively OMO washed laundry and she has confirmed that  there has been something 'no quite right' with a few items. She'd put it down to things not drying properly and had rewashed.

 

This from a person who has never had an odour in laundry in 49 years of married life despite never owning a dryer and having to rely on however long it takes for things to dry.

 

I'm not using the vinegar to actually sour the whole wash as is common in a commercial laundry, but rather to attempt to neutralise any remaining alkaline activity that may be present in the last rinse and therefore neutralise the wash itself. And whilst a commercial sour should be washed out, many people use white vinegar in small doses as a fabric conditioner.

 

Assuming it does turn the final rinse water neutral, it won't affect the machine either.

 

We shall see, or rather 'we shall smell' how it goes.

 

 

 

 

 

[MrX]

I haven't had any issues with Unilever Persil here, but it's possibly a completely different product to Omo in Australia.

Try a different detergent and see how you get on!

It's also possibly climatic. There could be an unusual volume of fungal spores in the air if there's something going on with the climate there at the moment that's different from usual. Anything that would cause a lot of rotten timbers / wood / leaves can also hit clothes as you get cellulose-loving fungus in the air.

 

[dj-gabriele]

Keep us updated and let us know how it goes!

Strange that you couldn't find citric acid at a reasonable price... here is quite common and it's no problem to buy.
But once you tried it you sure won't get back to using vinegar, it's simply better

 

[roger]

Sometimes the city does some work on the water system and we occasionally get yellowish water. If that water collects in the water heater and sits for a while, PEEEYOU does it stink.

Luckily it only happens once in a blue moon, and all it takes is to do a few loads using hot water to drain the tank. Our washer can only rinse with cold water, so we never experienced what you described.

Do you rinse with hot/warm water? Perhaps you are getting the bottom of a stinky water heater tank.

 

[electron1100]

Bakery

Hello Ron
Are you still a baker? just a thought could it be yeast getting in your clothing and hence the machine and other items washed in it.
Just a thought

Gary

 

[ronhic]

Morning Gary,

 

Apart from domestically, I've never been a baker....so I've not got to worry about yeast as such.

 

 

 

[rolls_rapide]

Stinky laundry

This problem might be your detergent - if it contains the enzyme "lipase".

Lipase is used to break down greasy, oily stains and it works even in the drying phase.

Google books' "Enzymes in Industry", edited by Wolfgang Aehle, page 173, says:

"Lipases also may indirectly create malodour from laundry items such as sweaty sports clothes. The main reason for malodour (at least in the case of sports clothes) is the survival of microflora. The problem is therefore most pronounced in detergents without bleaching agents."

The article then maintains that drying of laundry should be as quick as possible to reduce the malodours, and that detergents lipase content is "limited by the maximum acceptable malodour".

So there you have it.

Use a detergent that has an oxygen bleaching agent incorporated, increase the dosage a little to deal with normal-to-heavy soiling, wash on the extended / intensive / "wash plus" option, and dry the items as quickly as possible.

 

[ronhic]

Rolls...

Good grief....

 

It's OMO - Levers premium detergent in Oz and probably formulated similarly (if not identically) to Persil in the UK. It was recently reformulated, so it's entirely possible that it has Lipase in it. It certainly has an oxygen bleaching agent in it.

 

If it's oxygen bleach it needs, it can have it....

 

[dj-gabriele]

Lipase and bad odours?!
Gosh, all the detergents we have at home and at work have lipase in them, except those for wool and silk (that most of the time get dry-cleaned anyways...)

 

[MrX]

I'd have to say that I haven't ever had an issue with Unilever Persil which is a 4-enzyme formula containing:

Lipase, Amylase, Mannanase & Subtilisin

Oddly enough, the Persil detergents here don't contain cellulase in either regular or colour versions for anti-bobbling, but I've never really seen much issue with piling or bobbling so something's achieving the same result.

The Small and Mighty liquid versions contain

Pectate Lyase instead of Lipase as I think the liquid detergents are generally pretty seriously strong on fat dissolution with surfactants.

Pectate Lyase was only introduced to laundry detergents in the early 00s and relatively recently and removes fruit, vegetable type stains and anything involving pectin based thickeners like jams (jelly), marmalades some sauces etc.